New York indie outfit, This Old Ghost, released one of my favorite albums of 2013 this past January. Family Room perfectly blends nearly every aspect I love about indie, pop, and folk with a fresh delivery and top-notch production. It’s one of very few records from this year thus far that has been in constant rotation for me since its release.

I had the chance to speak with founder and frontman, Ian McGuinness, about Family Room as well as its themes and what he and the band have planned for the future, so read through to get the scoop from This Old Ghost and be sure to stream the excellent Family Room LP via Bandcamp (where you can buy it for just $7).

First off, can you tell us the name of everyone in the group and what their roles are?

Karri Diomede sings harmony and plays flute, Ryan Sniffen plays electric guitar and sings harmony, Rob Pizzolato plays drums, Brendan Coughlan plays bass and I play acoustic and sing.

And how did you all come together originally to make music as This Old Ghost?

Near the end of 2010, I was living in LA and had struggled to put a band together out there. When I decided to move back to New York, I reached out to some friends via Facebook. After about a week of being back in New York we all jammed on some songs I had written in LA. It felt really organic and we all had such a great time playing together and working out song structure.

What are some of your most important influences that you feel have helped shape your sound and writing process?

Good Old War and Death Cab for Cutie are two of my biggest influences for sure. I’ve also been really into David Bazan and Margot & The Nuclear So and So’s for some time now. I love listening to interviews about the writing process of artists I admire. Understanding how other people work allows me to borrow techniques that don’t necessarily feel natural to me, thus pushing myself out of my comfort zone.

Family Room is currently my album to beat for 2013. I can’t stop listening to it. I’m curious, when you really sat down to begin writing the record, and also when you were recording it, what was your focus for how you wanted to improve upon Island of Violent Lovers?

Thanks so much. The writing started during the tail end of recording Island of Violent Lovers. Most of that record came about pretty quickly. The songs felt like they were a bit more mature and I started having more fun with melodies. I also wanted to explore different tones and feels. My goal was to capture something and not stray away from it while keeping it captivating enough for me and the listener.

There seems to be a lyrical theme revolving around the challenges of growing up and realizing that you’re doing so. That transition where you finally kind of accept the big change. Am I way off or would you say that might be a place you’re all at in your lives right now? What kind of effect is that having on the progression of the band?

You’re right on the money. Right after we released IOVL, I was offered a cool, however, super time consuming job in the city and I didn’t take it because I felt like we had something really special with the band and I wanted to see it through, ya know? Give this thing a real shot. The decision to not take the job wasn’t an easy one to make and I wound up writing a lot of songs while I was trying to make that decision so there’s a lot of lyrics that scrabble around in struggle, option weighing and the transitional phase. I’d say it’s had both negative and positive effects on the band. I think everyone felt the need to step up their game when I decided not to take the job. We’ve been working really hard for 2 years and haven’t really taken a break. However, when 5 people put all of their eggs into one basket and things don’t necessarily go as planned, it can create tension.

Any songs on the album that are more personal to you than others?

“Bury The Hatchet” is the most personal song I’ve ever written. I was really nervous about putting that one on the record. I wasn’t sure if the person who that song is about would listen to it, understand it was about him and then approach me. It hasn’t happened yet so I’m assuming it probably won’t. It’s probably for the best.

Do you have any plans for physical releases of Family Room? I know vinyl would be hugely popular with this album.

Vinyl is something we all love and we’ve had conversations about eventually releasing Family Room on vinyl. It’s going to be a while only cause it’s super expensive and we don’t currently have the funds.

Have you already been working on any new material since Family Room released earlier this year?

Yeah. There’s a bunch of new songs in the works that we’re all really pumped about. There’s also some folkier material I’m going to release on an EP towards the end of the summer under the name Side Saddle.

I think I made it pretty clear how much I love the album and based on its quality I have to say that I’m surprised by your somewhat humble following on Facebook and such. I feel that Family Room is the effort to really boost that fanbase and garner some serious attention but do you have any label or PR plans to help that push or do you plan to remain an independent band?

We’re just sort of hoping that our fans will spread the word. We haven’t been in touch with many labels or PR companies. Truth is we can’t afford a PR company to push our record and most labels aren’t interested in bands who aren’t making money. I’m not against the idea of signing to a label if the deal makes sense for us but right now we’re independent and happy to have control over every aspect of the creative process and our band’s future.

As musicians, where do you think you’d be today if the internet never existed?

Oh, man. I really don’t know. We’d all still be playing for sure. For less people…but we’d be playing.

I know you’ve had some van issues for starters, but what have been some of the biggest obstacles for This Old Ghost? Anything that you feel has held you back from really grasping your goals for this band?

Yeah, our van is 27 years old. We actually decided to sell her ’cause we’ve had to put some money into her and cancel gigs and it’s just been a hassle. It was sort of expected with such an old van and she did get us through two East Coast tours so I’m pretty happy that we were able to make those happen. I can’t really think of anything specific that’s held us back. We just have to keep working hard and keep our ears to the ground.

What do you think is TOG’s greatest quality music-wise? And is there anything specifically that you’re less than confident about that you plan to improve for future efforts?

Hmmm, probably the versatility. I think that’s something that we’re able to do because all of our influences span the spectrum. It’s also something I’d like to improve upon. I feel that working on songs in the live room after I’ve written something has been limiting. Ryan’s playing his electric because that’s what he plays, I’m playing acoustic because that’s what I play and so on, so you can assume that all of the songs are going to have similar instrumentation. I’d like to break from that format for the next record and produce a studio project album that isn’t limiting in any way. To me that’s a lot more exciting.

Is this band your guys’ primary job/focus right now or do you all have other roles in your daily routines?

Pretty recently we’ve decided to focus on our personal career growth outside of the band just because it is so hard to “make it” as a band today. We’ve only been at it a short time and shouldn’t let unrealistic expectations keep us from moving forward personally. It’s a crazy business and the passion we all have for playing music can become diluted when everyone’s putting stress on the band to fulfill personal dreams. It can take all of the fun out of it. At the end of the day it’s about five friends meeting up to play music because that’s what makes them the happiest. If it eventually turns into something we can do for a living then yeah, amazing, but no one’s banking on that.

So what’s the next move for This Old Ghost?

Writing. I’ve taken a short break from working on TOG songs to finish and put out the solo EP, but within the next few weeks I’ll go back to working on material for the band. Then we can start planning for the next record.

Photo credit: Caitlyn Barrick
Written and conducted by: Brian Lion – Follow him on Twitter

One of my favorite tracks from the album — the opener, “Twenty Six.” Hey, that’s my age!

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Brian Leak

Editor-In-Chief. King of forgetting drinks in the freezer. Pop culture pack rat. X-Phile. LOST apologist.

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