“Ghost Orkid came about as a complete accident,” Kelly says. “Three of the guys from the band sometimes play together in various different projects and situations. The night we formed because they had been booked to play a support slot and for some reason the singer wasn’t able to make it. I got a call asking if I’d like to come down and guest vocal over some groove tracks, just sorta ad-lib and see what happened. Being a songwriter who usually meticulously works on music and not much of a jammer – well at least at the time anyway – I agreed but kinda freaked out a little. I decided to bring all of my guitar pedals along so I could sing through them, using the delays as an extension of my self-expression instead of having to pluck words and lyrical concepts from the air. That worked quite well and all the soundscapes formed by the delay kind of gave birth to that aspect of Ghost Orkid which is a huge part of our sound.”
So far, the competing commitments of the band’s members doesn’t seem to be an issue but it’s sure to be in the future. It hasn’t been long since this ramshackled project began and already the momentum is picking up considerably. “I have my own songwriting career to pursue, our synth player is a phenomenal writer and singer too so he has his own thing going on. Our bass player is in a bunch of bands and has a lot of industry responsibilities, our drummer is also actively playing in a bunch of successful acts and the guitarist is in another group. Despite that, we all feel the same way about Ghost Orkid and that is that those 45 minutes onstage are the most rewarding, at this point, of all our musical endeavours. Maybe in the future if things get hectic some tough decisions might arise but for now it’s all gravy,” he finishes laughing.
Feeling at home as a festival band, Ghost Orkid are gearing up for spots on yet-to-be-announced lineups. Kelly is hopeful there will be more festival appearances over the summer and into the new year. In case you were wondering, yes the Spike Jonze film, Adaptation, inspires the band name. “Yeah Nick (Ohlson), our bass player, was the one who put that out on the table. It is from that movie, probably Nicholas Cage’s last decent film,” he adds with a laugh.
With an organic and yet technical approach to their music, Ghost Orkid seem to be combining studio philosophies to a live setting. “Well from my perspective, what I’m doing is live production,” he says. “I’m applying studio ideas and ambience to my vocals but completely on the fly. This means that I have a delicate dance of buttons, pedals and loops to trigger but it’s second nature now. Sometimes using crazy delays live creates an element of chaos that is equal to improvising; you work the energy you feel in that moment and can express with the twist of a dial something equally as evocative as a vocal. As for the writing process, this band is a true democracy, we all contribute our bits, we all hear each other’s ideas out, and there is no bickering or banging of heads together. For want of a better word, it is really a very ‘organic’ process; the most natural I’ve encountered in any band thus far.”
Apart from confirmed festival spots, Ghost Orkid are in a very early stage of their career at the moment and appear to be waiting for the industry gears to turn in their favour. Given the response they’ve received so far, those gears are turning a lot quicker than usual. “Things are unfolding at an increasing rate so it’s hard to say exactly what the future plans are,” he says. “I mean, we only started writing this set six months ago, maybe a little more, and we have just found it resonates with a certain type of music appreciator. We’re concentrating on getting the live show really tight and interesting. We’ll do a free download of our first song, do an east coast tour and then, by that point, we’ll have a clear plan of attack to get this sound machine overseas.”
BY KRISSI WEISS
