PREMIERE | Highspire, "Ghosts Forever"

Highspire on fire, from left: Alex White & Laura Watling; still from the “Ghosts Forever” visual.

In chronicling the esoteric undergrounds that span the histories of artistry since time immemorial, the dream weavers of notable nobility often arise from parts unknown and the places you least expect. The left field creatives that cultivate things that are ahead of their time, predicting future trend cycles through incorporating upcycled interpolations of expressionism in ways that turn the conventional clock tick of timelines inside out. They stand within the nucleus of the zeitgeist, either consciously, or merely following their own idiosyncratic north star.

Following these connective constellations that draw from the foundational dream gazing gentry while forecasting a future of textural dawn treaders is Lancaster, PA institution Highspire. Gifting the world Your Everything in the early 2000s, wading into the wide-eyed visionary dance waters of Aquatic, and now embarking upon their third album Crushed for Shelflife imprint of ethereal pop prestige: the band rediscovers themselves in a world of countless disparate undergrounds that have caught the shoegaze bug. Alex White, EJ Hagen, and Guyton Sanders bring Laura Watling (Autocollants, Tears Run Rings) and John Loring (Fleeting Joys) into the fold, collectively tapping into the intuitive slipstreams that channel into the zones that seek to transcend the trappings of mortality. Highspire travels through the formative times and spaces where they examine material/immaterial continuums of the society and the stylistic specters of sound on the debut of “Ghosts Forever”.

The track rides like cosmic astral plane-bound surfers barreling through the cloud waves in turbulent skies. Highspire flies between the airspaces of heaven and earth like angelic entities guiding spirits on journeys of infinite discovery. “Ghosts Forever” dearly shreds the big billowing treated chords into terrains that recall those scrapbooks that contain cutouts of articles from the periodicals that praised classic counterculture icons in hagiographies typically reserved for canonized figures and works.

The beauty of "Ghosts" is in the reverence for everything that was, wandering through all the landmarks and designations of eras that arrives on the steps of the modern day's assemblage of scenes and chic. Highspire sweetly sails between the tragic and the majestic, witnessing a world through the lens of historical materialism, the building and rebuilding of guitars, vocals, and rhythmic superstructures like a mystic lineage of sirens that inhabit seas of the sublime (and mysterious).

Cover art for Crushed, courtesy of Highspire/Shelflife.

EJ of Highspire provided some expansive insights behind the making of the album Crushed, the new single “Ghosts Forever”, and more:

Every track that made it onto Crushed was written in an hour or two. From scratch, no plans, no thinking, just playing.

I hadn’t really played music for three years since the pandemic…

And then I started using paints instead for three years. Something I never really did before. I came up with a style (abstract of course) where I’d just wake up at 4-5am, go directly downstairs, and use paints. Very quick, in an attempt to capture a moment in time.

Did fairly well, won some awards, got gallery and even museum shows. Not everything would turn out.

But after a while, there was a method to the madness. Like stacking your luck under a style. You do that daily, you end up with things turning out the way you want.

I then got laid off from a job of 5 years in April 2024. So I was like well, guess I have some time to play music again.

So I just applied what I learned from using paints to my approach to music this time as that became my process that was working well. Work fast, do 2 or 3 demos a day...

EJ immersed in an interconnective woven web of chords and pedals; press photo courtesy of the artist.

Of course not everything is good, but you do that enough, you start hitting at something. At least a thing that’s interesting enough to work with.

"Ghosts Forever" was that. The guitars I believe were just played once and done. The melody and lyrics I came up with while listening to the demo at my local pub in Lancaster, PA.

I had a drummer redo the electronic drums I used in the demo quickly and had the singers add their voices.

Alex White has been my partner in Highspire from the start. And Laura Watling (Tears Run Rings, The Autocollants) joined recently. We’ve never had a female singer before. Initially, we just wanted a female singer on our first single, “Gloria". But we loved the dynamic so much, Laura now appears on more Highspire songs than anyone besides Alex & myself in the band’s history. Going back to 1999. She’s great. 

Aspiring skyward with the Highspire crew; press photo courtesy of the artists.

I guess the lyrics have two meanings. One from the perspective of being a ghost and not knowing it and coming to the realization of that. The other is the feeling that one is going through life feeling like they’re not seen. Which I suppose is similar, but from the living.

And then maybe more personally applied to that end, since Highspire hadn’t put out anything for 15 years, and a resurgence of shoegaze has been going on during that time, I felt we had become somewhat a forgotten band in a sense.

Skeleton in the attic; photograph courtesy of Highspire.

Then the song took probably 48 hours of pre-mixing before sending to John Loring (of Fleeting Joys) who did the final mixing and mastering. He worked on the entire Crushed album.

Everone involved was integral in making “Ghosts," and the whole album, sound the best it could. Despite my approach of working fast, recording singles takes and moving on.

Highspire’s anticipated new album Crushed arrives July 11 via Shelflife Records.