Singled Out: Mind Elsewhere's Ghost Ship (Alternate Version)

Michael Angulia | 04-15-2020

Mind Elsewhere have ended a two year hiatus with the release of a new alternate version of their 2018 single "Ghost Ship" and to celebrate we asked Ross Rocco to tell us about the song. Here is the story:

I wrote this song two years ago, at the end of the summer of 2018 originally and if you haven't guessed by the title, the original Ghost Ship was released November of 2018. That was a much heavier influenced post hardcore song. During 2018, the band had a change of members and we all had decided basically to release a second single that year, and then hit it hard on getting an EP out. I had written a single that year that my old drummer was a huge fan of, and thought was the best song to stick with as a second release. For me, it was the most stressful song because nothing lyrically was coming to me and this had been something I was struggling with for months. I even re-wrote the song like 20 times and it was an absolute mess.

Then in August, some musical friends of mine in Oklahoma wanted me to fly out there and just hang with them on a few shows they had in the surrounding states they had booked. This was the same band, Brightside Flight, that had their singer (and my good friend) Cody Lee feature on our first single, "Falling For You". I ended up flying out there as I really needed to just get out, and it was a super fun experience too that I sang about in Ghost Ship. While I was out there, I got to see a lot of cool bands and meet a lot of cool people and the whole experience just inspired me.

When I got home, I think it was the next day because I flew in super late, I sat down and said to myself "if the next guitar riff I write is a hit song, I will trash the old single and use this. I don't care who I piss off in the band." Ghost Ship was the first thing I wrote picking up my guitar and I was super relieved because I was beyond burned out on the old song. The following day I recorded some vocals over the song, and then sent it to my producer and was like "this is the next song I want you to help me with."

What Ghost Ship talks about in the song is the feeling of making all the wrong choices in life, and feeling so far gone that you've lost control and this is your life now kind of feel. I wrote the lyrics originally a year prior, I think I ended up using some of them for the pre chorus of the song. The lyrical idea had been in place, and in 2017 I had this concept for a ghost ship that just felt like where I was. The idea of a ghost ship is that the ship or boat resembles my life, like an empty vessel sailing on with no captain and no crew. The other message I tied into the song was a religious theme, though I can't say for certain I am religious, but that is where the Oklahoma tour comes in as I had some really amazing experiences there. I felt like right after that and this song's release, a lot of those feelings changed.

Late last year in October I just was chatting with a friend of mine and some part of the conversation just led me to say "I want to create an acoustic version of Ghost Ship." I pulled up the multi tracks from the original version and continued to create this stripped down version. I tracked the guitar and vocals here at home. My friend Cody Lee was kind enough to just record a bass line underneath it. Then I sent this to my friend Josh Holland of "Green Light Studios" in Washington, who mixed it cause I was like "I don't really want to hear this song any more times than I have to." He did me a solid and crushed it! Thanks Josh and Cody.

This was probably way longer than needed to explain the story behind this song, which if you want to skip to the quick version, which is "I sat down and recorded a song after a pretty memorable summer." Haha. Honestly, I'm pretty stoked I even recorded this in my bedroom. I didn't have to go anywhere, or spend a whole bunch of money on a studio or anything to get it done. Not that there's anything bad with that. I guess for new people who don't know us, and heard some of the older songs we have, I think this song is a good bridge from an older era to a new one.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself right here!