Since their 2004 formation in El Segundo, California, The Ghost Inside have inspired international audiences with their songs of resilience, perseverance and vulnerability born from genuine life experiences.
Four years after their self-titled album saw them bounce back from a devastating and life-altering accident, their sixth album Searching For Solace arrives at an optimal time in the lives of The Ghost Inside. Vocalist Jonathan Vigil, guitarists Zach Johnson and Chris Davis, bassist Jim Riley, and drummer Andrew Tkaczyk have learned an esoteric truth about tranquillity. As the axiom says, “It’s the journey, not the destination” - a theme explored throughout Searching for Solace.
Merging metalcore’s proficiency with punk’s urgency, Searching For Solace features production from Dan Braunstein (Spiritbox, Dayseeker) who took the reins on most of the record, with other tracks handled by Cody Quistad (Wage War), Carson Slovak and Grant McFarland (August Burns Red, Bloodywood). Building a bridge between more aggressive sounds and thoughtful messaging, the album boasts the most fundamental elements of The Ghost Inside: honesty, vulnerability, message, and melody. Unafraid to embrace darker themes and expanded sonic landscapes, Searching for Solace is a quintessential entry to The Ghost Inside’s catalogue.
Beloved by audiences down under, The Ghost Inside will return to Australia in September as part of the epic Parkway Drive 20th anniversary arena tour. In celebration of their highly anticipated return and the release of Searching For Solace, we caught up with Vigil for a deep and meaningful chat about the record and the band's seemingly endless pursuit of positivity.
The Ghost Inside are headed back down under as part of Parkway Drive’s 20th Anniversary tour, how excited are you to share these massive stages with your old friends?
“I can't even tell you how excited we are! We as a band and as people, love Australia so much. We love being there as tourists, it is the best country in the world and I'm not even saying that to gas you guys up, it's just true.”
“The shows have been incredible every time we’ve gone there as well, it’s been amazing. On top of that, we’re touring arenas with the biggest band in the world, it is so crazy that Parkway is bringing bands out on this tour when they could easily sell out these arenas by themselves, they don’t even need us!”
“They asked us if we’d like to do it and we were like ‘Of course, we want to come and do this. What are you talking about? It’s such a huge honour to be able to do this and to get down there and play these shows to our fans who have been waiting a long time, we did one show, UNIFY, way back in 2020 right before the pandemic happened, and that was sick, but not everyone was able to be there, so it’s going to be cool to be able to go to Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth!”
Everything you’re saying about Parkway is on point, now I was at that UNIFY performance and it was memorable for so many reasons, not the least of which was that half of the country was on fire at the time, the air was so thick, but then there was an epic downpour, that combined with the fact you were making your return after the accident meant that you were greeted by a rare energy from that crowd. Do you recall what that all felt like?
“That was crazy. I remember all of that happening. It was wild. We did a random pop-up to help raise money for the wildfires that were going on. We had a bunch of extra merch, and we were like, 'Let's just do a pop-up and give the proceeds to this'. Then I remember that happening then we went out to the festival grounds and it was just like a muddy, rainy mess. And I'm like, what is happening? This is like, crazy, dude!”
The weather SHOULD be more predictable when you get down here in September, holding your new record Searching For Solace. What was the experience of creating a new The Ghost Inside album like for you, at this stage of your journey?
“It’s been cool to be able to do it in the way that we have. We've always done records with the same team, the same producer and the same engineer and like just do it all in one, but this one, we were able to work with a bunch of different people and the people we wanted to write with and get out these ideas that we had. The self-titled record we put out in 2020, we love the record, but it felt like a real lateral move, where it was just an updated version of Dear Youth, which is what we wanted to do at the time. It was us saying, ‘We’re back playing music again, after so long and after the accident and we just wanted to prove to ourselves that it could be done, now that we know that we can do it, we wanted to elevate this and give it everything we had.”
“If we didn't give 150%, then we were just selling ourselves short because we almost lost the band, and we know what it's like to not have it. So we’re going to do everything in our power to make it the best record possible. That's what we do with the record. We leaned into the theme of the record, and the idea behind the record about, the maze inside the mind. There are so many dead ends, wrong turns, lefts and rights, ups and downs, all these ways to get reach the end goal, but you have to find comfort in the actual search and not just at the destination. That was big for us.”
“We wanted the layout of the record to feel the same way, where it's like a real back and forth yin and yang push and pull kinda of vibe. So it might have felt a little jarring with how the singles were laid out but it was all done with intention, with ‘Earn It’ being the more upbeat and popular one and then ‘Death Grip’ which is the heaviest song we’ve written up until that point, followed by ‘Wash It Away’, which is the total opposite, that was all intentional. We wanted to do this because not only was the self-titled record our first record back after the accident, but we released it mid-pandemic, at the very height of the pandemic, so we weren’t able to promote it, we weren’t able to go on tour, it was more just putting a record out because we knew people needed music more than anything at that time because they were stuck in their houses and couldn't go anywhere, they couldn’t do anything, so it was like ‘let’s give them something to do.”
“It’s different this time because we’re able to do these interviews and go on tour and play these shows and promote the record, so far it’s been amazing.”
One of the overriding powerful elements of your band is a commitment to positivity, you have an enduring legacy of powering through. That’s what people connect to in your music. You've said in the press release that happiness isn't a constant, it's a journey. Have you found that working through the writing process if this record has assisted you in that journey?
“I think it has because it has shown that you need to find your happiness, you need to not rely on trivial things to give you that boost. You have to appreciate what is important to you. That was important to us this time around and it was freeing, we found solace in writing the songs, and we found comfort in working together as a band, as the five of us in a room again. In the past, we’ve had more of a main core of songwriters, but with this one, we were all together creating something, it has been empowering and uplifting.”
“We have always been a band with a positive message, I’ve always told myself that if I was ever in a position to be able to talk to a lot of people, then I wanted to have something positive to say, I wanted to help people and uplift people. We’ve always done a good job with that, this time around, with this record, it was important to know that like even the quote-unquote, strong people, even the people, you look up to, they struggle. The height of the pandemic was my first time dealing with any kind of struggle mentally. It just took a toll on everybody and we had to convey that in the record and ‘Lightyears’ is a big song about that feeling, about being so close but so far.”
What is your ultimate positive hardcore, pump-up jam?
“One that always got me hyped and stoked back in the day, was ‘Can We Start Again’ by Bane. It’s got a cool ethos of ‘just do it again, let's start over and make the most out of something’. Every time I saw them play that song, the crowd was crazy and the entire room was chanting it and it was just such a big, big thing for everybody. That was such a huge pump-up song for me.”
Searching For Solace is out now on Epitaph Records.
Parkway Drive
20 Year Anniversary Tour
With Special Guests
I Prevail (Usa)
The Ghost Inside (Usa) + Void Of Vision
Friday 20 September - Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Brisbane
Saturday 21 September - Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney
Sunday 22 September - John Cain Arena, Melbourne
Friday 27 September - AEC Arena, Adelaide
Sunday 29 September - HBF Stadium, Perth
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