Interview: King Whatever With The Ghost Club
Interview by Lindsey V. Britt
Pittsburgh-bred, indie-rock sensation The Ghost Club has just wrapped up their first national tour while also preparing for the release of their upcoming album King Whatever out April 26th on streaming and vinyl, featuring their hit songs “Another Little Sucker”, “It’s Your Call”,” If I Fell (Don’t Wait Here For Me)”, and “Don’t Let Go”. I was lucky enough to interview frontman Domenic Dunegan about his and the band’s musical journey so far.
Your new album King Whatever comes out on April 26th, what was it like making this album compared to making the band’s self-titled debut album?
The difference with this one is the self-titled one that I had is basically just a compilation of a bunch of songs I made over the course of three to four years. Whereas this one I made it in two halves, the second half I had the live group that I perform with behind me during the process of creating it, so it felt more like a cohesive half of the album than what we did previously before. Also, that first album was the first thing I ever made as a musician, so you kind of figure out things you just don’t like, and like, and I was able to kind of bring that over a little to this.
I noticed my favorite The Ghost Club song “Don’t Let Go” is the last song on the album, what made you decide to include it?
That one didn’t get on the first batch of songs that we had out and we felt that it fit thematically with everything that was going on. And that’s been our closer at every single show we’ve played, and we felt it kind of just fit to have that be the period of the end of the sentence for this album.
I saw King Whatever is being printed on vinyl, how awesome is that to have your music available on such a classic way of listening to music?
It is a really interesting feeling to actually have a physical form of media in front of me because this whole thing up until then has just been streaming and it’s like okay I just go on my phone and I check it but to like hold it, I can’t really put words to it, it’s not something I really ever expected doing this, so it’s just a really gratifying feeling to be actually holding it in my hands.
You’re just wrapping up your first national tour, how was this experience compared to other tours and shows you’ve done in the past?
This is the first time we’ve had like a legitimate tour, we’ve had weekend dates where it was like one show and then another, it was definitely a very eye-opening experience just because I realize the actual physical toll that doing it day, after day, after day, especially if it’s three in a row, then you have one day off, then three more in a row, and then one day off. I definitely enjoyed myself tremendously, it was the adventure of a lifetime to do it, it was just when they say it’s exhausting. I’m like yeah yeah, it probably won’t be, but no it definitely was. I was learning new ways to try to keep myself in shape and fresh for the next show because even resting as much as I can, towards the end everybody was just so tired but found ways to push through it.
Everyone is talking about your amazing show at SXSW, what was it like playing there?
SXSW was a very interesting time for us cause I had never been there, cause I never had the chance to actually go and witness the festival, and it’s always been one of those things you know you want as a musician never have done it, and it was just very, very strange just because they had a movie theater across the street and they had Ryan Gosling and Sydney Sweeney coming out of it. It felt very surreal being surrounded by so much good art and artist. Plus, we also discovered that we really enjoyed being in Texas so it was just the time of our lifetime.
While you were in Texas did you stop by a Buc-ee’s?
Oh yeah, we hit up every Buc-ee’s! The first time we went we realized this is amazing and we gotta go to wherever Buc-ee’s we find on the way back. When we were going through Colorado there was one that just opened up there and we made sure to go there and buy a bunch of Buc-ee’s merch, like when I saw the billboards for the first time I thought to myself four hundred miles away is kind of a long time to have a billboard but eventually it got through to me, it’s only three hundred miles, two hundred miles, and I was like you know what I’ve gotta see what all the hype is about and I was actually surprised it lived up to the hype.
I’m curious how you put The Ghost Club together?
The band was just like a steady progression from the first time I ever played, my friend introduced me to our saxophone player (Jake Baker) before we played our first show, I went to high school with our bassist (Logan Casper), and middle school with our drummer (Christian Laliberte) and then our guitarist (Isaiah Ross) I met through mutual friends and I was trying to figure out what works, what didn’t work, eventually we were lucky enough to land on this group of dudes and we all get along together and enjoy doing it, so I feel very lucky in that regard.
I heard you’re a huge Bruce Springsteen fan, what about him inspires you?
That’s definitely my hero, he was actually the reason I wanted to start making music because I went to see him with my dad when I was a freshman in college, and I left feeling differently than when I went in, and things just made sense for me, and I decided that I wanted to do music after that. It’s just one of those things that you have to experience seeing him live to understand what he’s about and what music can mean to somebody or do. And if I can just do it a hundredth of what that guy is capable of doing on stage, I’d feel very fulfilled. It’s just one of those things, that’s just who I’ve looked up to.
What’s your favorite Bruce Springsteen song?
My favorite would probably be “State Trooper” off the album Nebraska.
I know you used to be a film major, what made you decide to switch to making music?
It’s just I felt so good having gone to that concert and I just wasn’t really feeling too fulfilled going down the path of film so it just kind of made sense. I wanted some creative outlet, but film just wasn’t the one for me.
This might be silly to ask but do you believe in ghosts?
Funnily enough, I don’t. I don’t wanna be a ghost.
Now I’m wondering how the band got named The Ghost Club?
The name came just from a bunch of dead group chats that we had when I was trying to form the group, we all just made group chats and people would just talk things out and I just named one of them The Ghost Club at one point, and everybody in the chat was like okay that’s a good name you should actually go with that, and they insisted so I decided to roll with it I guess, despite that I have no real belief in ghosts, which is kind of odd I guess.
Lastly, I love to ask if you have a recommendation? It can be anything, book, movie, place, anything.
Honestly, if anybody is reading this and is near a Buc-ee’s billboard, go to Buc-ee’s, that’s my recommendation.
Make sure to check out King Whatever out on April 26th, and you can stream The Ghost Club’s music on streaming platforms now.
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