Photo Credit: Allysa Defatte
Guerrilla Ghost
While the reality of the world, or at least the state of affairs in America may be harsh, many acts are still opting to provide something brighter for the summer with their releases. Alternative noise-rap hybrid Guerrilla Ghost, however, are diving head first into the darker times with their latest album, fittingly titled We Get What We Deserve. The 15-track release tackles everything from immigration issues to society’s reliance on social media, while sonically serving as a fusion of dubstep, electronica, hip hop, screamo and more. It’s a hard-driving affair that isn’t afraid to sound confrontational.
“We try to touch on as many topics as we can” said rapper Bad Graphics Ghost, who holds down vocal duties for the group. “Usually I’ll listen to an instrumental a dozen times and try to catch a vibe from it. (From) whatever I’m feeling in my head about what’s going on in the news, locally, nationally or personally, I’ll kind of get an idea of what I want the song to be about.”
The production half of Guerrilla Ghost is Tron Jovi, who provides an industrial-sounding quality to the traditional format of a contemporary hip hop song to create the track’s atmosphere. “Generally I’m always writing instrumentals” he said. “Some of these instrumentals are up to a year and a half old, but some of the songs themselves were finished about a month before the record comes out. I never consider a beat done until the song has been written to vocally, because I usually end up re-working the beat, adding instruments or remixing vocals.”
One of the album’s highlights is single “Algorithm Nation 1814,” which features hip hop legend Kool Keith. The two acts played a show at Riverwest Public House together in 2018, which was ultimately shut down by police during Keith’s third song. The event served as the catalyst for bringing the two together for a collaboration.
“About a year ago, when we set out on writing this record, we thought about who we could get on it” Tron Jovi explained. “When I reached out, he got back to me immediately. It’s Keith being Keith. He’s abstract and original, and it really added to the record.”
To celebrate the release of We Get What We Deserve, Guerrilla Ghost will be playing a live streaming set on Thursday night via Cactus Club’s Vimeo channel in lieu of a traditional release show along with electronic producer Hot Science. The record will be available for streaming everywhere on Friday with a limited physical release via Triple Eye Industries.
