IT’S A RECIPE for certain disaster: a five-member band that includes
three songwriters—two of whom are brothers, one of which is
married to the bass player. But World’s Greatest Ghosts have made the
closeness of their relationships work for them; the strength of their
music comes from its interlocking, familial parts.
Naturally, it isn’t easy. Of the band’s songwriting process,
guitarist Brandon Anderson deadpans, “It’s mostly an argument over
different calibers of bullets, which one can penetrate the temple
first.”
“Or somebody has a good riff, and then we take turns making each
other angry,” keyboardist/vocalist Jesse Laney jokes, then says, “When
you work with your brother, the one comforting thing is that no matter
how much we piss each other off, the next day it’ll probably be okay.
And I honestly feel that way about working with Brandon, too.”
Jesse and his brother Casey, the sons of country songwriter Alan
Laney (Shania Twain fans might recognize his work), grew up outside
Nashville without much care for entering the family business. As Casey
says, “We were actually anti-country music growing up quite a bit. I
viewed it so much as a business, that it was a big turnoff to me.”
“I never really thought I had a future in music,” says Jesse,
“because all my friends were in bands and I never got into it, so I
always felt a step behind. And then Casey started playing music and I
didn’t. I was just like, it’d be fun, but I’m never going to be able to
catch up, basically. That’s what I’ve been trying to do the last three
years,” he adds, laughing.
After graduating from college, Jesse borrowed a Casio and began
playing music with his brother for the first time. A stint in New
Orleans was cut short by Hurricane Katrina, so along with Emily Onstott
(now Jesse’s wife and the band’s bassist), the Laney brothers came to
the Pacific Northwest to visit their friends in the band Here Comes a
Big Black Cloud.
Seeing that band’s lifestyle was pivotal, says Casey, “Because it
made it seem like a reality, that you could have a DIY band and
actually play and actually have a following and friends—that a
scene existed for that.” Anderson, a friend from college, joined them
in Portland along with Eric Ambrosius, and World’s Greatest Ghosts
became a reality—getting their feet wet by playing house
parties.
“There was always a certain level of ambition,” Casey says of those
early shows, “but it was also really cool because it was: Be as
creative as you can be, because it’s a party anyway.”
Jesse adds, “It’s funny, we used to hear it all the time: ‘World’s
Greatest Ghosts is that house-show band.’ But I feel like there are
other bands that are way more deserving of that title.”
They’ve outgrown their basement origins with their tautly satisfying
debut full-length, No Magic. Led by the intertwined guitars of
Casey and Anderson, the sound is state-of-the-art 21st-century indie
rock, incorporating peppy, jumping-bean beats with vintage synth sounds
and Dungeons & Dragons-influenced lyrics. After completing the record earlier this year, original drummer John Damiani departed to return to school. Eric Ambrosius was in the audience at his last show with the group, and having met the band before, Ambrosius contacted them through a mutual friend to see if he could be their new drummer. It worked out, and World’s Greatest Ghosts is now poised for a national tour.
“It was just an idea that we all had,” says Jesse, looking back on
the band’s short history. “Let’s all move into a house together and
form a band. It was kind of an experiment. Thinking back on it now,
it’s kind of crazy that we all decided to do that.”