This Old Ghost

In late 2010, Ian McGuinness was forced to move back to the suburbs of New York after living in Los Angeles for a year and a half. He had been writing songs on and off but struggled to fulfill the dream. Distraught about the move, McGuinness knew that the only way to soften the blow of returning home was to go about the unlikely task of creating a band. He contacted an old high school friend, drummer Robbie Pizzolato, who had played on and off since high school. McGuinness remembers Karri Diomede contacting a mutual friend of theirs about jamming. Unaware of what instrument she played or if she even sang, McGuinness reached out in hopes that there would be something there. Diomede’s reply went something like “Well I play the flute and my forte is harmonies”. The move suddenly no longer seemed so hopeless.

Within a week of McGuinness’ return, Pizzolato, Diomede and mutual friend (guitarist) Ryan Sniffen began working on material, joined quickly by bassist Brendan Coughlan. The immediate connection they felt, both with and without instruments, was freakishly organic. Over the course of their 10 months together, they have fallen madly in love with each other. McGuinness and Diomede bonded over having lost close friends and family members, which led them to believe in a spiritual intervening for why they are together. Calling themselves THIS OLD GHOST felt natural.

In the short time the band has been together, they have recorded and released a 6 song EP titled “Island of Violent Lovers” (having met and exceeded their modest budget on Kickstarter in the process). They have been performing throughout New York City and their local area of Westchester, NY to promote the release of the EP, which has already been met with praise from Kings of A&R and RM64.

“We’re all just so happy playing music together” says McGuinness. “We all geek out over how much fun we have because it’s still relatively new to us. If other people dig what we do, it’s just icing on the cake.”

muder by death, manchester orchestra, death cab for cutie