Photo by Raelena Kniff Media
It makes sense that band with “ghost” in its name like to reflect on the past. Massachusetts band Handsome Ghost started as the solo project of Tim Noyes, but as his live band member Eddie Byun became a frequent collaborator, the band officially became a duo for their sophomore album, Some Still Morning (out today). Their sound has changed from the upbeat synth-y debut album Welcome Back to something more contemplative. Allston Pudding chatted with Tim and Eddie about the progression of the band and its sound.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
ALLSTON PUDDING: How did you two meet?
TIM NOYES: Many years ago I was playing in a different band, more of a folk rock band, and we needed a bass player, which became Eddie. We kept in touch when I started another project, Aunt Martha.
EDDIE BYUN: It became me weaseling my way into Tim’s projects. “I gotta find my way into that band!”
AP: And how did the band go from a solo project to a duo?
TN: The Aunt Martha band ended; it ran its course. I tried different production and sounds, wrote some songs, put demos together, and [Handsome Ghost] became a real band. It’s honestly a little surprising. When I was beginning to go on tour, I needed people to be in the live band. I called Eddie because he’s a really good musician. I thought it would just be me, and the live band would be for touring, but we slowly and naturally started collaborating creatively. When we went to the studio together, it was a natural progression to become partners rather than a solo project [Eddie] plays in sometimes.
EB: In the tradition of weaseling my way into Tim’s projects, in the earliest version, I said, “Yeah, I can play synth.” I learned how to play piano, and recently I’ve been adding more electric guitars. It’s still a similar role. Tim is the lead songwriter and comes with the song and the melodies, then we fill it out together.
TN: We’ve been living together since 2018. We were playing in my living room at first, but since then, we’ve put together a little studio at our house. We recorded our first album here, and we made the second album in the home studio as well. It’s a real perk, really in the spirit of commuting to the couch.
AP: Can you talk about your latest LP, Some Still Morning? I heard you realized you had to scrap everything you were working on and starting from scratch.
EB: Welcome Back, the first record, came after two to three EPs before that. This time I was more present at the beginning of Tim’s songwriting. This next record was a blank slate, trying to figure out what to do from here, but it was hard to get the sound there. Tim is a great songwriter, but we really struggled — thinking too much, trying to be too perfect. We listened to too many people’s opinions, thinking about how it would be received, which contaminated the process a little bit. We tried four songs five different ways over the course of eight months to a year. We realized, “Fuck, it’s not working. What do we do? Should we stop? Is it just not meant to be?” So we went back to what influenced us musically and what really matters to us.
TN: Production-wise, sonic-ly, we maintain a level of intimacy or closeness — whatever term you wanna use. We stripped it back, let the lyrics stand out. That’s the music we grew up on that we listened to in high school and college time, when we were rapidly consuming music. We harnessed some of that. It’s a different point when you start making music “professionally.” It’s an unbelievably exciting opportunity to make an album in studio and that’s your job and your life. We’re really lucky to be able to do that. It’s easy to start to think about, “This is our job now, we’re gonna make this record.” So we tried to get back to that initial place of, “This is fun, we’re having a really good time,” and we ended up making the record that became Some Still Morning It was a totally different mindset.
EB: When you start playing music and having other people listen to it, that’s the dream. But you have to think about, “How do I maintain this and make this more? Why was I doing this in the first place?” If it’s for the love of music or something that’s meaningful, you need to absorb that mindset.
AP: What were some of your influences that you return to that mindset?
EB: Tim listens to Elliot Smith and that world, I’m into folk and classical. Your music has all the stuff you’ve loved whether you mean to or not, so I’m sure there’s some pop punk stuff too.
AP: Were there any songs on this record that you felt vulnerable about writing or performing?
TN: Performing-wise, it’s not something we’ve had the opportunity to do. We’ll hopefully play live at some point. But it’s our most vulnerable album as a whole. For specific songs, it’s hard because it changes day to day, month to month. The final song released before the record was “Funeral,” which is the first one that wrote a demo for. It’s a different kind of song than I’ve written in the past. It sets tone for the writing of the rest of the record. It’s the most intimate for today.
AP: Which are your favorite songs? What’s the most fun to perform?
EB: The struggle lasted so long that when we got into a groove, it feels like this montage of high fives. The rest of recording felt natural. This is what we want to do. It was the worst before then, and then it became really fun and nice.
TN: I agree, but if you listen to the album, you would not agree — you’d wonder, “These guys were high fiving?” [laughs]
EB: Out of the songs we released [prior to the album release], “Vampires” is the one out of the bunch that’s the most happy song. The production is really upbeat, but that one always gets me. It’s fun how differently people absorb music and hear it. It’s a fun part of the process for what Tim writes and sometimes respond to it completely differently.
AP: A lot of these songs on the album, but particularly “Massachusetts” and “Vampires,” sound like they’re about returning to your roots or regressing to places you’ve been before. How do things look differently the second time around with that new perspective of being older?
TN: That’s spot on. It’s a big piece of the record as a whole — how you view the past. It wasn’t necessarily intentional, but when we were reflecting after choosing what songs were included on the album, we found that we write about the past a lot, for better or for worse. It’s always a reflection tool for me. Throughout the Handsome Ghost catalog, if you go back, there’s a lot of regret in the past. That’s the vantage point from which most songs are written, like, “ I really messed that up,” or, “That was a disaster.” This new album has a different feel. It’s less about regret or beating yourself up, and it’s super cheesy, but it’s about appreciating the journey. Recognizing it happened, whether it worked out perfectly or poorly, it’s great — it’s why I’m here now. It’s less about negativity from the place where it was written.
AP: Vampires are making a comeback now that there’s a new Twilight book. What would be your favorite part about being a vampire?
TN: The vampire schedule — getting to stay up late.
EB: You’d have eternity to figure out shit.
TN: Actually that’s the better answer, I’ll go with that too!
EB: You can figure out your issues. In the “Vampires” music video by Tim’s brother Nick, he did a bunch of research, did you know this?
TN: No not at all.
EB: They have more fun than you’d expect, you think they’re these brooding blood-drinking people. I didn’t realize they were so fast! In the last scene of the music video, the vampires are riding bikes. I thought that was fun.
Some Still Morning is out now. Listen below: