American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Jonny Polonsky had unveiled his haunting new single “Ghost Like Soul”—phantasmagoric dream saturated with radiant miasma in its ethereal poetry, altogether evoking the fevered mysteries of David Lynch’s Black Lodge enveloped in Blue Velvet surrealism.
On the song, Jonny Polonsky had this to say:
“Ghost Like Soul’ just appeared out of the blue. I was messing around with some synth sounds, pressed record, and -voila- there it was. I wrote the words really quickly, without much thought to it other than the sound and texture they gave off (although in retrospect, I think I stole the second verse from Paul Simon’s You Can Call Me Al). I always wanted to have a spoken word section in a song, like Elvis would do. I was about to go to sleep one night, and that stanza just popped in my head. The only person I could see reciting those words, other than myself, was Cedric from At the Drive-In. He and I are friends from when I lived in LA. So I asked, and he delivered.”
This video was directed by Paul Elledge, a legend in the world of professional photography, whose work has been featured in publications as diverse as Rolling Stone and Forbes.
On the video, Polonsky continues:
“The video for Ghost Like Soul was filmed in my beloved hometown of Chicago, in the little theatre above the legendary Metro music venue. The theatre has a very small stage, with a beautiful, slightly decrepit, David Lynch-type vibe. Local legend has it that a woman hanged herself in the far corner of the room years ago and haunts the theatre to this day. We didn’t experience any paranormal activity during filming, but we left her plenty of glitter on the floor to help bedazzle her entire afterlife.
The director, Paul Elledge, and the producer, Leasha Overturf, are old friends of mine and we have worked together on many video and album art projects for my music. Paul directed the video for Jesus Built My Hotrod by Ministry, and also made the amazing cover art for their album Psalm 69. The editor, Matt Walker, I’ve known since I was 8 years old. He’s better known for playing drums with Smashing Pumpkins, Garbage, Filter, and Morrissey, but he’s been recently getting into directing and editing videos.
I’m really excited about this video, I think it came out great. It perfectly captures the eerie, dreamlike atmosphere of the song, and features an awesome shirt I bought on Poshmark. And did I mention the glitter?”
Watch the video for “Ghost Like Soul” below:
“Ghost Like Soul” is the second single off Jonny Polonsky’s forthcoming album ‘Kingdom of Sleep’, set for release on March 6th.
Self-produced by Polonsky, the album was mixed and mastered by Mike Tholen (Chris Connelly, Revolting Cocks).
Photos by Jason Robinette
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