Friendship Is Everything For The Ghost Is Dancing

Like most groups, The Ghost Is Dancing sell CDs and clothing through their website. But they also offer something slightly more personal.

Regardless of whether you're feeling a little lonely, or just like to meet new people, the Toronto-based act are offering to be your best friend. They claim to be cooler than any current chums you may have and will also apparently shower you with compliments. For those looking to be more than "friends," band members are also willing to be your prom date. Now if that's not going above and beyond, I don't know what is.

Adding to their expansive circle of compadres is something The Ghost Is Dancing are very good at. Their lineup includes eight full-time members and occasionally swells to 10 people. They take friendship very seriously with one another, and all of the 20-something musicians have known each other since kindergarten.

With large-scale ensembles being a fairly hot commodity right now, guitarist Jamie Matechuk says that they're always asked how many bodies are in the band. More amused than annoyed, as long as they're surrounded by pals, the group figure that the more the merrier.

"I guess these days there's an interest in bands that defy traditional four-piece methods with parades of people," says Matechuk. "Despite trends or anti-trends or whatever, we seriously just like having friends to play music with."

The band formed in 2004 and quickly made fans with their irresistible indie pop. Some friends, fittingly enough, offered to help them make their first recording. The sessions yielded a four-song demo titled The City Waltz. Deciding to make it into a proper EP, the group headed back into the studio in 2005 to re-record two of the tracks and add another to the disc. After putting the disc out on their own, Hamilton's Sonic Unyon Records offered to officially release it.

"We could only afford to print a few copies, and we'd been selling them at our shows from a cardboard box," explains Matechuk. "We had asked Sonic Unyon to distribute the EP.

"We didn't hear from them for a bit, but then they came to a show at The Boat and Mark Milne [co-owner of Sonic Unyon] said, 'We should do more together.' We were out of CDs at that point, and the label thought it'd be a good idea to give it a proper release."

The Ghost Is Dancing's self-titled EP hit shelves across Canada in mid-September as a pre-cursor to their debut full-length that's currently being recorded by Dale Morningstar. Matechuk thinks the finished product will include about a dozen cuts and should be out in late winter or early spring.

"The songs on the EP are the first songs we ever wrote together, and for most of us the first ones we had ever written, period. They were written with a spirit of a simple love for the music we had around us. Since last year we've learned so much and have changed a bit. What we're doing now is a more focused attempt to forge our own identity, and play to our strengths. Oh yeah, and we have added a few members who really know how to play music."

Writing, recording and touring with eight people is always a challenge, and Matechuk says that The Ghost Is Dancing are continually challenging themselves by changing their processes of making music and how they play it. Operating as a collective, everyone is given a say in all matters. This can sometimes lead to small conflicts, but, if you can't fight with your friends, then who can you fight with?

"We're all close friends, so sometimes decisions are automatic because we know where we all stand," says Matechuk. "Other times we argue endlessly, knowing we can argue endlessly without angering someone so much they leave."

Here are The Ghost Is Dancing's upcoming tour dates:

Oct. 29 Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern
Nov. 15 Toronto, ON @ The Supermarket
Nov. 18 Ottawa, ON @ Zaphod Beelbebrox
Dec. 16 Hamilton, ON @ The Casbah