“Spewing some kind of moody pop rock into the universe”, Ghost Mutt is a five-piece band based in Meanijn/Brisbane, Australia with a track titled “Skinks” on the recent 4000 Records’ Gazed and Bemused compilation.
“Skinks actually started as a songwriting challenge when I had my first stint of songs not just appearing out of the aether,” said Annie Bingley of Ghost Mutt.
Spaced-out group harmonies, cascading drums and a funny little flute showing up momentarily makes “Skinks” a plop happily down somewhere in a field of green grass on a sunny day kinda song.
“I reached out to a few people and asked them to give me a set of parameters to write a song with. This one came from Kellie Lloyd of Screamfeeder / Deafcult / Majestic Horses. She gave me two chords, a slow tempo, and the word ‘spooky’ to build a song around. I tried for a while to write it on guitar before switching to keys, which got the main synth-line flowing and the rest of the song was built around that. It was a different kind of song for me for several reasons - primarily because for the first time I was writing about coming out of a really stressful period of my life rather than being in it.”
Honestly, I had to look up what a ‘skink’ was. Hmm. Okay. In classic shoegaze form, the lyrics are a bit difficult to decipher, though ‘taking time to tie my shoes, books I know the ending to’ made me wonder why the song had this title. Annie gave an unexpected explanation.
“The core theme of the song is about waking back up to the present moment rather than frenetically living in the infinite potential stress of What Might Happen. One of the biggest realisations of this period came from the fact that I thought the skink population in Brisbane was going extinct. Watching them had been a favourite childhood pastime and they were everywhere back then, and I felt like I hadn’t seen any in years. It turns out they didn’t go anywhere, I’d just stopped noticing them. Once I slowed down, I started seeing them everywhere again.”
Wading through the remnants of the storm
Through the haze the shapes will start to form
Just beyond the surface
Somewhere out of service in my mind
Coloured skinks are glistening in the light
Spooky curlews heralding the night
Taking time to tie my shoes
Books I know the ending to
Lying on the grass and breathing in
Slow downArena, sol, marea
Cielo, brisa, luna
Pasto, raíz, bosque
Descanza, sana, inhala
”When John asked us to be a part of 4000 Record’s Gazed and Bemused: Hazy Sounds from the Meanjin Underground compilation “Skinks” was the obvious choice. It was already a hazier, spacier track than I typically write, and leaning into that further for the production was a fun stretch into adjacent genres.”
And those last lyrics in “Skinks” are in Spanish?
“My connection to rock en español comes from my partner who’s from Perú, and introduced me to a whole world of music I’d never heard of,” explained Annie. “I love the Spanish language and the way that, especially in Latin America, rock music is tinged with rich history and proud cultural identity - there’s no shortage of things to be anti-establishment about, and I’ve never met such fervent rock fans. At the moment I’m particularly obsessed with the alt-rock scene coming out of México - I had the intense pleasure of playing in México City and Perú last year, and experiencing it first hand was just the best.”
You can find Ghost Mutt on Bandcamp and Instagram, plus check out the Gazed and Bemused compilation at 4000 Records’ Bandcamp - it’ll be available on other streaming platforms from October 31st.