Time to celebrate a good old fashioned, DIY born and bread, Nashville pop/punk band. What’s not to love? Check out the recent Ghost Town Remedy release, “A Lesson in Shapeshifting” off of the most recent album, “Dry Spell”.
“Shapeshifting to me, deals with a really strange feeling of loneliness after everyone who initially swarmed towards a tragedy hops off the bandwagon and you’re left to deal with the mental aftermath alone. I wrote this song about a year or so after my youngest brother Daniel committed suicide in October 2014. I felt like I just needed to get everything I was feeling at the time that was building up inside me off my chest and it ended up becoming a form of therapy for me (as most of my songs end up doing in some shape or another).
This song is one of my favorites on the upcoming record because it really evolved into something beautiful both musically and lyrically throughout the recording process.This was largely due to the help of the rest of my band and Justin Francis (Our co-producer/Tracking Engineer). I was finally able to get over my initial fear of singing this song in front of people live and even bringing it to the rest of the band. I just had to tell myself that It’s ok to just be honest with yourself and wear your heart on your sleeve and most importantly say what you need to say (Thanks John Mayer) because no one is going to be able to genuinely write or sing that song for you. You will always be the best at being you. Ultimately, I hope people can find their own meaning to this song and that it will become something different for everyone.
Even though things ended tragically, that doesn’t define who Daniel was. I want him to be remembered for what he did during his life instead of how things ended. The way he went of his way to make others laugh when he himself was struggling, his love and dedication to his Photography/Video work, his witty and often dry sense of humor, His sometimes out of key singing that I miss so much, the late nights we stayed up writing songs and watching movies together, and his involvement in the Punk DIY scene in Northern VA.
Mental illness can be an uncomfortable topic to talk about for some people but I think more people have been affected by it than openly admit. I want to erase the stigma attached to it because you can’t fix the problem if we’re too afraid to talk about it. “
-TJ Maher (Vocals/Guitar)
