Ghostkeeper‘s seventh studio album, Balloon Moon, finds the Métis pop experimentalists looking inward and outward at once. Out October 27 on Victory Pool Records, Balloon Moon explores both the world around them as well as more introspective themes.
According to frontman Shane Ghostkeeper, Balloon Moon is “the closest-to-home, most real, most emotionally heavy record I’ve written to date.”
Drawing inspiration from the confluence where the Bow and Elbow rivers meet in Mohkinstsis (Calgary), Balloon Moon‘s 11 songs offer reflections on identity, connection, and place. The album’s first single “Mohkinstsis” made waves when it featured by the CBC as one of “four songs you need to hear to celebrate Indigenous History Month” this past June.
Musically, Balloon Moon sees Ghostkeeper return to their full-band configuration in the studio. While their previous album, Cîpayak Joy, centred around Shane Ghostkeeper and Sarah Houle‘s electronic explorations, Balloon Moon brings drummer Eric Hamelin and bassist Ryan Bourne back into to the fold to continue expanding the group’s distinct 70s-tinged alt-pop sound.
“It was so rewarding. It was so fun,” Shane says of the recording process. “Ryan and Eric are not only very talented at music and their instruments, they’re also very talented with their humanity and being great friends.”
For his part, Shane says that having the full band in-studio empowered him to further his own creative expression.
“I really took a huge step forward in having that confidence to just go for it and perform my own vision and melody and harmonies,” he explains. “I felt like I was yearning to get back to that natural expression that my fingers and my ears were telling me to explore.”
Shane Ghostkeeper’s creative revelations were accompanied by personal ones. According to him, Balloon Moon was created in a period of profound reflection.
“I was going through a phase of heavy, heavy spiritual baggage…stuff that I was unwilling to confront,” he recalls. “I wasn’t in control as much as I thought. Things kept popping up, kept tugging at my shirt from behind to say, ‘Hey, we got to talk, we got to deal with this.'”
As the songs took shape, that introspection became part of the emotional foundation of Balloon Moon. For Shane, the writing process itself became an outlet for self-examination and personal growth.
“I’ve really come to terms with a whole new me,” he says. “Songwriting is my place of worship. It’s where I work on my spirit and my perspective on the world.”
Although Balloon Moon may have emerged from a period of introspection, Shane Ghostkeeper is quick to note the importance of community in its creation. As they look forward to sharing their latest work with the world, Shane reflects on the forces that make both art and personal growth possible.
“We’ve all committed and dedicated to building this thing that’s called a band, but really, it’s a community,” he says.
“Community is allowing oneself to have a foundation. [It’s] self-love while loving. It’s medicine.”
Learn more about Ghostkeeper’s upcoming album Balloon Moon here.
Listen to “Mohkinstsis,” the first single from Ghostkeeper’s Balloon Moon, below:
