My debut album was recorded on a four track in various backrooms, bedrooms and friends basements.
I had been writing and playing music for about a decade before I felt comfortable releasing anything. With the encouragement of friends and family I finally did. Friend and fellow musician, Kim Stewart suggested the title of the album, it was our notoriously seedy neighbourhood in East Vancouver.
"Ghostrain is Luke Gustafson, whose songs emerge from his bedroom studio on the four tracks of a Yamaha MT150. Some of these tunes date back nearly a decade, but there’s nothing stale or archaic about this album. Its peculiar ambiance is established on the first song. Quiet and unobtrusive, though potent and engaging, its an album you listen to because it whispers in your ear like a secret." - Exclaim! Magazine 2005
Includes unlimited streaming of The 7th & Carolina Tapes
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I knew I had found my voice as a solo artist when I successfully recorded the bed tracks of "The Maze". I finally realized, or had uncovered, my "voice" after a decade of writing songs.
The debut album "Ghostrain, The 7th and Carolina Tapes", was recorded exclusively on a Yamaha MT120, 4 track, tape recorder between 1997 and 2002. Released in summer 2003.
lyrics
One bull renegade
And a thousand head of cattle,
Strewn all over a
Sulken meadow.
Eyes turn the ground,
The heifers kneel down,
The Minotaur awaits
To be crowned -
King, of the Sun.
And yet the Lion's mane
Is golden.
One thread sewn through
The Maze.
A battered matador,
His cape of rose petals,
Winding corridors
Draped in shadow.
Dreaming, the Minotaur,
Daedalus awakened,
His puzzled brow of thorns,
The nights forsaken.
Rise, with the Sun.
You see the golden mane
Of the Lion.
One thread sewn through
The Maze.
The Sun upon the hill,
Wind all through the heather.
The little calf be still
Beside his Mother.
Slowly he grows,
One day he'll be taken,
By a man and a bull,
The beast forsaken.
Don't hide, from the Sun.
The blackened Mare awakes
With the Lion.
All things pass through,
The Maze.
credits
from The 7th & Carolina Tapes,
released August 26, 2003
Mastered by Caleb Stull. Recorded by Ghostrain. Instruments and vocals by Ghostrain.