We're Ghosts Now

It’s October, or for New Jersey local band, We’re Ghosts Now, it’s #Ghostober. The four brothers, ‘three bonded by blood and the other by music’, are playing shows every weekend all October long at welcoming house parties and local Jersey venues, all with the dress code being very fitting for the band and the time of year… Halloween costumes.

I had a chance to catch the band at the historic Greenwich Village rock club, The Bitter End, where they had me dancing between tables for their entire set to their upbeat, catchy rock rhythms.

As I talked with Ben Resnick, the band’s lead guitarist and vocalist, he shared some insight into their band of brothers, We’re Ghosts Now’s humble love for their fan and friend communities, and plans for the band’s future…

Q. Looks like three of you are brothers… so who’s idea was it to get a band together?

A. Well Max and I had previously been in a band called The Son of a Guns. After about a year of being in that band, it just seemed to dissipate with half the band members going off to college and us just drifting apart. During that time, Jake [their other brother] had picked up the drums and was taking to them pretty quickly so him and I would jam out in our spare time in our (at the time) shared roomed at our parents’ place. Not long after Max got involved in the mix and the foundation for We’re Ghosts Now was born.

Q. Have you all been interested into playing indie rock music, or was it a result of playing together over time?

A. Honestly we initially had no direction. We just played music and if we thought it sounded good we just jammed it out until it became something we could perform for people. There were/are many influences that made us into the band we are now including yet not limited to The Airborne Toxic Event/ Murder By Death/ Gaslight Anthem/ Arctic Monkeys/ The Black Keys to name a few. But it was never a conscious decision to play one genre over another. From now until the day we stop playing (which will be never) we play what sounds/feels good to us and go from there.

Q. How or why have the other members of your band joined in to the original brother crew?

A. I guess initially we felt we could use another member and sound to make us more complete. The first person to fill that role was our good friend Andrea Scaniello lending her amazing vocals and keys to us Ghosts. Jake just brought her to a practice one day and said that we were going to try her out and that she was very talented. And low and behold he was right. It really brought another dimension to our sound. Unfortunately after about two years going strong, she had to bow out due to the fact she started going to school in New York City and the commute was too much between school and working and band commitments. But before she left, we found our newest member Alex Iannone. We happened to be playing a festival out our friend Keith Leming’s property. We had been looking for a new sound to add to the band and mentioned our interest in adding strings to our sound. Alex happened to be at the festival violin in hand and rocking hard. The next thing we knew, he was at our place rocking strings over all our songs and its been a great ride since. Andrea still plays with us when the occasion comes up, but essentially the four of us make up the core members of the band.

Q. So, I’ve been asking myself since I heard the name… where did ‘We’re Ghosts Now’ come from?

A. Unfortunately there’s not a special meaning or cool story to accompany how We’re Ghosts Now came to be our name. We were hanging out one day after a band practice and just went back and forth with all sorts of names that we thought would sound cool. Eventually we came up with We’re Ghosts Now as a joke off of one of the previous names we came up with and it just stuck. We had a whole bunch of might’ve been names though like The New Adventurers/ Hello Taxi/ and Rabbit Hats to name a few. I think in the end we did alright for ourselves all things considered. We’re Ghosts Now just felt right.

Q. Speaking of ghosts, is Halloween your favorite holiday?

A. All of us have always loved Halloween from the get go, but we definitely appreciate it a whole lot more since the creation of We’re Ghosts Now. So much so that we went to the extent of taking over the entire month of October calling it Ghostober where we go all out and plan a show for each weekend of the month, release music and fun videos, and come up with all sorts of fun things to do with our friends/fans. This would be the second year we’ve done this and it only gets better each year. This year we planned a bunch of house shows and a show at Wonder Bar in Asbury Park for Oct 17. We also have some videos coming out and potentially a band and friends pumpkin picking day. (haha)

Q. In your latest video for ‘Haunt Me’, it’s filmed at a party with friends. Is this a common root of your music?

A. Our friends are the very reason we do what we do. Yes we love playing and creating music but there’s no feeling comparable to playing for a whole bunch of people who just completely support what you do and more importantly just get into it as much as we do. The Music Video is practically a documentary of how we are with our friends at both shows and just hanging out. It just made sense for our first music video to have all of them in it. From the get go they’ve been nothing short of supportive and make us feel like rock stars on a daily basis.

Q. What’s the next step for We’re Ghosts Now?

A. It’s been about 3 years since WGN was born and in the past year alone we’ve grown and accomplished so much. We’ve played a multitude of shows spanning from the well known Stone Pony in Asbury Park to the legendary Bitter End in New York City. We’ve made a handful of fun videos including our music video for Haunt Me and have released our first full length album. We’ve shared the stage with some truly amazing bands and have made so many new friends fans and artists alike. So what’s next for WGN? Onward and upward. We want to keep playing the music we love to make. But we also want our sound to grow and evolve with us as we continue this great adventure. It’d be great if we could become our own bread and butter and make WGN into a career. That’s the dream right there. We all want desperately to just hit the open road and play our music across the country if not the globe…

As long as there are still people willing to play to, we have no intention of slowing down any time soon. - No Fear Of Missing Out

UGH. I LOVE THIS BAND SO MUCH. I CAN’T.

I finally had the pleasure (after hearing so much about them) to watch We’re Ghosts Now play live with a full band. I was COMPLETELY blown away. All of their songs are super captivating and really made me feel something. I love music that makes you feel strong emotions and I absolutely had that with this awesome quartet. Hailing from Freehold, NJ these guys (¾ths of them are related! go figure!) have only been together for a few years, but it feels like they’ve been together for a lifetime. I know this band is going to do such amazing things and I hope to be around when they do. Anywho, go check them out and let them know who sent you!

Follow We’re Ghosts Now!!! - Stuff Rhonette Says

"The night opened with We’re Ghosts Now. These guys are so cool, and they had their own sing alongs going as well. So great to see and hear the crowd join in song when a band is on. " - Speak Into My Good Eye