Just in time for Halloween 2025, we've released our latest single and music video, Ghost Dance! Links to the audio and video are below, but first here's the artwork, created for us by Abby Marcil!
The guys' thoughts on the song:
Rich: Ghost Dance started as a song back in January ‘25, when I was at home playing guitar to some drum loops and came up with a few punky riffs that I arranged into song sections. Later in the month, I presented the guitar/drum arrangement to the guys with the working title of Ghost Dance (can’t remember why…Barley Pop?). Peter took the working title and pretty quickly came up with some cool lyrics based upon the nostalgia of watching old spooky movies on late night TV. After Steve came up with some tasty bass licks, we had the basis of the song. With the creepy theme of the lyrics, we put together some vocal effects (courtesy of two of the Daughters of Zen - Anna and Sylvia) and some horror-movie-type sound effects. Then we mixed it together with some candy corn and it's ready for Halloween season! Abby (another DOZ'er) directed, filmed and edited an awesome music video starring Anna, Sylvia and Aly (yet another DOZer). It's up on the YouTubes so check it out, alone and in the dark….if you dare…………………………..
Pete: This was just a great track right from the get-go. In the end, it was quite ripe for lots of groovy and spooky sound effects. Rich brought it to us, and Steve did his magic, and all that was left was for me to whip up some scary lyrics regarding monsters, creatures of the night and maybe a kaiju thrown in for good measure. My years of late night black and white film viewing involving classic horror movies prepared me well for this endeavor. I was a solid aficionado growing up of Creature Feature, promoted as “fiendish films for Saturday night.” There I was fed a steady audio and video diet of Universal Studios and Hammer Films. There was my stew-pot of topics and callouts to mine for lyrics and lines celebrating and honoring the classic monsters of cinematic yore. Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee did fantastic portrayals of the Frankenstein monster. Bela Lugosi and Peter Cushing played gripping versions of vampires and other creatures of the night. The thing practically wrote itself. Then came the whirlwind of shooting a vibrant yet ridiculously hilarious video. The Daughters of Zen took over, wisely and effectively. I'm not sure my lucha libre mask of Huracan Ramirez was quite trick-or-treaty enough but it was a nice call-back to our No Lo Se video. Overall, it has a good beat and is danceable. I would listen to it again.
Steve: Rich brought this one to the table at a January 2025 recording weekend (see our post from January 20, 2025 entitled ZFB/DOZ Studio Weekend!). It's the second to be released of a three-day-weekend where the premise was that each of us brought in a song and we'd finish the recording of each song in one day's time. The first to be released was my track Blast Off! and the third, Pete's Red Lights, is being mixed for an upcoming release. Rich took over the mixing/engineering chair on this one, and he did a great job, not only mixing it but adding zany little elements of spooky splendor. While I enjoy doing most of our mixing, it was nice to just be the bass player! Along with the mighty Daughters of Zen, we had a blast recording the video, which gives off some strong Scooby Doo vibes (zoinks!). For anyone wondering, I Am the Gorilla (goo goo gjoob). If I remember, I'll have to ask Pete what a kaiju is.
See the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIa2EiCjgEI&list=RDwIa2EiCjgEI&start_radio=1
Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/0fSpxTagIUBNK3AvJgP416?si=s9nS-xt4TaSoW-B9ftJ2Mg
Listen on Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/ghost-dance-single/1843209745
Download the single: https://zenfusebox.bandcamp.com/