Loss, Growth & Getting Better: How 'Holy Ghost' Helped Modern Baseball Find Their Voice

Modern Baseball have come a long way over the past few years. Not just in the figurative/artistic/personal sense — although, yes, in those ways too – but in the literal, geographic, world-beating sense. Having just wrapped an ebulliently received, sold-out tour of Australia — "Probably the farthest we could be" from home in Philadelphia, bassist Ian Farmer says with wonder — the ascendant, affable indie-pop-punk quartet are now only days out from releasing their fiercely awaited third studio full-length, Holy Ghost.

Although it’s been a relatively short road to date, it’s not exactly been a smooth one. In case you haven’t seen the engaging, insightful short documentary Tripping In The Dark, covering the Philly indie-punk heroes’ origin tale — in which co-frontmen and best friends Brendan Lukens and Jake Ewald meet and form an acoustic duo, before recording 2012 debut album Sports and adding Farmer and drummer Sean Huber to the mix for breakthrough 2014 follow-up You're Gonna Miss It All — and their journey over the past couple of years, it’s important to understand how close the band came to falling apart on the way to album number three (among other events, Ewald contended with the death of his grandfather and its resultant impact on his tight-knit family, while Lukens commenced treatment to address his then-worsening mental health), and why it was so crucial for the men who made it to get it all down in song.

Even their Australian tour was temporarily imperilled when its original planned run of dates, for September last year, was postponed in service of Lukens seeking help for his recently diagnosed bipolar disorder — but, unpleasant as it may have been, these were all arguably necessary events to achieve the sense of reborn wholeness the band is clearly experiencing now.

“We wanted to document this record,” Lukens explains of the impetus for filming the documentary. “Before we went into it, it felt like it was going to be something really important to the band’s career, or life—"

“And us, in general,” Farmer says.

“And us, yeah,” Lukens agrees. “And we cancelled a lot of shows, and we had a lot of just up-in-the-air questions being asked, so we felt like doing something that incorporated our past, present and future would kind of, you know … lay it out all out.”

And lay it all out they did; over a period of several weeks, Lukens, Ewald, Farmer and Huber invited director Kyle Thrash into their homes, providing the meat of the documentary and much of its most affecting content as he filmed the members at seemingly their most vulnerable. But as much as Tripping In The Dark provides gut-punching emotional background for Holy Ghost, it retains the band's ineffable charm and sense of humour — attributes that make themselves glaringly obvious during this chat — by way of features such as an animated origin story narrated by veteran 'voiceover guy' Rick Lance and an opening-credits tribute to short-lived cult series Freaks & Geeks, scored by a cover of Joan Jett's Bad Reputation featuring Farmer on vocals.

This sense of bare-all honesty is essentially woven into the DNA of Holy Ghost, arguably the band’s most confessional record to date. But, beyond its lyrical content, the album’s overall framework is a structured, considered affair, inspired as much by OutKast’s seminal double album SpeakerBoxxx/The Love Below as a sense of trepidation over getting the record’s flow right.

“In the early stages of the record, we talked about doing a SpeakerBoxxx/Love Below kinda thing, but the main reason we were talking about doing that was, with Sports, You’re Gonna Miss It All, the EPs – like, all the crap prior – I remember trying to figure out the You’re Gonna Miss It All track listing, and it took forever,” Lukens says, with mild exasperation.

“So this was really good, because this was, like, Jake had a story he clearly wanted to tell, and I had a story I clearly wanted to tell, and the themes were very similar, and there’s no reason for us to fuck with the story, or, like, take all that time to try to figure out something if Jake already had some cohesive thing in mind. It was just way easier.”

“It felt like we each had our own little playground,” Ewald says.

“Yeah, it did,” Lukens confirms. “It was really cool. And it feels really cool going from, like, Jake’s side, ending with Hiding and then going to the next side, and it’s, like, a little punker right off the start.”

“Totally! It’s like, ‘Oh, what’s going on here?’” Ewald laughs.

“I think another part of it is that we’re big into vinyl,” he continues. “So it’s very important for us to think of records in terms of an A-side and a B-side.”

This distinction of voice was immediately apparent — arguably more so than on previous records — in the wake of the release of the first two singles from Modern Baseball, the Ewald-penned Everyday and Lukens' Apple Cider, I Don't Mind, which preceded the band's visit Down Under. Both ‘sides’ of Holy Ghost frequently feature vivid imagery and real-world locales and narratives, lyrically creating a very real, oddly specific-yet-relatable chart of a pair young men in their own wars of understanding with their emotions and experiences, in the wake of very different, but equally challenging, personal loss. It's a significant step forward from the young-adult angst and romantic frustrations that permeated their earlier records, a sense that, as part of their organic maturation, they're no longer searching to please, or understand, other people so much as themselves.

“I think everything was kinda tied together by forcing myself to think back and process what had happened with my family,” Ewald muses, “because it was really, like… before he passed away, my family was like super-nuclear, everything’s great all the time … but it was also super-religious, so it was all totally fake family, and then—”

“They’re gonna love that,” Lukens quips.

“Yeah. My family sucks!” Ewald jokes. “No, but it was just weird, because after he died, all this weird shit started happening, and then I didn’t realise it until a couple years later, and I was like, ‘Oh, wow,’ and then I wrote a bunch of songs about it.”

Lukens’ loss was less tangible, but no less significant — a sort of loss of self — after the musician found himself at risk of losing his bandmates and best friend due to his habits with alcohol and marijuana, which had begun to affect his daily activities and reliability. His decision to go clean — which, as anyone who has grappled with addiction will know, is no cakewalk — saw him ultimately take the step of seeking treatment to care for his mental health. Awareness of such issues is a major theme of his half of the record, and one he seems surprised to find so openly discussed here. ("Australia talks about mental health and mental illness way, way more than the US," he muses. "Like, I was in the restroom, and there was something about it. In the US, you usually get advertisements to buy radios.")

“I think we both lost something very important to us; Jake with his grandfather, and I gave up a lot of my lifestyle… so we could be friends,” Lukens laughs, before straightening: “So we were both losing a big chunk of ourselves and, like past records, trying to figure that out, but I think this time we both wanted to dive a little bit deeper; I definitely feel like we’re coming into our own.”

Although Holy Ghost is, in some ways, defined by its distinct halves and voices, it’s additionally notable for the fact that, this time around, there are more voices at play than on their previous records. Part of that, Huber says, is because they’ve been together “long enough that, like, for [the events of Lukens & Ewald]’s songs, we [he and Farmer] were there”.

“It feels like more of a group thing now,” Lukens agrees. “I know when I finish a song, I’m like, I wonder what Sean and Ian may think; I wonder if they’re gonna call me out on this. So it’s definitely progressed.”

The other key component of the layered, mature and diverse sounds found across Holy Ghost’s track list, Huber says, comes down to the band’s organic growth not only as individuals, but a group unit able to utilise those individuals’ strengths to propel them forward together.

“This is the first record that we really wrote together,” he explains. “Sports, Jake played most of the instruments on; then You’re Gonna Miss It All, Jake demoed out all the instruments and sent them to me and Ian—”

“Can you tell I was controlling?” Ewald laughs.

“And we learned ‘em, in the 24 hours we had to learn them,” Huber lightly side-eyes at Ewald, who just laughs more in return, “and then went in the studio, but with this record, we didn’t do that. We just got in a room together, so I feel like the whole record is actually… we can express ourselves more than we ever did.”

As it turns out, it’s incredibly fortunate timing for the band to have reached a point of cohesion and synergy, given, as Lukens says, “we’re just learning to find our voice”.

“And figuring out what matters to us,” Ewald adds.

“To us as individuals and as a band,” Lukens expands. “And I feel like we’re at the point where we’re able to construct what we want to say and how we feel and push that message properly. A big thing with Holy Ghost is mental health awareness, and that just rocks. I’m so proud of that.”

Despite its evidently tumultuous roots, Holy Ghost is ultimately an album of triumph; a high watermark for a band that has consistently outdone themselves with every new release over the past four years, and — for fans and Modern Baseball’s members alike — it feels at last as though the success they so clearly deserve is finally within their reach.

“I’m really excited for us to start growing, like, as a whole, as a band, sonically, and moving forward sonically, and starting to write all our parts together all the time,” Lukens enthuses.

“Like, us practicing these Holy Ghost songs, we’re like that, where, admittedly, every other time we practice songs, we’re relearning songs — I’m saying relearning because we were literally relearning; we’d have to relearn them from scratch — and I feel with Holy Ghost, everyone was on the same page."

Importantly, the record has proven to be one of the first instances where MoBo has had the time to be totally on the same page both in and out of the studio — and it's yielded some typically wonderful and quirky results by way of their pre-order promotions for the album. Namely, a Holy Ghost Pepper sauce — "The hot sauce," Huber says, "I want on record, [was fermented] in Ian's basement" — and Holy Roast coffee blend, which, along with the documentary and other merch items, all speak to the band's dedication to their fans and going the extra mile.

"My roommate, Evan, who also plays in a band called the Superweaks… He made it this winter, and it was fantastic," Farmer explains of the basement sauce. "But we have a very mutual love of ghost peppers, and he has a very big love of making hot sauce—"

"And we love his hot sauce," Lukens adds.

"—and we love his hot sauce, and we were making a record called Holy Ghost, and it only made sense to have him make a Holy Ghost…pepper sauce," Farmer says with a grin.

"We’ve definitely followed in the footsteps of Jeff Rosenstock with the pun thing," Lukens laughs. "We just went edible."

"Edible puns," Ewald nods. "And we love coffee! Coffee and hot sauce; they’re like our two standbys."

"And we also really love ReAnimator coffee, and some of our friends work there, and they hooked it up, and now we have a Modern Baseball ReAnimator coffee, and it’s awesome," Huber adds. "A lot of it was just kind of the attitude of, like, 'What can we do?'"

"For real," Lukens says. "We were thinking, going into this record, we knew that we wanted to do a tonne of cool things, and it was the first time that we had a tonne of preparation time — like, before then, it was kinda like, ‘OK, we finished the record in two weeks, now let’s figure out when we’re gonna do all the rest of the crap!’ But this kinda cool, we have some time, let’s figure out a rollout that makes sense, let’s figure out cool merch items… So the cover of the photobook, which is one of the pre-order items, is the Freaks & Geeks cover before we did the doc, so it’s all kinda intertwined with each other."

Putting so much effort into their vocation is far from an anomaly for Modern Baseball, and it's not just products that they offer their fans. After shows, the band are out and about, talking to people, posing for photos, dishing out smiles and hugs, listening to stories — of how a certain song saved a night, or saved a life, for example — signing things; no security crews, no barriers, no pretension. Where some other acts treat fan interaction like a chore or the emotional equivalent of driving a friend to the airport, MoBo welcome their enthusiastic, enamoured entourage with open arms. And, more and more, open everything.

"I like the give and take of it," Lukens says. "I feel like it’s nice that we put the amount that we do out there, and in return I feel like we get that response that we do, and that is so rewarding. We’ve been so open recently, about, like, everything. Literally everything."

"We’ve made ourselves pretty vulnerable," Ewald adds.

"Kyle came into our homes for like, two, three weeks for us to do the doc, because we were really adamant about doing it," Lukens says.

"I think it’s… for the kid that’s coming up and telling you that, or the person, or whoever it’s affected, even if it happens over and over, you always remember that it means so much more to them than you could ever imagine, so you’ve just got to appreciate that," Huber offers.

"Like Sean said, it’s kind of like, 'What can we do with this?'" Lukens says. "And then, like, it kind of brings us face-to-face with our fans, and gives us that personal level that we didn’t have earlier on. The response after the documentary was insane."

"You build a trust with people that you don’t even know," Ewald agrees. "It’s a really unique experience."

"It’s crazy to see the band grow, and our fans grow with us," Lukens concludes. "Especially, like, this record. Even now ... everyone’s just really behind us and behind our message and our story, and it’s really cool. And the hot sauce."

That sense of loyalty extends in all directions throughout the MoBo machine, too, as Lukens explains his tangible pride at having mixed and mastered Holy Ghost in Philadelphia "with a team that I think we're pretty set on".

"We've kinda found our rhythm as far as producers and — like, our producer, Joe Reinhart; Jon Low, who's mixed our last two records, fucking slayed Holy Ghost, and I'm sure he was so happy there was, like, actual tone," Lukens laughs.

"I feel like it should be known that with our music production, our video team, our business… our team is so set, we're days away from all getting matching jackets," Huber effuses. "We stand by our crew really hard."

In true MoBo style, however, they're not taking any of it for granted as they look towards the ever-brightening horizon ahead of them as Holy Ghost makes its official entrance into the world.

"I feel like every time we do something, we’re equally more surprised," Lukens laughs. "It’s equally more surreal; I mean, when we started a band, and when we all got together, and when Ian missed our first tour to work, I didn’t think that the four of us would be in Australia. Me and Sean watching them try to surf, and [manager] Eric [Osman] surf, was just like, ‘Holy fuck.’"

"And to go from playing in Philly and having our close friends be like, ‘This is really cool; I can relate to this,’ and then a year later we’re in California, and for the first time it’s like, ‘Hey, I heard this on the internet, and I can relate to this,’ and then to be a year later in Europe, and somebody’s like, ‘Hey, I heard this; I can relate to this,’… it’s just a never-ending thing," Ewald says with astonishment.

"I’m really happy that even though it feels, like, fast for us, there was no point where it went from zero to 60," Huber says. "Even though it was over a short period of time, each step was like, ‘Oh, my god,’ so we’ve always been excited. There’s never been a dull moment where we’ve been complacent."

"That’s a very good way to put it," Farmer laughs. "There’s never a dull moment." 

Holy Ghost is released this Friday, 13 May, through Run For Cover Records/Cooking Vinyl Australia.

See an acoustic performance of Note To Self recorded especially for The Music here.