Ghost in the Machine: Jukebox the Ghost’s Studio Photo Diary
After touring behind 2012's Safe Travels, Jukebox the Ghost continued their own journey, heading to northeast Los Angeles to record their fouth LP with producers including Dan Romer (A Great Big World, Jenny Owen Youngs) and Andrew Dawson (an engineer for acts like Kanye West, fun. and the Pet Shop Boys). Though the album likely won't come out until at least autumn, the group recently released its first single, the swelling, four-0n-the-floor "The Great Unknown." In the meantime, drummer Jesse Kristin took some time to document the recording process, stepping out from behind the kit to caption a few photos of the band — himself, singer-pianist Ben Thornewill and singer-guitarist Tommy Siegel — at work:
"Ben and Tommy in Dan Romer's control room in Los Angeles, probably searching for the right synth tone. Yes, yes, yes, NO, NO!"
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"Shortly after this photograph was taken, Tommy was chastised for smiling on the job."
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"Still life with spoiler-alerts and Jesse's favorite condiments: tambourine and shaker."
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"Dan Romer, our producer, displaying standard long-day listening form. You can't hurry rock."
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"Cymbalism."
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"Song arrangements often materialize through experimentation on electric keyboards, but Ben always chooses to write his core melodies at his true instrument, the 100 percent piano."
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"Tommy singing and playing a lullaby-sorta tune during a studio break. After a few days (or weeks or months), the minutia of the studio can make one feel like all they really want to do is play a song freely and thoughtlessly, without the record button. The studio oddly brings out this need to make some side noise that truly won't matter."
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"We've made records in North Carolina, Connecticut, New York and California. As far as the view from the studio is concerned, this is our finest record yet. "
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"Walking dirty. Dan believes in taking breaks from the studio to go for walks and talk about life."
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"After being a band for close to 10 years, we've developed quite an extensive portfolio of band photo props. Alongside balloons, yarn, a jukebox, a motel sign and beauty salon dryer chairs (to name a few of the more notable ones) we were pleased to add bulldozer to our list. Shotgun!"
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"Tommy getting into it."
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"Ben getting really into it."
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"Jesse getting over it."
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"The gang getting stoked after finding the flavor, that missing color, that elevates the song you've spent all day on to a higher level. "