RxGhost talks “Candles” music video and Scaffolding LP

Photo Courtesy of Josh Thomas

‘Danger’ is a crucial word for Josh Thomas, singer and guitarist for RxGhost. He classifies the group as ‘dangerpop,’ in reference to its noised-up melodic sensibility, and, fittingly, words like ‘danger’ and ‘dangerous’ loom large in his vocabulary. 

RxGhost’s debut LP, Scaffolding, came out in April of this year. A music video for the track “Candles,” directed by Matthew Dunehoo, was recently released on YouTube. We spoke with Thomas and guitarist James Capps about the “Candles” video, the song itself, and the meaning of ‘dangerpop.’ 

Scaffolding can be streamed here. RxGhost will also play at recordBar on Aug. 2 with Shiner and Lafayette, tickets for which can be purchased here. 

The Pitch: Why did you feel “Candles” needed a video in particular? 

Josh: We had a band chat where we picked which ones might be the most appealing, and “Candles” checked a lot of the boxes. It’s poppy, but it’s also got some dangerous sounding guitars. It felt like one of those songs where, if you’re into poppy stuff, it’s cool, and if you’re into shoegazey stuff, it’s cool. Hopefully it rewards repeated listening too, because of the weirdness of the structure. 

The video does a good job of showing the frustration of most working class people, where you have a lot to offer, but the gap between workers’ and CEOs’ wages keeps going up. Matthew did a good job of finding the right actor to pull it off. The character is trying to get things done, but things aren’t really happening. 

James: My 75-year-old mom likes it—and she’s honest. She definitely doesn’t like all of it. 

Tell me about the following lyric—“The person with that version of reality wins.” 

Josh: When I first made it up, I’m not sure it meant the same thing to me that it does now. That’s a tough one. What do you think it means, James? 

James: I always took it to relate to the flow of information. You shape reality the way you want, and sell your version of it. I don’t know if that’s what you intended, but that’s what it feels like to me. 

Josh: I think part of it also ties into class warfare. We’re trying so hard to do something. We want to get things out there, make a mark, and do something with our lives. It’s so easy for a trust fund kid to hire press agents and have fancy studios. Recently, we’ve been doing better with money, but we’ve been recording ourselves forever. But, the person who’s born into it still ends up winning most of the time, even with less creativity and less effort. 

Photo Courtesy of Josh Thomas

Are there any tracks you especially like to perform in a live setting? 

Josh: I’m actually most excited about the new songs. I think that’s exciting—to play new things that are still dangerous, as far as not knowing what we’re going to do next. Some of the songs we’ve been playing for a while, they’re fun to play, but we know where things are going to be. I think it’s exciting to play brand new stuff.

James: Josh loves risk. Our personalities balance each other, because I’m risk averse, and he’s risk oriented.

Photo Courtesy of Josh Thomas

Speaking of risk, what does “dangerpop” mean?  

Josh: It’s a genre I made up. Underneath it, there are these big pop melodies that are very melodic and relatable. I try to bury it with more dangerous elements, like guitars coming in in weird ways, screaming, and weird structural changes that wouldn’t happen in normal pop music. It’s almost like The Pixies, where there’s this ferocity and danger, but underneath it all, there’s really good pop songs and melodies. All these bands we like have that balance. 

James: I like the Beach Boys and Sonic Youth. It’s that idea of the song itself being basically a pop song, but you add things on top of it, and it gets a little more dangerous.