Behind The Tracks: Drive The Ghost - Connected Like Dreams (single) (2020)

Connected Like Dreams” has had a very long germination. The first rough demo version of it existed as far back as 2009, at least 7 years before the conception of Drive the Ghost. It was a track that always stuck around in the vaults of my computer but I never felt I had the skill with my voice to execute it properly, and this is where my long-time friend Nico Fonticelli comes in.

Nico and I connected way back in the MySpace music heyday, myself in the united States and him in Argentina. We respected each other’s music and always said we’d work together one day. Years and years later, I sent him the track minus much of the vocal parts that were out of my capability, and he went to work exercising his creativity, power and range. I was so blown away I asked him to be a permanent collaborator! So, this track represents his debut as a part of Drive the Ghost, which was formerly just a one-man show. It also speaks to the power of technology for artists to expand their band-member/collaborator search beyond a flyer at the local bar or a newspaper ad.

Lyrically, I tend to always write “stream of conscious”, but somehow a theme emerges from the umbra of the mind. To me, the lyrics paint a portrait of a person who is quite disenchanted by their reality and finds only a fleeting refuge in his or her dreams. The “dream-state” also feels metaphorical for anything that can absorb a person, like an addiction, disorder or obsession, that pulls them away from family, friends, responsibilities etc.. With that said, I always liked lyrics--such as those by Chino Moreno or Cedric Bixler-Zavala--that hint at something yet leave room for the listener to graft his or her own experiences onto.

The track is primarily produced by me in my home studio, as is the case with every track DtG has done. I handled the lower register vocals, guitars, bass, drum-programming and arrangement. Nico is a master artist with voice and recorded/mixed many leads, layers, harmonies, and subtleties from his end that gave the track brilliant new dimensions. We have a few more tracks already in the works, and looking forward to the future!