Ghost Arcadia STRAY Into Exhilarating Uncharted Heavy Territory
“Ghost Arcadia’s range of influences, collectively and individually, push them to write depending on the moment while not letting the constraints of a single genre define them.”
ROUND MAG
“Heavy as fuck!”
WITH JUST A HINT OF MAYHEM
After releasing their first new material in 14 months, Ghost Arcadia return with a massive new single in ‘STRAY’, set for release on the 20th September.
Inspired by a game of the same name, ‘STRAY’ celebrates defiance in the face of adversity, and not being part of the mainstream. “As a society we tend to try to fit into the same mould, but by doing that we just create this vanilla world when really we want a rainbow one,” the band noted, stating they set out to write something that encapsulates the struggle in being an outcast. Musically, ‘STRAY’ is arguably the heaviest release to date from the London ensemble. Drawing musical influence from the likes of Architects and Enter Shikari, the new single is also a hark back to 90s video game music, drawn from a recent obsession with 2022 adventure game, Stray. For the accompanying music video, the band teamed up with artist George McCubbin to create a fever dream of a music video. Inspired by PS1/N64 graphics, the video features a bear crashing through a castle, running in theme with the inspired synth sounds and working as a great visual metaphor for breaking out of mainstream society,
Speaking of the video game influence, the band added: “The game resonated a lot with me, and those vibes/ the message of the game definitely influenced the subject matter. With that in mind, we also wanted to create a song of defiance that celebrated our differences while also harking back to those dystopian video game vibes.”
‘STRAY’ follows ‘UNDER’ is the first insights into Ghost Arcadia's upcoming EP, What We Become, set for release later this year. Priding themselves on writing adrenaline-fueled tracks and drawing inspiration from all different genres, it is no surprise that the project's inspiration is the mantra "Genre is dead," with a diverse back catalogue, proving themselves as a band who refuse to be pigeonholed. Born from a duo, Ghost Arcadia originally consisted of vocalist Reuben Beau Davies and rhythm guitarist Anthony Hollis, soon adding Adam Ford (lead guitar) and Ali McCreadie (drums) to the ranks. With some notable radio play from BBC Introducing and Total Rock (Chris Stevens), as well as picking up Maximum Volume Music's‘ Band of the Day', Ghost Arcadia are ready to set the alternative scene alight with their forthcoming EP with more to come.
Ghost Arcadia will release their new single ‘STRAY’ on the 20th September 2024.
