GHOST GRL is the recording moniker of Gianna Botticelli, a Boston-based songwriter who has been making music since her early teens. Building on two previous albums, Botticelli has just released a new EP, Rewired, recorded with help from Kevin Klien and Alex Allinson. The record takes the basic GHOST GRL formula and explodes it with a newfound magnitude, a sense of texture and shadow and space that paints each song in a stark and dramatic silhouette.
A good example is the record’s penultimate track, ‘Living Room’. Conjuring a gloomy, reverb-y atmosphere from guitar and patient percussion, the song allows Botticelli’s expressive vocals to take centre-stage. Botticelli says it is a song “about both loss and rebirth” which “tells of losing your home and sense of family, while also supporting a partner during their transition to the opposite gender.”
The lyrics approach this pretty directly, from talk of a missing father and empty rooms to fresh starts and new haircuts (“You look different now, your hair’s bleached to blonde / You cut it all off when you were reborn).” The result is something that feels at once bruised and resilient, which is a pretty good description of the music of GHOST GRL as a whole.
[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=2855838776 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=3204548434]
Rewired is out now and you can get it from the GHOST GRL Bandcamp page.
Photo by Emma Zavaski