ghost-writer
- a person whose job it is to write material for someone else who is the named author.
We write and sing songs to celebrate, to express our connection to each other, our community, and the sacred. Music is a powerful means to express Spirit.
There are as many methods to writing music as there are musicians: The whole piece may write itself; the lyrics may come first, or the tune; a kernel of an idea may be built up.
Most of Spiral Rhythm’s music is written by our members and then we Spiralize it – make it our own. We try not to change too much of the original – a word here, a note there, maybe adding drum breaks. We work together to polish a piece, but the song belongs to its author.
Sometimes, though, we ghost write. The words are there, but we write the tune, and vice versa. We’ve all collaborated on songs; that’s part of the joy of sharing music.
Earlier this year, Spiral Rhythm published our memorial to our band mate PJ Seale, a few weeks after she crossed the veil.
PJ left behind notebooks full of lyrics. We were supposed to work on them, add music and instruments, but time ran out. Now we have lyrics, but without PJ to guide us, we don’t know how to shape them.
We will try, and with luck we’ll honor our friend and her songs, ghost writing the voice of our friend and band mate and carrying her spirit with us into the future.
cover photo of ghost by Mads Schmidt Rasmussen
Oh, we know how this feels. Lots of love and light