Track of the Day: Rushes - 'Blue Ghost'

Following the success of previous singles ‘Wide Eyed’ and ‘Funds’, alternative pop artist Rushes has returned with the third track from his upcoming project Glowchild, titled 'Blue Ghost'.

The lavish, rave-inspired ‘Blue Ghost’, hauntingly, was initially unveiled last Friday, August 13th but the West Cork act has dropped the stunning, forest-set visuals for the single today.

The pulsating ‘Blue Ghost’ takes inspiration from Rushes’s earliest experiences of raving into the long hours of the morning.

“It takes me back to the first rave I went to,” Rushes explains, “that feeling of just floating and the raw, unfiltered atmosphere of the environment. It's probably the most abrasive song on Glowchild. While the intro is quite melodic and lavish with that arpeggiated synth line, it leads into a harder hitting rave, club inspired track”.

While the track may draw inspiration from some hazy nights of house, lyrically ‘Blue Ghost’ is far deeper in tone and theme.

“‘Blue Ghost’ is about attachment and spiralling out of control,” Rushes notes of the track’s lyrics. “As the song builds, I am trying to find something greater than the attachment and looking to make sense of it, whether it was good or not. It’s kind of like someone giving, offering help but it doesn’t land. You end up asking the question if any of it was worth it.”

‘Blue Ghost’ was written and reworked over a couple of months in 2019, with Rushes continuing to refine the track until the very last day of recording.

“I remember the vocal session kept crashing just from the sheer amount of takes. I'll do hundreds of takes when I’m recording my vocals, making sure that what I want is portrayed exactly how I want it to be.”

Rushes also concedes spending countless hours focused on the orchestral section of the track, which leads into a rave inspired drum pattern, accompanied by floating synths.

“Different sections pop in and out and take you on that journey, the song spirals through the motions. I wanted there to be that switch in the track, it’s almost like going into the underworld,” Rushes adds.

The music video was shot in West Cork by Eddie O’Flaherty in the midnight hours. Rushes explains of the concept:

“It’s kind of a sequel to the 'Wide Eyed' video, raw but really showcasing the power and the idea of the song”.

The video finds Rushes, in a shirt and suit pants, searching haphazardly through the final embers of the night, waiting for the world to stop spinning and in need of a place to lay his head.

“While ‘Wide Eyed’ deals with attachment; ‘Blue Ghost is more about spiralling out of control with that attachment. I kind of lost myself making this video, and maybe I was subconsciously bringing myself back to that time of what I was experiencing when I wrote the song,” Rushes explains.

Capturing the track’s desultory format and ever-changing tempo and theme, ‘Blue Ghost’ shows us all that it's okay not to have your world in order. Chaos can breed its own form of relief, and with it can produce some of the world’s most beautiful art.

Raised in the rural West Cork town of Skibbereen, Rushes blends the craft of perceptive songwriting with thoughtful melodies to create ambient stylings of epic proportions. Oozing iridescent poise and elegance with eager, soulful, vocals and cutting-edge hazy electronic sounds, the musician pushes the art of pop songwriting to its very limits, all in the name of finding new and exciting sounds to play with.

Rushes' 9-track Glowchild EP arrives on September 10th, encapsulating the formative journey of struggle, fierce ambition, love, loss, and the clarity brought on by an eventual sense of self-awareness.

Check out the brand new video for 'Blue Ghost' below: