Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Anton
Hi Daniel, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Sorry Ghost started as a couple of college kids in Baton Rouge, Louisiana – the hometown of Matthew (lead guitar) and I, Daniel (bassist/vocalist). Matthew and I went to rival high schools and knew each other because we both started rock bands, and our bands would often gig around town together. We were lucky to run into each other in our U.S. freshman history class our first day at Louisiana State University and picked seats next to each other, quickly becoming close friends. Our respective high school bands had both fallen apart, and I mentioned I’d be interested in starting a band. After countless college house shows where we’d begun to grow a local following, a bunch of name changes, and a revolving door of other members throughout college, we mulled over the idea of really going for it.
After some personal tragedy and a bit of a hiatus, we ventured to turn our dream into a reality, and released an album during COVID called “The Morning After.” The album did better than we could have ever imagined and landed us a manager and a booking agent – we couldn’t believe we had an actual team behind us. We realized opportunities were limited in Louisiana and took the plunge to move to Los Angeles. There, Matthew met our drummer Tate, who’s originally from Oklahoma, and we pushed on as a three-piece until we toured the East Coast with Sean (rhythm guitar/vocals) and his former band out of Orlando, Florida.
After our tour, we noticed how well we clicked with Sean, and spoke with him to see if he’d be interested in leaving Florida and heading across the country to join us in LA. He actually took the leap of faith having never been to California for the belief in what we all thought we could create. We took some time to acclimate to our new four-piece lineup and worked on honing our sound, our brand, and our social media presence, which leads us to the Sorry Ghost of today. We’ve been extremely fortunate to play unforgettable shows all over LA, become a part of the music community here, and experience rapid viral growth in the past 6 months since solidifying our lineup and sound; we’re a bit shocked yet so appreciative for all the new fans on board. Where we are today, which to many seems like a rapid ascent, has actually taken years, life-changing moves across the country, numerous tours driven in a rusty 2006 cargo van with no A/C, and mistake upon mistake to finally get something we think is really special – we’re beyond grateful that our new fans seemingly feel the same.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It’s almost never a smooth road, but this is especially true in the arts. The largest struggle I personally experienced was the death of my mom when I was 22. That sidelined the band for a bit, but, ultimately, I knew I had to keep going – she was our number one fan and truly our first fan. Other struggles have been the initial move so far away from all of our family and friends and the constant roller coaster that is breaking into the music industry with absolutely zero prior connections or money. Music has given us some of the greatest highs through opportunities like playing a sold out show with your best friends in venues such as The Observatory, your childhood heroes in music reaching out offering to feature on your songs, or someone letting you know your song pulled them out of a dark spot. But also the lowest lows have occurred when contracts are suddenly broken, friendships and relationships fall through because your life becomes your band, and strings of long, late nights spent playing sometimes to only the other bands and the sound guy cause a brief stir of “what’s this all for?” Ultimately, we couldn’t imagine doing anything else though.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Sorry Ghost is an indie rock band based here out of West LA. We like to think we specialize in creating a distinctive blend of indie rock, summery college radio, a tinge of emo, and a potent blend of optimism and frustration. As of late, we’ve been most known for our usually goofy social media content which has gone viral. Some of our more viewed content has been our hypothetical outfits worn at hypothetical music festivals, our human fish-related content for our new song “small time fish (big time pond)” which just dropped, and our mock American Idol-style auditions for indie rock bands. We’re most proud of our ability to make people feel welcome to engage in our content and our belief in shifting the artist-fan dynamic to one of a community where there isn’t any sort of hierarchy. So many bands take themselves so seriously, and we like to think we set ourselves apart by just being our awkward, authentic selves in our music and our content.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Success should be fun and ideally provide value to someone else. Of course there will be dark days, but if you’re not having fun in aggregate doing whatever it is you’re doing, and you don’t believe you’re bettering someone’s life in some fashion, I always believe you need to stop doing it.
Pricing:
- Please stream our songs on Spotify!
- Feel free to check out our merch on our website
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sorryghost.com
- Instagram: @sorryghostca
- Facebook: @sorryghost
- Twitter: @sorryghostca
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIyT8HmWrBcK84QwYxKNcPw
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/01kWaiwBGtk1gsVcMv2m1e
Image Credits
Photo credits to Roxy Alexandria (non-performing shots)
Photo credits to Bella Lee (live performing shot)
