"The name isn’t too terribly deep – it’s probably obvious,” said John Ferguson, when asked about the Lexington-based record label and music collective he helped found. “We’re all desperate spirits.”
Fittingly, the brand is called Desperate Spirits. Established in 2016 by Ferguson (Apples In Stereo, Big Fresh) and fellow longtime Lexington musicians Kim Conlee (Attempt, Big Fresh, Frigidkitty) and Trevor Tremaine (Hair Police, Attempt, Jeanne-Vomit Terror), the collective has become a self-moderated platform for a colorful, prolific and desperately creative group of musicians and artists deeply entrenched in the Lexington music scene.
“What the label ends up being is just an outlet for our little community of bands and creative output,” Ferguson explained. “We’ve put out six records so far, [by the groups] Attempt, Big Fresh, Italian Beaches, Frigidkitty, Jeanne-Vomit Terror. If you look at those bands or projects, it’s really the same people – we dress up in different configurations and slap on a new name, maybe dabble in some different genres, but we’re all related.”
Each of the aforementioned groups is led by a different songwriter and has a decidedly different undercurrent: Big Fresh is a 10-member colorful art-pop group; Frigidkitty blends elements of indie, pop, western and folk; Italian Beaches is an electro-jazz-pop ensemble with a bit of an avant-grade twist. But the same underpinnings are present throughout, with many of the same musicians and creative forces driving each project.
For all involved with the label, creating is not simply a desire. It is an insatiable hunger that results in everything from eclectic musical acts, variety shows and performance art to graphic design and videography.
“We all want to create something. You can text anybody and be like ‘Hey, what idea do you have right now? Let’s go do it,’” said Conlee. “Everybody is thinking and just trying to live our life that way: What else can we do? What else can we have fun with?”
The entertainment industry has been one of the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. At the end of last March, live entertainment as we knew it came to a screeching halt, leading to canceled tours, shuttered venues and millions unemployed. Fortunately, the Desperate Spirits crew realized that they were uniquely prepared for the shifting landscape.
“All the sort of dread that I felt about entering quarantine and about COVID was mitigated to some extent by the fact that all of these people that I’m surrounded by will find a way to persevere through all of this. We have people that will edit video on the fly, that will continue to make music, that are willing to stream, that are willing to send us video of them performing,” explained Tremaine. “We made a new Jeanne-Vomit Terror video in April [2020] that Sara, my partner, edited together from videos of all the band members just sending us stuff from a new song that I had recorded, and that kind of became the norm within our little collective: ‘We’re not gonna stop, we’ll find a way.’ Everyone has honed their skills having to operate in these bizarre circumstances.”
The Desperate Spirits team consists of longtime Lexington musicians John Ferguson, Kim Conlee and Trevor Tremaine (l-r).
“Find a way” is exactly what the collective has done. Throughout the pandemic, in the absence of live shows, the group has doubled down on expanding its streaming presence on platforms such as Facebook, Twitch and YouTube. In December of last year, to celebrate the release of her debut record “Indulgence,” Frigidkitty (Kim Conlee) hosted a live streamed virtual release experience on YouTube, with each song accompanied by an artfully crafted video by various local artists, including Robert Beatty, Dave Farris and Jeremy Midkiff. The animations and cinematography of the videos seamlessly complemented the rich, layered and textured songs Conlee and her collaborators had crafted, allowing listeners an opportunity to engage with the artists and music in a way that was different from the traditional record release experience but extremely memorable for the creators and audience members who participated.
Wednesday through Friday on the live streaming platform Twitch, Desperate Spirits hosts a variety of content, from musical performances by electronic experimentalist Longjumper or enigmatic avant-garde chanteuse Jeanne-Vomit Terror, to an arts and crafts segment simply titled “Twitchcraft,” where streamers can receive step-by-step instructions on how to make tarot card boxes, leather working and more. The collective is also hoping to feature a 24/7 loop of original content available on its website soon.
Whatever Desperate Spirits content you stumble across, you can be guaranteed that it will be unique, personal and earnest, and a direct reflection of the people behind the brand.
“We don’t have interns. We don’t have staff. It’s us – we answer all the emails and talk to people,” said Ferguson. “If people are interested in what we are doing, whether they want to check out our music or help out with a project or be part of this community, talk to us.”
Success and fulfillment have different meanings depending on who defines them – for this group, those concepts are defined simply by continued artistic output, and the friendships involved with making said art.
“We’re not so interested in commercial successes or even any sort of monetary transactional relationship to music,” Ferguson continued. “We believe in what we make, and we think we make magical objects, and [we] want them to be in the hands of other people. So if anyone out there wants an album, wants a CD, wants whatever, just ask and it will be yours.”
For more content and information related to the Desperate Spirits collective, visit www.desperatespirits.com, facebook.com/desperatespiritsrecords, and twitch.tv/desperatespirits.