Cherry Ghost

Simon Aldred, a British vocalist and tunesmith who took the name Cherry Ghost from a lyric in a Wilco song, launched his solo career in 2005 after logging several years in a string of unsuccessful rock outfits. Drawing on Sparklehorse and Smog as acknowledged touchstones, he crafted songs that fused elation with melancholy and captured them at home through sampling methods that produced richly textured arrangements, then circulated the resulting demos among British labels. He presented the material under the Cherry Ghost banner via a dedicated MySpace page, where critical notice of the recordings and mounting visitor traffic quickly cast the project as an act worth watching; live shows followed, with Aldred sometimes supported by a full ensemble and at other times appearing alone with acoustic guitar. Heavenly Records offered a contract, leading to the April 2007 release of the first Cherry Ghost single, “Mathematics.” A follow-up, “People Help the People,” appeared the next June and introduced the debut album Thirst for Romance, which Dan Austin produced and which reached stores in July 2007. Rising gig commitments prompted Aldred to stabilize Cherry Ghost as a permanent band whose members included Jim Rhodes, Ben Parson, Grenville Harrop, and Phill Anderson. The group’s second album, Beneath This Burning Shoreline, arrived in 2010 and earned strong reviews, while Herd Runners, recorded with producer Colin Elliot, surfaced in early 2014.