EXCLUSIVE: Watch An Unreleased Animatic Video for Ghostbound's “Roof and Wall”

Ghostbound released their last album in 2018 with their strong All is Phantom. Their self-described “Blackened Torch Songs” take the listener on a sonic and emotional journey. The band had planned to release a video for the single ‘Roof and Wall’, but unforeseen circumstances curbed that effort. Still, the band had created an Animatic storyboard video as a test with artists Ryan Lotz and his wife Sarah Griffen-Lotz that is really cool and gives you a behind the scenes look at where this project was going. You can purchase and stream All is Phantom now and watch the video!

We had a brief Q & A catch up with Ghostbound leader Alec Head for the backstory:

Give us some backstory on the Storyboard animatic for Roof and Wall.

In short, this was born out of a collaboration between ourselves and an old, dear, exceptionally talented friend of mine, Ryan Lotz (@r2thespecialist via the ol “Gram”) and his wife Sarah Griffen-Lotz (@sarahgriffenlotzart). In the many years since he and I had last spoken to one another, he had gone on to create some rather dark, evocative 3D animation. We both thought it would be prudent for us to work with one another on a potential music video for “Roof and Wall”, which we both thought had a self-contained “narrative” insofar as the lyrics were concerned on top of an atmosphere that would lend itself well to Ryan’s style, overall. I wish I could properly explain the sheer sense of excitement that moved through me when he first shared what he and Sarah had been working on, thus far. I thought that even at THIS point, where it was essentially just a “test” video in an effort to show us what kind of images we would be seeing once the product was finished, that this would make a worthy music video. One could only imagine how incredible the finished product would have been.

Why didn’t this ever make it from concept to finished product?

Tragically, Ryan and Sarah were dealt a traumatic hand when their house, into which they had practically JUST moved, burned down in a freak accident in the midst of their working on the video. In addition to everything they owned, they also lost their two cats, which is simply heartbreaking. Naturally, this put a damper on their being able to finish the video for the foreseeable future, but the video itself is unimportant in the face of such tragic events. After a few months had passed, we decided that it would be rather foolish to release a finished video for a song off of a record that had been out for nearly a year, at that point. Ye olde “promotional period” had ended. The circumstances surrounding the entire record were rife with unfinished ideas, delusions of grandeur, et cetera. It was time to move on, creatively speaking.

In sharing this animatic, what do you hope the viewers get out of it, as well as yourself?

Most importantly, I hope to draw attention to the work of Ryan and Sarah, who are both incredibly warm, kind, and crazily talented people. I hope that this generates more commissioned work for the both of them. In addition, I want to draw people’s eyes to their GoFundMe page, which was set up in the wake of the tragedy they both face. As a band, we decided that the animatic itself was good enough to stand on its own terms, even if it is an example of an unfinished work. Of course, we hope to work with Ryan and Sarah again down the road. We may even explore some of the concepts presented in the animatic for a different song at some point.

‘Roof and Wall’ comes from last year’s All is Phantom album. What’s the current status of Ghostbound as of now?

Ghostbound is going strong. Outside of the occasional live show (we are sharing the stage with Gates to the Morning, Solemn Vision, and Morder at Backroom Studios in Rockaway, NJ on 11/23), we are hard at work on what will be a new EP, which will contain a few older songs that did not quite make the cut for All is Phantom in addition to a couple cover songs. We are slated go into the studio to begin recording this on 12/14, if all goes to plan (which it rarely does, in the case of this band, but a man can dream, can he not?).

Please support Ryan and Sarah’s GoFundMe page: