Talking to Ghost Bees

Interview and photo by Lucas Huang.

When Ghost Bees played at the Artel last month, it was only their
second show in our town, but they already seemed at home. For
instance: they brewed a large pot of tea to share with the audience.

Ghost Bees, The Artel, October 11th, 2008

Ghost Bees are twin sisters Sari and Romi Lightman, playing guitar and
mandolin and singing. As siblings they have been sharing music with
each other for a while, but only recently has it become a public
endeavor.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

“Ghost Bees” is an intriguing name, and when I asked Romi
about its origins she gave me a rather cryptic answer:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The music of Ghost Bees reflects their name – it’s both fragile and
eerie in its minimalism, simultaneously beautiful and strangely
unsettling. The sisters pluck away on folk forms while their twin
voices weave in and out of each other’s harmonic space with a
remarkable melodic density, given that only two voices are present.

There’s a tension in their sound. Sari and Romi have almost childlike
voices, yet their lyrical content is dark and obtuse. Seemingly
benign sentences, perhaps suggesting romance or intimacy, contort into
uncomfortable vulgarity and morbidity with alarming suddenness: “If I
were beautiful, supple, and touchable, would you stay here to suckle
and lie in my bathwater?”

Romi cites unusual influences, both lyrical and musical, as sources of
inspiration for the songs of the Ghost Bees:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Tasseomancy, the debut EP from Ghost Bees, was released earlier
this year on Halifax’s Youth Club Records.

Ghost Bees