Burntmill Ghosts is a new-dish (that'll make sense in a second) punk act out of New Jersey. The band has just released its debut single via ProRawk Records, and has a lot more in the wings for us. We got together with Pete Vincelli, guitarist and vocalist from the band, for a Roll of the Dice. We rolled a SEVEN.
1) Burntmill Ghosts was born from the ashes of The Fullers, which disbanded during the pandemic after your second LP Cheers was released. Would you care to go into a bit more detail on what happened there?
Well, recording that album was kind of tricky because Rob, our drummer, had moved to North Carolina a few years before that. We were making it work, but it was really difficult to find time to rehearse between all of our busy schedules and the fact that our drummer lived 8 hours away. So we squeezed it out just in time and finished recording in January of 2020. I'm glad we did because Cheers would have never been recorded if we hadn't forced the issue. With Rob in North Carolina during the pandemic, we were basically on indefinite hiatus. But then at the end of 2021, Nic, our guitarist, moved down to Tennessee. So with half the band south of the Mason Dixon line, it seemed pretty impossible to continue as The Fullers. We never made an official announcement because we didn't really have the intention of breaking up.
2) So, how did Burntmill Ghosts come together after the dust settled, and who else have you finagled into joining the good cause?
I guess you can say that the idea came before the dust settled. Ian, who played bass in The Fullers, and I had been jamming throughout the pandemic, primarily out of boredom and because we never got a chance to play any shows in support of Cheers, which was released right at the beginning of the pandemic in April. We had a few songs that we were itching to record. We didn't want the songs to lose any luster so we booked studio time with Pete Steinkopf of the Bouncing Souls who had recorded Cheers with us. But Rob and Nic weren't really up for recording more songs. And Ian and I didn't think it was a good idea to record as The Fullers without 2 of the founding members. Especially since Rob wrote half of the songs for the band. So we decided to call the new project Burntmill Ghosts. And we recruited AJ Martinez from Doc Rotten to play drums. He absolutely killed it on these recordings.
3) This may seem like a silly question, but what exactly is a “burntmill” and why are there ghosts?
The street I live on is called Burntmill. And since the idea was born when Ian and I were jamming around the fire pit at my house, we figured it made sense. The ghost part of the name basically refers to the content of the songs I tend to write. I usually write from the perspective of people from the past, ghosts so to speak…kind of like historical fiction. So we just put the two words together. On a side note, there's actually a “real” Burntmill Ghost in NJ, but it has nothing to do with my street or our name. It's just a cool coincidence.
4) Your first single, “The Body”, was recently released, and the Bandcamp page says that we should expect an LP in 2023, which is much too long of a wait. (laughter) Do you plan on releasing anything else to tide us over in the meantime until the LP drops?
You're damn right that's too long (laughter). The original intention was to release the four songs we recorded as an EP, but when we started the process with our labels (ProRawk Records and SBÄM Records), we found out that it wouldn't be released until 2023 because of all the plant delays. So we figured, “shit, we might as well record more songs for a full length.” But, we'll probably release one or two more digital singles at some point in 2022.
5) You've admitted that the band is similar in sound and style to The Fullers. With that in mind, what can listeners expect to be different about the songs? Considering it is 50% new musicians, is the song-writing process different in any way?
It's definitely going to sound a little different since Rob was such a key songwriter for The Fullers and also because we've added Justin Rodrigues as our official drummer. Like AJ, he has so much range in regards to style and ability, so our songs will definitely reflect that. AJ was just a mercenary (laughter). You're also going to see a bit of Ian's songwriting seep in a little too. The first track on the upcoming album, which will be “Another Round”, pretty much highlights our “new” sound.
6) Name some bands that YOU think TGEFM readers should be paying more attention to.
Off the top of my head. Latte+ is a tight pop-punk band from Italy with really catchy songs. The Radio Buzzkills are from St. Louis and play snotty pop-punk. Swallow's Rose from Germany play a mix of skatepunk, streetpunk, and pop-punk. The Ramonas from the UK, started as a Ramones tribute band but have also recorded a few eclectic punk rock albums. And our buds in Doc Rotten are a mix of street punk and straight forward punk rock with an edge. They're great dudes and great musicians. All of those bands have killer new albums out in 2022.
7) Burntmill Ghosts has been “in progress” since, at least, March of last year when teaser posts went up on social media, but you reallystarted adding content in February of this year and, since then, there seems to be a lot going on. Aside from the forthcoming album in 2023 (once again… you're killing us with this wait), is there anything else on the horizon you can share?
Last spring, I asked Stefan (from SBÄM) if he had any ideas for a logo. And he sent me the design right away and we loved it. That's when we started putting out teasers, but since we couldn't play live or press any records mainly because of the pandemic, we were kind of stuck in limbo. Then earlier this year, a local promotor reached out to us to see if the Fullers could jump on The Bombpops show in Asbury Park. We told him that the Fullers couldn't play, but the new band could play if they still wanted us. Luckily, everyone was ok with it. So that kind of kicked us into gear. Now we're starting to book shows for the spring and summer, nothing finalized yet. And we're going to put out a video for “The Body” sometime this spring. As I said earlier, we'll probably release a couple more digital singles. And we're headed back to the studio with Pete in July, which we're really excited about.
Check out Burntmill Ghosts on Bandcamp or Spotify. You can also find them on Facebook and Instagram when you can follow to your heart's content.
If you're in the neighborhood of Asbury Park, NJ on 13 Mar 2022, come check them out at House of Independents as they open in support of The Bombpops and The Rumjacks
Roll of the Dice is a short interview format with a variable amount of questions. A Pair of dice is rolled and the total, between 2 and 12, is the amount of questions we can ask. All questions are given to the interviewee(s) at once, and no follow-ups are allowed.
the white drew carey (aka – Jeff Sorley) is the founder and head editor of TGEFM. He's lived (outside of) Chicago, Madison WI, (ugh) Penn State, Lyon FR, Oxford UK, central New Jersey, and now within earshot of SFO in the Bay Area. When not scouring the web for more great bands and labels to post about, he also spends time drawing (mostly) silly sci-fi and anime stuff under the name Asplenia Studios.
