SPIll Your Guts: A Ska Punk International Fest interview with Ghost Tones

Ska Punk International‘s SPI Fest will return for another weekend of ska and ska-punk in 2024. This year's event taking place on 17 May and 18 May, has relocated to a new, all-ages venue known as 25 Central Street in Windsor, CT. Tickets can be purchased here. The annual festival will feature Catbite, Mutiny, Stop The Presses, PWRUP, Call Me Malcolm and our SPIll Your Guts interview guest, Mike Tyskiewicz, saxophonist of Ghost Tones. Check out what Mike has to say below.

Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview! You are gearing up for SPI Fest in the coming months, what does the festival circuit mean to individual artists like yourselves?

We're so honored to be part of this. Getting to share the stage with so many talented bands is certainly nothing we take for granted. We appreciate everything SPI does for our scene so we're very much looking forward to bringing our brand, or what we call “CT Boo-Tone”. 

I won't call it a ska revival because ska is something that's never gone away, but there is a massive rejuvenation of the scene with We Are The Union, The Kilograms and Catbite.  What is going on out there that has gotten so many people back on their boards to ride this latest wave of ska?

I think a number of reasons. Nostalgia is huge right now. I went to see Yellowcard and Story of the Year this past summer. I was blown away by the crowd. Those bands were huge around 2003-2004. Ska's “big years” weren't that far off, say 96-2000. I think people are just hungry to relive their youth and feel that nostalgia vibe. I also think covid has something to do with it. We were all forced to be separated for so long. It's  human nature to crave that human connection. Nostalgia ties right into that and only intensifies that connectedness feeling. Let's also not forget the simple fact that these “new” bands are also just really, really good. Duke Ellington said it best “there's two types of music, good music and bad music”. People crave good music!! Finally, on a more granular and/or band specific level, The Interrupters have really exposed more people to Ska.  It becomes very easy to go down the ska rabbit hole from there. 

What does Ghost Tones have planned for us beyond SPI Fest?   

Going into the studio very soon. Putting out new music. New merch. New everything. We're really excited to share new tunes and new ideas. We'd love to hopefully get the opportunity to play some more festivals with bands we look up to. Cough… Supernova… cough. 

What have been some of the most memorable moments or experiences with the band so far? What's been the most unexpected? The weirdest?

Opening for Fishbone, The Toasters, Mephiskapheles, The Addicts, and HR of Bad Brains were all pretty surreal. Getting to chat with them during their sound checks and kind of “see how the sausage is made” is an incredible and humbling experience. I think it's in those “peak behind the curtain” moments that you see just how talented these artists really are. I got to chat with Chris Dowd and he was so kind and down to earth. I did my best to contain myself and not fanboy out as he told me tour stories with Rage, Beasties, Primus, and Alice In Chains. 
One other really unexpected moment happened in 2018. We refer to it as our “fever dream”. We were playing a benefit show for worker's rights. We walked in and immediately felt out of place and that we'd likely just annoy people with our esoteric sound. We started to play and out of nowhere these two jugglers started performing in front of our set. The audience kinda went nuts and suddenly there was this crazy, circus vibe. Our singer's mic cut out so he just went out into the audience and sang and danced with the crowd. What could have been a disaster was suddenly an awesome party. 

Speaking of live shows, what are you most excited to bring to the SPI Fest audience? What do you want those in attendance to take away from your set?

Maybe to help put CT on the map? There are so many talented CT bands, both ska and non-ska. Hopefully we can grab people's attention which will lead them to check out the CT music scene. 

We've all got a few, what is your biggest regret? A gig you turned down, advice you didn't take, what one thing do you wish you handled differently as a musician?

With 8 people in the band, scheduling can be a nightmare. 4 of us play in a second band. A few of us have kids, etc. Over the years there have been a lot of shows we've had to turn down for all those reasons. That's always disappointing. 

The ska scene gets a lot of flack from every genre of music (including ska itself) but is also almost always at the forefront of inclusion and diversity within the music scenes.  What is it about the scene that attracts such a welcoming fanbase?  What is it about ska that leaves itself so vulnerable to mockery in the music world?

That's a tough one. My personal opinion is that what got marketed in the 90's made ska look very glitzy and slick. I think it became easy to overlook the serious musicianship that was behind it. I think it often got portrayed as disposable, “bubble gum” party music. I'm not sure it's ever really been able to shed that image. I find myself often having to defend the genre rather than have it naturally be embraced. That's really unfortunate. 
As far as what makes it attractive… I think you have to look at the natural inclusivity of the scene. You can argue that this really started with the two tone era bands. Nowadays I think that inclusivity has spread from not just racial, but to gender, sexuality, etc. We as a band love to be able to look out at the audience and see anything but a monochromatic fan base. That's really inspiring. That's the world in 2024. It feels nice to know that maybe ghost tones is helping to spread that message of inclusivity. 

We are living in a “just deal with COVID” world and everything about this timeline is some level of completely fucked, and the upcoming election sure as shit isn't cooling any temperatures.  What impact, if any, does the current cultural and political landscape have on the band and the scene in general?

That's a very complicated question and one that we could probably talk about for hours. I'll try to give what I see as “the short version”. We've been a band since 2016. We've watched our country be very divided during large parts of that time. Thankfully we've seen our scene sort of rebel against that division and embrace inclusivity as I outlined above. Hopefully our scene can soldier on with this positive message even during the impending election and sadly, any resurgence of division that may come. 

SPI Fest this year is nearly a hometown show.  What should those of us traveling from out of state be looking forward to in Connecticut beyond the show?  Where am I getting the best pizza from?

I can  talk about CT Pizza even more than I can talk about ska. You want the best??? New Haven, New Haven, New Haven. The big 3: Pepes, Modern, Sally's. My personal favorite is Sally's. But just about anywhere in that part of the state is incredible. Ernie's, Roseland, Zuppardis, BAR. The list goes on and on. If you're looking for two good options closer to Windsor, try Wooster Street and/or CJ's in Manchester. Wooster is that New Haven style. CJ's is an entirely different experience. True NE style. Thicker, squares, denser. Crispy. They recently won the CT Pizza Wars. For my money, I'm going “large half pepperoni half Buffalo chicken (crispy, not the grilled) cooked lightly well done”. You can thank me while you're sitting in post Za bliss. 

8 folks and instruments on a stage or in a van has to get pretty tight.  Eventually everyone needs to find some space for themselves.  When you've got so many people in such tight quarters, what are you doing to find “me time” and recalibrate your headspace while traveling?

Well we don't own a van. So that eliminates that lol. Honestly, it's so hard just to get everyone together to practice that I think we all really genuinely enjoy each other's company. At shows we all kinda hang out together, shoot the breeze, chat with the audience. 

There's a karaoke machine at the SPI afterparty, what song are you playing?

Well given that we have 657 members in our band, I guess something with a lot of gang vocals. 

SPI Fest is a smorgasbord of fantastic acts. Which bands are you most excited to see?

Catbite, Catbite, Catbite and…. Did I mention Catbite? Mutiny, Call Me Malcolm, PWRUP, honestly everybody. This lineup is stacked. Every band is gonna bring it. 

Was there anything I missed that you'd like to share or dive deeper into with our readers?

Thanks so much for the support and interest. The fest is going to be phenomenal and May 17 can't come soon enough. We look forward to sharing some “CT Boo-Tone” with everyone!