San Fermin gives new meaning to the term “ghosted.” On “Your Ghost,” the third and final song of the New York duo’s EP of the same name, songwriter Ellis Ludwig-Leone and singer Allen Tate explore the more invisible complexities of connection.
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Starting with the tender opening “Tired of Loving You,” which grapples with fleeting feelings—Just because I’m empty doesn’t mean that I have room / I don’t know why I’m tired of loving you—and “Someone You Call Baby,” featuring vocalist Claire Wellin and drifting around the distances in relationships. Pulsing around more uptempo drums and riffs, “Your Ghost” experiments with more imaginary elements of love—When you leave me / I only think about you / Can’t do much without you / I see your ghost.
“Every song I write starts from some emotional friction, where there’s a dissonance between two things that I feel really strongly,” said San Fermin songwriter Ellis Ludwig-Leone of the EP. “The rest of the song comes from a desire to work that conflict out.”
Following up the pair’s 2020 album, The Cormorant I & II, and the 2021 EP, In This House, featuring collaborations with The Districts, Nico Muhly, Thao Nguyen, Attacca Quartet, and others, Your Ghost was produced by Tate and released on Better Company. Founded by Ludwig-Leone and Tate in 2020, the label has also hatched releases by Sorcha Richardson, Wye Oak, Wild Pink—who also appear on the previous EP—and more.
The three songs of Your Ghost ripple through ever-shifting states of dread, elation, and realities of connectedness.
“All three of these songs were an experiment with a new kind of writing style, which is I think the best part of writing an EP,” said Ludwig-Leone. “It’s a chance to try things out and tweak your process without the pressure of making a whole body of work. I wrote these songs at the piano, thinking about them in a more bare-bones way, like, could these songs be played on any instrument at any tempo and still hold up? I wanted them to have a classic feel, as they could exist in any era and still have resonance.”
Photo: Courtesy of Tell All Your Friends PR
