Introducing: THE HOLLYWOOD FREEWAY GHOSTS

WITH a career spanning continents, genres and decades, influences as wide-ranging as Tom Petty and King Crimson, Luxembourg-based THE HOLLYWOOD FREEWAY GHOSTS have just released their ‘Broken Doll,’ EP/album.

The band is the brainchild of seasoned musician Freeway Bill, whose somewhat self-effacing description of being nothing more than a “wanna-be, has-been rocker” couldn’t be further from the truth, ‘Broken Doll’ is a bold, feisty, guitar driven, self-assured body of work.

But The Hollywood Freeway Ghosts are not a solo endeavour, rather a collective of session musicians from the UK, US, Netherlands, and Argentina, with Freeway on vocals, bass, and keyboards.

“The other musicians are session players I found online,” he explained. “Over the years I have worked mostly with the same ones. The players on ‘Better Days,‘ the first song I recorded for the album, were the same guys that played on almost all of my other recordings from 2019 and 2021. But because of some touring conflicts, I went to some new ones on the rest of album.”

FREEWAY cut his teeth in LA performing in and around the Hollywood music scene before moving to Luxembourg in 2017, writing, producing, and recording, the album ‘On My Way’ in 2019, and 2021’s ‘Landing Gear’ EP.

“The LA scene in the 90s was one of transition,” he added. “The heyday of the glam metal 80s was over. A recession hit the city hard, particularly in East and South-Central LA, a lot of gang violence. There was a terrible fire in Malibu, the Rodney King riots, the Northridge earthquake, and OJ Simpson.

“Music was going in a lot of different directions. The ‘Chili Peppers’ were up in the hills recording ‘Blood Sugar Sex Magik’, ‘Mighty Joe Young’ was kicking around from San Diego, ‘Rage Against the Machine’, ‘Weezer.’ Epitaph Records broke through with ‘Bad Religion’ and the ‘Offspring.’ ‘Social Distortion’ went mainstream.

“The band I was in was part of the early counter-glam movement. More roots and soul than grunge. Al Green meets Crazy Horse. We were together for five years, recorded an album financed by an indie record label, but could not get distribution. RCA and Atlantic gave a close look, but by the time the top AR guys were looking at us, we had been running on fumes and broke up.

“One of the older guys had had enough, and the singer wanted to go solo. I went on to play in a few different bands, but nothing stuck, and a day job became a career, a family came along, and that was it until I started recording again as the HFG.

“Certainly, some disappointment the band didn’t hit, but still got to experience a microcosm of being in a rock band. We got to headline the Whisky, and the Troubadour, played with ‘Chuck E Weiss and the Goddamn Liars’ – of Ricky Lee Jones’ ‘Chuck E.’s in Love’ fame – at the Central before it became the Viper Club. 

“Personally, I know music will never be a career for me. I write music because I love to write music and I love playing music, and in particular the whole recording process of building up a song, it’s my solace.

“As far my sound, in general it is alternative rock, darting in and out of different styles and era influences. A bit of Tom Petty, Robyn Hitchcock with Dave Gilmour influenced guitar solos.  There are no rules, except perhaps that there is going to be a guitar solo. But even that isn’t 100% the case. 

“The ‘Broken Doll’ EP sits firmly in the ‘90s’ era I think, although the track ‘Never Mind’ has a more, late 70s Nails/Lou Reed feel if I think about it, and except for ‘Better Days,’ which took some time to come together, everything else on that EP happened easily and quickly.  The style of music is never anything intentional. In the 90s, I would set out to write a song with a target in mind of exactly what I wanted it to be, it had to be perfect, and it was a struggle. Now I don’t have a plan. I honestly can’t tell you how I wrote any of these recent songs. I just let them happen. Like the verse on ‘Cover Story’ is 10/4 time. I don’t know why, it just happened.”

Without doubt these are tough times for musicians, streaming platforms register over 120,000 releases every day. It’s never been easier to get your music online, but it’s never been harder to make sure it’s heard given the sheer volume of new songs.

 “I am concerned, particularly with ‘Gen AI’ which is going to quickly hit studio musicians pretty hard. I know it is really difficult for indie musicians – and well-known artists – to make money in streaming, and record companies only care about social media followings, no one is taking a chance on just talent.

“Daniel Ek got a lot of backlash for saying the cost of making content was virtually nothing. But in many ways, it is and that is both fantastic, and part of the problem, it is a double-edged sword. Spotify allows anybody to upload music, anyone with a smartphone can record a tune, and now unfortunately with AI, an unlimited number of ‘songs’ very quickly, and for a small cost, get it out on Spotify, Apple, and Deezer.

“So, there is so much music and artists out there on the DSP’s and the royalty pool becomes too diluted to pay anything meaningful and they can’t charge more because people now expect music to be basically free. But everyone has at least a chance to be heard where a few years ago there was none! For an indie musician like me, a studio project without a live band, it is amazing opportunity to get my music out to an audience that I would otherwise not have.

“Not that long ago, most indie artists would not have had the means to get any distribution, let alone even the ability to make a professional sounding recording without spending thousands of dollars on studio time, with professional engineers, and then the cost of duplication. Then you would have to gig, a lot, working a low paying job that allowed you that flexibility. Put up flyers around town – if you were lucky, you could use the office copier, otherwise another expense at ‘Kinkos’ – send tapes and CDs to radio stations and record companies, hoping to get some airplay or the attention of the AR folks.  It was hard work and expensive.

“Once in a blue moon someone like ‘Beck’ came along, with a cheap demo recording made in a living room that suddenly took off. But that is very rare, and he struggled through a really tough time living in squalor before that happened, because that is what it took to make it. So, I guess my point is, it has never been easy for musicians to make money at making music, certainly has never been easy to get a record deal, so I am not sure it is worse now than before.

“But I have been digging on the new album from the ‘Reverend Shawn Amos,’ as I knew him coming up in LA. I have a soft spot for Taylor Swift, Gladie, Soccer Mommy, Mannequin Pussy, and then I have also recently slid into an indie community on ‘Twitter,’ and I have been listening to as much unsigned indie music to support them as possible.”

CONNECT & SUPPORT: Music | The Hollywood Freeway Ghosts (bandcamp.com)