Spirit Halloween Planet - Voice Memo Demo

Here's a demo for the new Spirit song that I performed poorly on a badly tuned piano and recorded on my iPhone back in July. Spirit reached out last February asking if I had another song in me that could top last year. I was initially very hesitant as I worried it would be difficult writing a sequel to a sequel without getting too niche and meta. I decided early on that it would need to be more of a spiritual successor (pun intended) rather than a direct follow up to Unleash Your Spirit. I wanted to create something that didn't feel like an inside joke to newcomers while simultaneously working as an actual inside joke to fans of the Songs on the Computer saga. Tricky stuff! Who knows if I succeeded.

Beginning the song with the apocalypse felt natural coming out of a global pandemic. I say "coming out of" because the song was written during the 5 minutes in the summer where it appeared that things were returning to normalcy. My initial pitch was basically "The planet and all its inhabitants were nearly destroyed, but Spirit Halloween is back so everything is great again!" Early on, I decided to incorporate actual post-apocalyptic, Mad Max-esque imagery as a way to separate the song from real world events so it didn't feel like too much of a bummer.  

Spirit has been a dream collaborator in that they pretty much let me do whatever I want. Their initial response to the demo was mostly positive but they were worried that it might be a little too ballady. They also expressed (valid) concerns that the stripped down demo didn't feel as fun and ear wormy as the previous songs, but ultimately entrusted my vision. They did have me change "millions march demanding my execution" to "resignation" (understandably).

When Spirit said they wanted to "top last year," my first instinct was to shoot something super cinematic with a significantly larger budget and crew. I pitched the idea of doing a legitimate production but Spirit didn't want to lose the "weird guy making videos in his basement" vibe. It was a fair point but I really struggled figuring out how to approach the visuals. I reached out to Brielle Garcia to see if she could help out with some of it. (Brielle has been the mastermind behind the Desmond Snapchat filters, the Gremlins 3: Dawn of Desmond movie poster and trailer logo, nude Desmond leaks, Desmond Clause, etc. She is an insanely talented artist, you should all go follow her at @tacolamp on Twitter and Instagram now).

If you're a patron, you're probably familiar with the extent of my graphic design skills. The shot of my face inside of Dan Bongino's head in 'I Wanna Be at the RNC' is a good example. I recognized that I wouldn't be able to do shots like 'Skeleton Mt Rushmore' justice, so I reached out to Brielle for help. I was anticipating some basic photoshop work but she started pitching ideas and sharing examples of what can be accomplished with AR technology. I'm the least technologically savvy person and I can't even begin to explain what she did for this video. But I can tell you this much:

1. She did it all by herself
2. She did it all in under a month
3. She did it with no guarantee of payment
4. She built a massive virtual Spirit Halloween city
5. She took footage of me singing in my garage with no green screen and placed me in an apocalyptic wasteland

AND 6. She gave me a major burst of inspiration in how this song ties into the larger Songs on the Computer mythos. I initially conceived this song and video as something separate from the overarching SotC narrative. Brielle started sneaking in easter eggs that the Men in the Tunnels were responsible for the apocalypse and it all clicked for me. I hastily wrote, recorded and released “Haunted by the Ghost of Ernest P. Worrell” as a bridge from the warnings of “Joe Biden Wants To Take Your Meet” and “School Board Meeting Fun” to the climax of “Spirit Halloween Planet." I seriously can't give her enough praise. She's a genius and a visionary and I hope someday we get to make a Star War together.

Another reason Brielle is a godsend is because I initially presumed a decent chunk of the video would be me goofing off with the new Beetlejuice animatronic. Well, due to pandemic service shortages, I didn't receive Beetlejuice until Tuesday of this week and Brielle had to build her own (digitally, of course.) I was able to send her a 3D scan for a couple last minute shots (InaugurationJuice & Political PrisonerJuice).

Who knows whether we "topped" last year but I definitely think we achieved the goal of doing something fun, different, and more ambitious in scale. I hope the three Spirit songs stand on their own and can each be appreciated independently of each other.

Hopefully this wasn't too rambling. I really appreciate your patronage! Please let me know if there are any perks that you would like to see implemented. I really want this to feel like a space worthy of your investment and am totally open to hearing fun ways for it to evolve.

Happy October!
King Nick