Baby Ghoul returns today with their new single, “Crystal Clear,” alongside news of their debut EP, Lucky 8, released on 9 October via Agent Anonyme Recordings, the independent label founded by Daphne Guinness.
Following the hazy, slow-burning atmosphere of debut single “Horseshoe,” “Crystal Clear” reveals another side of the band’s world. Airy, melodic and hook-laden, it’s a bittersweet song about finally walking away from a relationship that had become “too much drama”, wrapped in the cinematic melancholy and desert rock sound that has quickly become Baby Ghoul’s signature.
Lead singer and songwriter Aimee Gillingwater describes it simply as her “Lana track” – a dreamlike anthem about clarity, acceptance and moving forward.
Written over the past few years, Lucky 8 explores themes of luck, survival, love and self-acceptance. The title reflects Gillingwater’s belief that, despite a turbulent upbringing and difficult years as a teenager, fortune has quietly shaped her life in unexpected ways.
Born on Halloween – hence her father’s nickname, “Baby Ghoul” – and raised in London, Gillingwater found refuge in music after a difficult adolescence. “I had a really tough time in school from the age of 13 – I was the weird emo kid, I didn’t have a lot of mates,” she recalls. “Music was my way of escaping – my healthy method of coping versus being a teenage delinquent.” Expelled from school at 16, she found a sense of belonging in London’s skateboarding community, spending much of her time between Camden and the South Bank before carving out a career as one of the city’s female skateboard models.
Throughout it all, music remained her constant companion. A voracious listener and multi-instrumentalist, Gillingwater immersed herself in everything from indie, emo and classic rock to jazz and pop, drawing inspiration from artists as diverse as Lana Del Rey, Fleetwood Mac, Metallica, Black Flag and Bobbie Gentry. Before forming Baby Ghoul, she experimented with jazz-influenced trip hop before gravitating towards guitar music, gradually developing the distinctive blend of dream pop, grunge and classic songwriting that now defines the band’s sound.
Recorded at RAK Studios and produced by Malcolm Doherty, Lucky 8 moves between hazy introspection and widescreen, cinematic storytelling. Alongside “Crystal Clear”, the EP features the debut single “Horseshoe”, the Tarantino-inspired “When I Get Low I Get High”, the yearning ballad “Help Me Help You”, and the powerful closing track “Shell of A Gun”, which captures the exhaustion of navigating life as a young woman in a modern city.
Baby Ghoul will play a headline show at London’s Elephant’s Head on 17 September. The performance follows acclaimed appearances at the 100 Club, Below Stone Nest and Lost, while early support from Clash, HERO and Under the Radar has established the band as one of London’s most exciting emerging guitar acts
