Noah Gundersen Wrestles With Uncertainty on ‘Carry the Ghost’
By Mike Ayers | August 17, 2015



On Noah Gundersen’s second album “Carry the Ghost,” the 25-year-old singer-songwriter turned to Neil Young’s “Tonight’s the Night” for inspiration.

“There’s this real ragged edge to that [Neil Young album], like everything’s going to fall apart,” Gundersen told Speakeasy from his home in Seattle, Wash. “I wouldn’t say my record is anywhere near as extreme as that, but we wanted to capture a sense of uncertainty – and have this sonic, raw edge to it.”

“You’re told that there’s a wrong and a right way to live,” he says of his upbringing. “If you live a certain way, you’ll have positive or negative repercussions from living that way. “[This album is] the internal wild-west of being in my 20s.”

These ideas are brought forth from the beginning, especially with the acoustic number “Selfish Art,” where he wrestles with sincerity, and “Empty From the Start,” where he declares “I think God is gone away/If he was ever there anyway/‘Cause anyone that tells you they were born good is lying.”

Gundersen also writes about a lost love on tracks like the mid-tempo ballad “Show Me the Light” and the intimate “I Need a Woman.” He’s mum about whom these songs are about, but says the introspective love numbers are about a particular person in his past.

Gundersen toured heavily in support of his 2014 debut “Ledges,” but was writing “Carry the Ghost” songs during his time on the road. He utilized his band to help him flesh out the songs in the studio, whereas on his first album, he mainly recorded all the parts.

The main thing he’s hoping he can accomplish this time around has nothing to do with the recording process and everything to do with letting go. “I made up my mind that I wasn’t going to base my own self-worth on how people are going to respond to it,” he says.

“Carry the Ghost” is out Aug. 21 on Dualtone.