David Lee Crow, DJ, producer, and general EDM enthusiast. More commonly known as Ghastly, he specializes in a provocative blend of house, trap, and dubstep that invokes names like Dillon Francis, Borgore, Zomboy, and Skrillex. Raised on a goat farm in Arizona, Crow initially flirted with metal before finding his muse in the pulsating lights and soul-shaking bass of electronic dance music. After relocating to Venice Beach and living out of his van West Coast hobo style, Crow found work (as well as his stage name) as Bassrush Resident DJ at Exchange L.A., while also securing a bevy of singles on labels such as OWSLA, Buygore, and Dim Mak, including “Miami Connection” with Jauz and “Crank It” with Mija & Lil Jon.
We got the opportunity to sit down with Ghastly right before his gig at House of Medici, Pune.
Check out the Interview below:
EDMLI – This is your first time In India. You’ve toured alot around the world and have played at EDC Vegas also. What do you think of the Indian Crowd ?
David – Oh Amazing! It’s been awesome. Yeah usually when you see people dressed in button ups because the last show In Mumbai the crowd beared the Clean Aesthetic and you usually don’t expect the crowd to go like full crazy with the Headbanging and all but people were going crazy with full on Mosh pits. I just loved it.
EDMLI – You’ve had the opportunity to release music on chart topping labels such as OWSLA, Buygore and Dim Mak to name a few. Tell us a bit about your first release on Buygore with Sullivan King “Kill It With Fire”. What drew the Inspiration behind the Track and How did you go about contacting Sullivan King ?
David – He and I came into contact because of a mutual friend “Static Revenger”. We both just automatically clicked as he and i shared the same passion for Metal Music & Dance Music. It was an easy combination between him and i because we both loved the same thing and naturally wanna make a track together and it came out a lot different than we expected and we were really happy with it.
EDMLI – Give us more insight about your latest release with Matthew Koma titled “We Might Fall”. You’ve diverted from your original sound with this one so how did you come about writing this track?
David – Well it started as a remix of a Jimmy Ewol Song. But he wasn’t too stoked about a dubstep version of his song and they made me take it down. I was really bummed out, Usually when an artist does a reinterpretation of another artist’s song it’s supposed to be a compliment. They weren’t down so i went back to the drawing board on it the next day.
Matthew Koma hit me up a few weeks later saying ‘I’d like to do a song with you’ and i said Nice Timing Bro! So i sent him the instrumental and he loved it. The vocals he put on it were so were so good that i decided to re write the entire track around his vocals and made it more melodic & beautiful. Whereas it used to have a dubstep drop i replaced it with the drop that’s there now and i wouldn’t even consider it as a drop rather as an expression of what the lyrics are saying. It was also a step forward into a world of production that I’ve always wanted to do and you can’t just jump from one extreme to the other that quickly but it has to be a slow progression into it. I feel it was the perfect timing for it and it came out just right.
EDMLI – 2017 has been crazy for you with the NGHTMRE collab and a single with Matthew Koma, and to top it all off the beast of a remix to Zomboy’s infamous Lights Out. What more can we expect from the better part of this year ?
David – I’m just gonna keep writing as much music as possible. I’m doing segments where i’m touring non stop and then i take 2 weeks off and then just write write and then just do that again. I really want to write a Full EP and then after that an Album. Right now I’m working on the EP and then i have a couple of singles and some remixes to fill in the gap while people are waiting for it.
EDMLI – You’ve successfully created hybrid blends of house, trap and dubstep in your music. How did you come about creating something so unique and can we expect you to drop an EP soon?
David – Not sure Exactly When it’ll come out. But I’m hoping for December.
EDMLI – You entered the music scene with the Metal Band “The Irish Front”, Did you see the sounds to be similar when you were making your initial move to electronic music? Do you draw some inspiration from your current music and the metal influence?
David – Oh yeah! The power of metal music is the tension and release. There’s always this big buildup and then it breaks down into this heavy part of the song. Just like Dance Music, Just like Dubstep Just like any song. All the way back to Beethoven and stuff. It was a lot of tension and then crescendo. I definitely have drawn alot of inspiration from just that field in my music because it’s all about bringing people up and then giving them a story that leads to the big reveal.
EDMLI – Who do you think are the most diverse producers coming up in the scene right now? Musically, Who are your biggest inspirations and why?
David – I really like Herobust, JAUZ, Slushii is Crushing it. Along with Marshmello to Ookay.Ookay is really diverse, I love the fact that he can go from making Trap to Dubstep to Like Saxophone Music. Musically speaking, Life is my biggest Inspiration because Life is where i draw all the ideas about songs. It takes certain times and places and events for me to get ideas. Alot of people say ‘Don’t You draw inspiration from other artists’ Yes i do appreciate other artist’s music but i don’t want my music to sound like theirs. I’ve never wanted to write music that was already written. I’ve always wanted to write something which I’ve never heard before.
EDMLI – Do you regret getting the Rosie O Donnell Tattoo ? You should’ve put 50k RTs.!!
David – I should’ve put 50k for Sure (Laughing). I mean i hadn’t slept for like 2 days and i had left the Airport and I was on the way home and for some reason i decided to make that tweet. I honestly if you ask me now why i did it i couldn’t tell you exactly why but i did it. So it hit 10k RTs and I’m a man of my word and i had to go and do it.
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