Out of Augusta comes the unique, psychedelic duo of Eric Kinlaw and Marcus Barfield.
While many of Augusta’s finest talent lean into playing a more traditional variety of musical genres, Kinlaw and Barfield create sounds that blend the traditional and more avant-garde aspects of their favorite music, embodying the essence of experimental music under the name forceghost (with a lowercase “f”).
forceghost came about through the friendship and musical journeys of its two members, with Barfield’s beginning with a heavy interest in hair metal guitar music. This prompted his family to gift him a guitar at age 16.
“I got much more into jazz right after getting the instrument and trying to decipher it,” said Barfield. “I realized that jazz musicians really knew what they were doing.”
His interest in jazz motivated him to play in his high school jazz band and later in the Augusta University jazz ensemble during his time there as a student. Barfield also played in a number of rock bands around Augusta, including Nervous Boy, which gained notable popularity in the late 1990s.
Kinlaw’s interest in music stemmed from his father’s musicianship, beginning with clarinet in his middle school band. Throughout high school Kinlaw became a multi-instrumentalist, picking up saxophone, bass guitar and guitar. It was during this time that he co-formed the rock band Death Star, for which he sang and played guitar.
In 1998, Kinlaw graduated from Augusta University with a bachelor’s degree in music performance. After years of running his restaurants the Bee’s Knees and the Hive, Kinlaw took an interest in composition.
“I was getting burnt out running a restaurant, and since I hadn’t been doing anything musically at the time, I wanted to get back into it,” said Kinlaw.
By 2019, he had written over 300 songs. The same year, he assembled a band with Chris Carrick on drums and Barfield on bass guitar, whom he had been close friends with for nearly thirty years. This band became forceghost, performing many of Kinlaw’s original compositions. However, the pandemic quickly put a halt to their performances.
In 2021, Kinlaw and Barfield got back together to collaborate on new material. Given their mutual respect and admiration for each other’s talent, it had been a long time coming.
This time, forceghost would feature Kinlaw’s instrumentation and vocals with Barfield handling mixing and sound design. The duo’s original music would become entirely collaborative, with Barfield establishing a progression and Kinlaw providing melody and lyricism.
“I’ve taken an interest in synthesizers and forceghost is a way I get to learn and capitalize on what they can do,” said Barfield. “The process allows me to take what I come up with and turn them into songs.”
With influences across many genres such as electronic, jazz fusion, and pop, their music proves to be a product with many different sounds. However, the process has shown to be equally important. It is a system in which one of them will take a piece of music, work with it, and then pass it to the other to fill in the gaps. The project has allowed Kinlaw and Barfield to highlight their strengths and cover their weaknesses.
“It’s kind of like a postal service,” added Kinlaw. “We pass a piece of music back and forth until it forms into a finished song.”
The music of forceghost can be categorized as psychedelic experimental indie-rock but with much of its instrumentation being electronic. Their single “triangles” is an excellent preview into their upcoming catalog, containing the wave-like synthesized tones that create the foundation of the music. “triangles” contains a battle between multiple varying electronic sounds that work to back Kinlaw’s gentle vocals, creating a unique contrast throughout the song’s duration.
“I love playing out, but it’s the creation that’s really driving this band,” said Barfield. “Composing, arranging, and recording is every day for forceghost.”
Lyrically, “triangles” touches on the topic of loss, hardship, and the process of pushing forward, which is the underlying theme of their upcoming album “unknowing the known,” which is set to come out in January of next year.
“I’ve had a lot of loss over the past few years,” said Kinlaw. “This release is definitely about dealing and overcoming that loss. unknowing the known is about forgetting what you know and relearning it.”
The album has been a year in the making, undergoing much experimentation and improvements with Barfield and Kinslaw continuing to grow into their sound and equipment. While recorded in Kinslaw’s home studio, the album was mixed in Noel Brown’s studio the Rainbow Cave in Atlanta and mastered at Chase Park Transduction in Athens.
“We’re not letting these songs go until we really feel right about them, and that’s been a great feeling,” said Barfield.
Until the eventual release of “unknowing the known,” forceghost will release two more singles this year, starting with “birdies.” With their abundance of recorded material, the duo also plans to release another album later next year.
Their single “triangles,” along with their upcoming releases, can be found on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube music, and at forceghostmusic.com. The music video for “triangles” can be found on their YouTube channel.
