asphyxia

carved into my arm

no one finds me here

amphigouri

“One time I took acid on Halloween with some friends and we went walking in the forest. Somehow I got separated from the group and had no idea where I was. I wandered all alone in the dark, lost in the forest for hours and hours. Eventually I came upon an open field with an amazing view of the October sky. I sat in the grass alone that night and had a long conversation with the moon. And that's when I started writing songs.” -John Spinelli

Ghost in the Addict is a band started in 2009 by John Spinelli near Seattle, Washington. As it's sole singer and multi-instrumentalist, Spinelli is the band's only official member. Spinelli writes, arranges, and performs all of Ghost in the Addict's material. The band's sound has been described as a mix of genres, including: alternative, experimental, ambient, industrial, goth, electronica, darkwave, and rock.

John Spinelli grew up the son of a Pentecostal minister in a small-town in rural Missouri where he was forced to play the drums in church with the adult musicians at the age of 12. Often Spinelli, who was very shy, would fake panic attacks and lock himself in the church bathroom to avoid performing in front of the crowds of church-goers. Although his parents forbid him to listen to non-Christian music, at age 14 he discovered The Cure, Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins and other bands which inspired him to create music.

"Music was always an emotional and scary love-affair of mine. It was the only thing that made life tolerable when I was a teenager and I wasn't allowed to listen to it. I had to hide all my albums from my parents and listen to them in secret. They threw away my CDs because they thought they were evil. I would just get more albums and hide them underneath the basement stairs. Music was the one thing I wouldn't let anyone take away from me."

He taught himself the guitar and soon he was playing piano, guitar, bass, drums, and doing sequencer programming. As soon as he could, Spinelli left Missouri to pursue his musical interests near Seattle, Washington. After attempted collaborations with other musicians, Spinelli began making music on his own as Ghost in the Addict in 2009. "I always hated group projects in school" he recalls, "I would rather do everything myself."

Ghost in the Addict's 11-song debut album Wishblister was recorded by Spinelli alone in his bedroom and self-released on October 31, 2010.

Ghost in the Addict's 16-song second album Milkless was released independently on January 11, 2014. Spinelli was unhappy with the result and remixed the entire album himself. Milkless ("as it was meant to sound" he said) was re-released independently on July 11, 2014.

ghost in the addict