GHOSTS OF PASHA
Ghosts of Pasha began with the decades-long friendship of Milo Finch (Drums, Vocals, Keyboards, Guitar, Bass, Production) and Chris Partyka (Guitar, Vocals, Clarinet, Bass, Histrionics) and their preoccupation with DIY recording.
After many years of being in bands of all kinds, touring or just home recording, Chris took a break from repeatedly hopping between different American cities and decided to set up shop with Milo in Vermont.
The next step was well over 200 recorded songs, accidental fame, a few tours, and a large legacy of wildly varying musical aesthetics woven through with stories of travel, connections, fun, and, you know, flailing about as we all do.
Lineups and sounds of the band changed so much so quickly since the very beginning that the folks in GOP have never felt a need to make the same song twice, let alone the same DIY album.
Covered in the Pasha catalog are space-rock, lo-fi 4 track and noise rock influences, to modern rock, jangle pop, power pop, woodwind-soaked basement humor, invented words and A celebration of life as art.
Multiple hard drives full of archived video footage has captured 3 lead singers, near countless instruments and a revolving door band member policy, creating a listener experience that can make one want to check if they are still hearing the same band.
Since its infamous beginnings, the group has toured the US, has performed/been interviewed on two television programs, has been featured in major magazines & news papers, in commercials on cable and network TV, on popular webisodes, on internet and conventional radio in the US, the UK, and France, mentioned in countless blogs and even name-checked on L.A. gossip websites. All this without management, distribution, funding, or help of a label, all with a rampant DIY philosophy, and all from their rural home base in Vermont.
Chris Partyka had been looking for a place to live. He had alternately uprooted and saved money to travel again multiple times..California for 6 months then stay with parents working and saving money..Ohio for a year then parents/ save money..Florida, etc......ad nauseam.
During his time traveling he had kept in contact with Milo Finch, sending emails here and there with cryptic messages about strange experiences, which will be left to the imagination in this writing.
Growing tired of this rinse repeat lifestyle, he decided he would try and Live and work near his New Jersey nuclear family. He emailed Milo and told him he was thinking of moving into a place in his Family’s area, Milo offered an alternative:
A roommate was moving out of his Vermont house soon and his old room would be opening up. Why not move one more time, check out Vermont and then if it wasn’t for him, finally “settle in Jersey”? Sure, he thought. He had taken a two day trip to Milo’s Vermont home before and though he found it cold staying overnight, it seemed like a good place to create. He would take a chance and then a train to Vermont.
His first few months there were awkward to say the least, he was used to spring being warm or at least cool and definitely mostly dry. This new place was cold, wet and dark during the spring. He was having a lot of fun though, and stuck it out.
Milo owned a coffee shop in town and was connected to local musicians and enjoyed some nice DIY buzz in town.
As Chris’s first winter approached he recorded with Milo and the two thought about putting together a live band to earn some money, as both had found themselves without work for a period of time.
For some reason, a band name was more important to them than finding the right musicians to make a local live band work. Some early floated band name ideas were The Toilet Girls, Aggro Beta and BitchFace. Obviously these name didn’t stick.
Around this time the pair had talked about how they felt like Ghosts in their lives at times, present but not really there.
Also around this time, Chris’s grandmother had died. His grandmother had lived a great life and left his family with fond memories. One of these cherished family memories was A nickname he and his younger brothers had been called by their Grandma when they were behaving like lazy but loved children. If a kid brother had been laying on the couch all day instead of helping with chores around the house, Grandma would say something (calmly and with sweet love) to the effect of “Chriiiiis, why don’t you help your mother instead of just laying there like a Pasha.”
When Grandma Partyka died she left a great legacy that lives to this day. Why not also honor that legacy by honoring one of lovely memories by using the word “Pasha” in the new band name? ..the band name “Ghosts of Pasha” was Born.
“Why not honor that legacy and that lovely memory by using the word pasha in the band name?”