Last fall, local indie-punk band Ghost in the Willow gave drivers a refreshing break from the usual run of lawyer billboards along I-10. According to Gil Rodriguez, who started the band as a solo project in 2017, the ads were a way boost its name recognition. He also felt a sense of urgency raise its profile when, in a short span of years, the songwriter lost his parents and a brother, and underwent a kidney transplant. It’s those themes of pain, survival and loss that run through the five-piece’s second full-length album, Still Here.
How are you feeling after your kidney transplant?
The waiting lists are two to five years long, and I didn’t have that kind of time. It was my friends who really stepped forward. One of them was a good match. It’s hard to put into words [the gratitude you feel] when someone literally saves your life like that, especially when it’s a close friend that you’ve known for half your life.
It gives the title Still Here a new resonance, doesn’t it?
It definitely took on a new meaning after the fact. We were recording right up until I got my kidneys taken out. Even while I was in the hospital, we had content going, music videos coming out and singles being released. In the music business, if you pause for any length of time, you lose whatever momentum you have. I didn’t want that to happen.
What inspired the billboards?
It was one of those go-big-or-go-home type things. I have noticed that since the billboards went up, our streams have gone up. Not a lot, but enough to notice. After grinding it out in the last 10-15 years, I was never able to make the right connections. We always kind of fell short in that way. Now there’s a bit more recognition.
– Jason Keil
FASHION
TJ Sport
After drinking wine with friends and talking about how she felt women’s golf apparel was terrible, Tara Ransdell had a lightbulb moment. She and her husband, Jason Ransdell – an avid golfer, like his wife – decided to design their own golf clothing and gear. Both Ransdells are optometrists and had no background in clothing design, so they taught themselves through trial and error.
- Desert Swing racerback top, $80
- TJ Tour Skirt, $85
After a year of autodidactic learning, they were able to put out their first product for their company, TJ Sport, in 2017. “There were a lot of golf companies that had men’s lines that then created a women’s line, but it was really a smaller version of their men’s line,” Ransdell says. They started with hats and T-shirts until they were able to outsource production and expand. Ransdell says their women’s line has done especially well. “I think people were excited to have something that was feminine and fit properly,” she says. Ransdell hopes to establish TJ Sport as a competitor in the national golf apparel market. tjsportusa.com
– Abigail Wilt
