Interview: Dan Ferguson draws upon a ‘Carnival of Souls’ spookiness for new video

There’s a poetic sadness tucked away inside Herk Harvey’s Carnival of Souls. When Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss) crashes off a bridge, she reemerges in a daze. Unscathed, she continues about her daily life and takes a new organist job a few towns over. While she’s physically unharmed, her mental state deteriorates as she descends into paranoia. The film’s ghost-like trance is inescapable; the viewer is as hypnotized as Mary Henry, left to wander through its spooky, darkened hallways into the human consciousness. Such is the experience in listening to Dan Ferguson‘s new single “The Amusement Park,” his debut for Rodeo Records. The first stanza is as eerie as it is earnest. “The amusement park is open everyday / You can wander through its streets and lose your way,” he sings, his lonesome heart stitched and jagged. “You can occupy yourself for many years / Forget about your worries and fears.”

While Ferguson had never seen the film, the song happened to spring from the same profoundly melancholic roots. Strangely, producer Rodeo Jones had only recently seen the picture a week before. After sending Jones the finished song, Jones then suggested he give the film a watch. “The similarities are undeniable, and it influenced a lot of the creative decisions from then on,” he tells B-Sides & Badlands, noting the music video specifically. “The secular organ player who plays in churches simply for paid work is quite revealing. Being held captive by our own pleasures and external stimuli is a frightening thought. I think a lot of horror is based on the realization that things weren’t the way you thought they were.”

A solemn heaviness seeps from the recording, as though phantoms are poking through the static. “Years can feel like days inside this place / The outside world moves at a different pace,” his words are forged in hot iron. When they touch the eardrums, they crackle sparks deeper into the brain. It’s weariness is part of its charm, that’s to be sure. “I love how it plods along and has fair amount of repetition. The slightly out of tune instruments adds a creepiness,” says Ferguson. “A bit of an odd statement, but i find it really satisfying that it doesn’t really go anywhere (e.g. build up to big finish). This echoes the story of the song; more specifically, the same events that happen over and over described in the lyrics.”

In working with Jones, whom he met in a London bar, Ferguson nurtured his full potential and now blossoms into the artist he was destined to become. “His huge knowledge of country music (amongst plenty of other things) has inspired me and pushed me deeper into this world,” observes Ferguson of the collaboration. “His production has elevated the songs to a surprising level. He’s solid gold!”

Keep your eyes on Dan Ferguson. He’s the kind of artist that’ll give the country scene a good ole fashion shakeup. Below, the singer-songwriter describes his biggest fear, horror movies, and addressing things in his personal life.

How did you come to use the metaphor for the amusement park?

I honestly don’t know for certain. I think it’s effective because it can be read in a variety of ways. Maybe it successfully married up a a few different things that I was experiencing under a single banner.

You have the lyric: “Forget about your worries and your fears.” It got me thinking about how we all have things in our lives to distract us from the darkest sides of life. Did you come to realize you were forgetting to address things in your life?

I think vibrant surface layers that mask more sinister truths are a hugely decisive factor in our culture. This even reflects our own levels of consciousness to some degree. I think it’s common sense that compliance can be engineered by diverting ones attention. Intoxicating substances are socially accepted. Alcohol shuts down your front brain so only the more basic signals get through.

What is your biggest fear?

I’ve gone through a few different phases, I suppose. Wasting my life to an addiction might be top of the list at the moment. I’ve been watching a lot of videos from the YouTube channel ‘soft white underbelly’ which has probably fed on this.

Did you find the last few years really exacerbated your own worries and fears in a way you didn’t expect?

Yes, external factors that are out of my control still weigh heavily. However, they’ve provided an opportunity to adapt, learn, grow etc. Mary Oliver has a poem:

Someone I loved once gave me
a box full of darkness.

It took me years to understand
that this, too, was a gift.

Speaking on a personal level, a lot of good things have resulted from what I originally viewed as bad things. Blessings in disguise, I suppose. It highlights the importance of a having good mindset.

Do you watch a lot of horror? Any favorites?

Its not my go-to genre but I do watch them. I’m a big David Lynch fan who frequently uses horror elements. ‘Twin Peaks: The Return’ could be seen as a horror, perhaps? I watched the original ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ for the first time recently. I found it to be a really entertaining film but not very scary. Stylistically, I can see why it was a cult hit at the time. The set designs were my favorite part.

As your debut single with Rodeo Records, is this the lead single fo a forthcoming record?

There’s definitely plenty more exciting ideas and projects in the pipeline. How it all materializes is still to be confirmed.

Follow Ferguson on his socials: Facebook