Liam Lloyd is set to release his brand new single and video The Ghost of Buck Hill on July 20th, 2017. You can hear the song before it’s released on LiVE 88.5 today (July 17) at 2:20PM. I recently spoke with Liam about the song.
Buck Hill is a piece of Ottawa Valley folklore. It can be found near Killaloe, Ontario.
According to Liam, “The ghost story of Buck Hill goes back to the depression era. There was a logger who returned home to his family after a few days work during a bad snow storm in the midst of a particularly harsh winter. He told his wife and daughter not to go outside cause the storm was so bad. He told them to stay inside. He went outside to get some wood, and then when he got back, his daughter had left, left the cabin to go look for the dog. She never came back and he never found her. Every night he’d go out looking for her with a lantern. And so the story goes, you can still see the light floating through the woods up there.”
Liam is very familiar with the hill. “We used to go up there as kids. We’d generally just go up and have some drinks and hang out.”
Though Liam has never seen the light with his own eyes, “I’ve talked to people who’ve been up there and seen the light and swear that they’ve actually seen the ghost, with the lantern floating through the woods.”
I asked him if he believed in ghosts. He paused for a moment and answered, “I don’t know, I’m on the fence. I don’t have any cool ghost stories myself. It’s a possibility. I don’t want to rule it out.” With a laugh he added, “I like the stories though.”
He also spoke about his creative process around the song. “It’s really been a labor of love and a labor of frustration. I thought the song was done a year and a half ago. I remember when I was in Spain, I got the master tracks sent to me. I sat on it for a while. I thought maybe it was against my better judgement to open it up again and go back and work on it some more. I’m glad I did.”
Describing the song, Liam added, “This track is definitely a full band sound. I think it’s a unique song and it’s an interesting story. It’s certainly a little bit darker, because of the story. It’s got an earthy organic feel to it.”
Liam worked with Jeremey Kennedy from Studio Six Productions to produce the video. Speaking about their collaboration he said, “Our idea for the video was more or less to document more about how the song was written. This one was neat in that we were actually able to go up to Buck Hill and check out the area and get some shots where the story actually originated. We also got some awesome footage up at my cottage.”
Liam has teamed up with Christie Lake Kids, a local charity that serves economically disadvantaged youth. They provide games and skill building programs at no cost to low income families. They also have a summer camp program.
“A portion of all money from the single will go to the Christie Lake Kids. I’ve never done anything like this before. I’m excited to partner with them,” Liam said.
You can purchase the song for $1 on Bandcamp. Until August 31st at midnight, 50% of all sales will be donated to Christie Lake Kids.
[youtube=https://youtu.be/2oypmGAW_tk]
