Pullin’ ‘Tubes: School Of Seven Bells Tell Ghostorys

In the early part of the aughts The Secret Machines, with their psychedelic hard-rock sounds, seemed poised to become the next big thing. Then in 2007, after the release of two studio albums and a couple of EPs, their guitarist Benjamin Curtis decided to part ways with the band, which included his brother Brandon, in order to form a new group with the identical twin sister tandem of Alejandra and Claudia Deheza of On!Air!Library! The trio met when their respective bands were on tour together opening for Interpol. Curtis and the Dehezas decided to leave their previous bands behind them to form a new group they dubbed School Of Seven Bells. The band, who’s named after a mythical South American pickpocket training academy, lived and recorded together in a shared space, releasing their first album of ethereal, shoegaze-influenced dream pop back  in 2008.

Last week School Of Seven Bells dropped their third studio album, Ghostory, via Vagrant Records. Ghostory is the group’s first without founding member Claudia Deheza, who left the band for personal reasons in 2010. The record is a thematic song cycle telling the tale of a young girl named Lafaye and the ghosts that surround her life. The band, which is now down to a duo, will kick off their world tour in support of the new LP on March 8 at The Garage in London, but prior to all that they released the haunting music video for the record’s first single, Lafaye. Here’s what they came up with…