Noah Floersch on His Viral Hit, “Ghost of Chicago”
Noah Floersch is going to have to make some new goals. When the 24-year-old artist was setting his intentions for this year, he was hoping to grow his fanbase across social media, but he could not have predicted the effects of a viral TikTok featuring his song “Ghost of Chicago.” The video has been viewed over 8 million times and has gained nearly 2 million likes—making it very clear that Floersch has surpassed this goal.
What’s exciting about Noah is that he is so much more than a viral moment. The artist has an entire catalog of songs that are both well-written and produced. The praise he is receiving for “Ghost of Chicago” is incredibly deserved. If you are one of the few people who hasn’t heard it yet, take a listen now.
“Ghost of Chicago” is out today and Twenty Minutes Later recently had the chance to ask Noah a few questions about the track. Read our interview below.
Photos by Tyler Griffin.
YOU POSTED A CLIP OF “Ghost of Chicago” ON TIKTOK BEFORE IT WAS FINISHED. HOW MUCH OF THE SONG WAS WRITTEN WHEN YOU POSTED THAT CLIP?
I’ll give you a little bit of the backstory behind it. I wrote the song on a Sunday. I was kind of hungover from the night before and I was mad at myself because I hadn’t really done anything all day. I sat down at the piano and was there for maybe three hours with nothing. And then I got that first verse and chorus done and I was like, “This is sick.” I called my roommate down and was like, “Check this out.” He told me to keep going with it. I got the second verse done and then I posted the clip of just that first verse and chorus and after that, I was done writing for the night. On Monday morning, the video was already doing crazy numbers and I still had to write the bridge. And that was a very stressful situation because then it was like, “I’ve now got to write lyrics that hold up to the rest of the song." And I ended up crushing it. I was so worried that it was not going to be very good, but I feel pretty good about it.
THERE MUST HAVE BEEN A TON OF PRESSURE TO FINISH THE SONG QUICKLY. HOW DID YOU DEAL WITH THAT?
There was! Before I even wrote the bridge, we were already structuring the song and trying to find a way to produce it as quickly as possible. We had already made a demo version with a shitty keyboard sound so that there was some type of structure. I came up with the bridge chords on the fly. I thought, “Okay cool. It sounds like it’s moving. It’s fine,” and tossed it into the demo. We were trying to get someone into the studio the next day to record drums and build the song around that. At that point, the bridge didn’t have lyrics, but I had the chords down. I knew I wanted some underlying background vocals in there. At first, I was having them sing “ghost of Chigagoooooo” and hold out the O of Chicago. And that felt a little strange. So, I had them cut the O’s and then it felt really, really good.
ARE YOU INVOLVED ON THE PRODUCTION SIDE AT ALL? WHO WAS WORKING WITH YOU TO PRODUCE THE TRACK?
It’s myself and this guy named Ross Grieb. I’ve been working with Ross since my first release in 2018, which was my sophomore year of college. We live in the same house now along with another artist named Harrison Boe. Ross and I both moved to Nashville from Omaha after we graduated and have been working together for 5 years now. The process is super seamless at this point. How it typically works is I’ll build demos at my workstation and then we’ll both go over to the studio, which is just a couple of rooms over and in our house as well. Our landlady’s ex-husband was a sound engineer, and he built a really nice recording room with a window and everything. For “Ghost of Chicago,” the process was a bit expedited. We were building the demo in the studio so that we could get the drums in and have the bones of the song figured out as quickly as possible.
YOU POSTED THAT YOU HADN’T SLEPT IN TWO DAYS WHILE TRYING TO FINISH THE SONG. WHAT WAS THAT PROCESS LIKE?
We didn’t start recording until midday Monday because both Ross and I had to write that morning. By that afternoon, it was clear that we needed to start working on the song. I had five songs slated to be released this year that were untethered projects and not connected to an EP. All of those have been shelved because this song is connected to an Album. Now we are just pushing up the album, which was a big conversation we had to have. We probably spent four or five hours talking and trying to figure stuff out on Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday we probably spent a full 24 hours between those two days. And then by the end of the day Thursday, we had finished and recorded everything aside from the trumpet, which we outsourced and were just waiting on.
WHAT WAS FUELING YOU THROUGH THE RECORDING PROCESS?
Honestly, I ran out of groceries on either Saturday or Sunday, and I did not have the time or energy to go out and get real food. I was eating Taco Bell and Chick-fil-A, which was probably not helping at all because I felt like shit that whole week. I made a grocery run a few days ago and had a salad and I was seriously like, “I feel so amazing right now.” It was honestly less about food fueling and more about the energy in the room. Ross and I have been working together for five years and neither of us has ever had a moment like this. Just looking at the numbers on TikTok and Spotify and seeing my streams double in a day without the song even being out was really motivating.
WHERE WERE YOU WHEN YOU REALIZED THE SONG HAD GONE VIRAL?
I didn’t sleep Sunday night because I could tell that the song was already doing something. It hadn’t gone crazy yet, but in five hours, it had had maybe 100-200k views and people were already duetting it. Now, every day it’s hitting another crazy milestone.
WHO HAS BEEN THE COOLEST PERSON TO REACT TO THE VIDEO?
Dodie commented on it and said, “Mmmmm, delicious” and I LOVE what she’s up to. She makes incredible art and to get a head nod from someone who I listen to, and respect was a very cool moment. There have also been some cool dead nods from industry folk. There’s a producer named Hazey Eyes who produces for Jeremy Zucker and Chelsea Cutler and that whole crew over at mutual friends and he reached out about the song. There’s been a lot of cool moments.
IF YOU COULD HAVE ANYONE COVER THE SONG WHO WOULD IT BE?
That's a good question. There are a couple of folks that come to mind that I think could do something with it. I love Jon Bellion. I think he’s got a really interesting mind, so if he wanted to flip it or something that would be really cool. I feel like a duet with Lizzy McAlpine could also be cool. There are so many. I could make a huge list.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR?
I have a list on my computer that I wrote out on December 27th. The priority being to make good music. But what I had on that list was 50,000 followers on each platform. My big focus this year was on growing the fan base so that eventually touring would be an option. If you asked me a week and a half ago the end goal would have been trying to play a full band show anywhere outside of Nebraska and Nashville, so audience growth on the internet was a super big priority for me. I’ve already checked the main boxes for that as of a couple of days ago. I think now, I want to play some shows. And I want to get my album recorded. I want to make music that positively influences people. Obviously, sad songs can be cathartic and helpful in that sense. I want to make music that impacts people and songs that people can look back on and remember a specific period of their life. One of the most powerful things about music is its ability to draw you back into a headspace you've been in the past.
HOW DO YOU IMAGINE PEOPLE LISTENING TO THE SONG?
That's funny because so many comments on the video are telling me how I should produce the song and what they want to hear. I kind of had to shut all that out. So many people are like “I can’t wait to cry to this song in bed with just your vocals and piano” and I’m like “That’s not the song!” This song is fun. It’s really, really fun. Yes, there are some sad lyrics going on, but I dance to this song. I am stomping around. There are certain sections of the song that I just imagine are going to be super cool to play live. There are so many melodies that people are going to be able to latch onto and sing back to me. Whenever I write a song, I always think about what it's going to be like to play live. And this one is going to totally rip.
WHAT WOULD BE YOUR DREAM VENUE TO PLAY LIVE?
I don’t know if my music is built for arenas, but then again Ed Sheeran has been selling out arenas with his acoustic guitar so what do I know? I could talk venues all day. The idea of having that many people come and listen to what I have to say is crazy. Obviously, there are the Madison Square Gardens and Hollywood Bowls, but I think what would mean the most to me is going back home and selling out a big arena back in Nebraska or playing the stadium in Lincoln. That’d be sick. That’s a 90,000-cap venue right there!
IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW ABOUT THE TRACK?
I just can't wait for people to hear it. I think there’s been a lot of pressure on this song to build it in particular ways and I know that the way that we built it is the most authentic and I think that is going to translate. There was a concern while we were building it that people would get demoitis and that their ears would just get used to that video and how it sounds. But now that the song is done, I’m not worried about it. People are going to love it.
YOU CAN LISTEN TO “Ghost of Chicago” BY Noah Floersch ON STREAMING SERVICES LIKE SPOTIFY AND APPLE MUSIC. GO LISTEN AND MAKE SURE TO FOLLOW @twentyminuteslater TO STAY UPDATED ON FUTURE POSTS.
