SAVNT: The Soulful Rock Voice of Ghost Hounds

Music Matters with Darrell Craig Harris

In this episode of Music Matters with Darrell Craig Harris, host Darrell sits down with SAVNT, the soulful lead vocalist of blues-rock band Ghost Hounds. The conversation dives

Key takeaways

• SAVNT's voice is shaped by a diverse musical upbringing that includes R&B, soul, country, folk, and rock influences from artists like Lenny Kravitz, Tracy Chapman, Dolly Parton, and Patty Griffin.

Main topics

• Musical identity and genre fusion
• Artistic growth and self-discovery

Notable quotes

"You can't wash the soul off of me. You know what I'm saying? So it's all of the things."

Conclusion

SAVNT's journey exemplifies how authenticity, perseverance, and a rich musical heritage can fuel

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Welcome Speaker 2 (0:09) to Music Matters Podcast with Daryl Craig Harris. Join us as he explores all things music, bringing you exclusive conversations with Grammy winners, industry insiders, and some of the most exciting new indie artists breaking onto the scene. Speaker 3 (0:36) Savant from the ghost towns. How you doing today? Speaker 1 (0:39) I'm doing good. How are you? Speaker 3 (0:41) Good. I'm really good. You're looking sharp here and you're on the road right now too, right? I Speaker 1 (0:44) am on the road right now. I'm good. And first of all, that was him from gym. So I thought I looked super sweaty. Speaker 3 (0:49) Oh, no, no, no. You're glowing. We say glowing. That's funny. Yeah. Awesome. So Speaker 1 (0:54) where are you right now? I'm in New York right now. We have a couple of shows lined up, so I'm excited. Yeah. Speaker 3 (1:01) Cool. Yeah. And you guys have a lot going on. So you have a new single that came out on July 23rd, which is still pretty new, called Something Wicked, which is badass. And I love your voice. I love what you guys do. I'll start with that. And you also have a new album that just came out August 21st, and that is Justified. Really interesting music. Like, I would kind of say like Americana, rock, blues, it's all kind of a mix. And you have such a cool voice. Speaker 1 (1:26) Thank you. But it's exactly that. It's really, I say it's American roots music. It's just storytelling at its finest, I would say. And so it is a little bit of blues. It's a little bit of rock. It's a little bit of country. But I always say you can't wash the soul off of me. You know what I'm saying? So it's all of the things. It's all of the things. And whatever the song wants is what we put on it. Speaker 3 (1:47) Yeah, it's your special sauce, your funky soul sauce, which is awesome. The band started, I think their debut album was Roses Are Black, which that was 2019. When did you join the band? Because you joined a little bit after that, right? Speaker 1 (2:01) Yep, I joined on the 1st of January of 2024. Super excited about that. I always say the date because it was so intentional for me. I was like... in this space uh maybe a couple of months prior where i just didn't know what was happening for for me with music and i just started to be like all right you know what i'm just gonna be grateful i'm just to say like stefan is grateful because that's my actual name right stefan is grateful that he starts his full-time career january 1st 2024 i wrote that down every night for like 90 nights right and it just so happened that the previous leader of the band, was at a show of mine. He made the call, and he was like, guys, I got the guy. Speaker 3 (2:51) Wow, that's awesome. Speaker 1 (2:52) Literally January 1st, 2024, I was flown out to Pittsburgh to meet the band. Speaker 3 (2:57) Yeah, and this band has accomplished a lot. I mean, they've opened for the Stones. They've opened for a lot of really well-known bands. Were you there for that, or has that been before you? Yeah, yeah, Speaker 1 (3:06) I was there for the Stones, for sure. Wow, tell me about that. That was an incredible... incredible experience and i think that's almost using the word incredible is almost a understatement like i feel like it's such a generic yeah Speaker 3 (3:18) it's like it's a life-changing thing right Speaker 1 (3:20) right i was the way that i truly felt was like this is the dreams that nine-year-old savannah you know i mean i'm at him and i'm able to actually live that like when i was just doing soundcheck i was like Speaker 2 (3:33) I get to do this? It's a roll like so. Speaker 3 (3:37) As Speaker 1 (3:37) soon as the crowd came in, I was like, yeah, I'm doing this for the rest of my life. Speaker 3 (3:41) Yeah. You know, like, so you have such a cool voice. And like I said, it's soulful, but it's also rock. And I think we've known some great, awesome black rock singers. Corey Glover comes to mind, you know, that. But since then, there's been a lot of killer ones. Seven Dust, he's a killer singer. Who were you listening to as a young? young singer, young aspiring musician who was inspiring you? Speaker 1 (4:07) So, I mean, other than Lenny Kravitz. Speaker 3 (4:09) Right. Well, yeah, right. You can't leave him out. I Speaker 1 (4:13) would always say that I was so influenced by so many different styles of music, which is why I'm so grateful that being a part of Ghost Hounds, I don't have to choose, right? Speaker 2 (4:25) I Speaker 1 (4:25) feel like within the industry, they try