Dave Shears of Strangelands never intended his latest single to be the centerpiece of a film soundtrack—and as far as we know, it still isn’t—but “Sweet Phantom” sounds like an opportunity too good to pass up. In an era when remakes and reboots have become the stuff of blockbuster dreams, “Sweet Phantom” could just open the door to reincarnation for one ’90s gem and maybe more…
In 1990 Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore starred in the Academy Award-winning film Ghost—which, we vaguely recall as being pretty good. More than thirty years later, much like Dirty Dancing. Swayze’s other massive film of the era which was remade in 2017, it’s now probably due for a remake of its own and, when considering the film’s soundtrack, “Sweet Phantom” turned into the Pandora’s Box we couldn’t close once opened.
“It’s got to be the ending scene where Patrick Swayze walks into the light and Demi Moore is crying (I just looked it up),” says Shears as we both struggle to remember the original film and where his new track could potentially fit into it.
“It’s been so long since I’ve seen that movie that I only really remember the pottery wheel scene. Is that the climax of the movie or is 2021 just all for the memes? The only part I really remember is the pottery wheel scene.”
Admittedly, there are some massive shoes to fill, with the Righteous Brothers having provided “Unchained Melody” as the original film’s love theme and a big tear-jerker of an ending that has managed to remain one of the few scenes to stick in the gray matter after three decades. Along with the film’s much-reenacted scene at the pottery wheel, this 1965 hit has been cemented into our cultural consciousness.
Despite the daunting comparisons and aside from its titular merits, “Sweet Phantom” might just fit the bill and certainly comes with the right message.
“It is a breakup song. That strange feeling that you get when someone leaves and everything changes but you still feel the same. The whole sweet phantom idea is an oxymoron. Thinking about the memories hurts and haunts you, but you still miss that sweet person you once knew,” explains Shears.
“There is no actual ghost involved in the song. But in your world, there is because we all know how trying to stay friends with an ex ends. And thus ‘all the love will slowly disappear’.”
The matter of casting, even for a hypothetical remake is, of course, a challenging one. With such iconic performance from Moore and Swayze, it’d be nearly impossible to replace them.
“At first, I thought John Paul Tremblay but that might be a bit on the nose,” jokes Shears about casing the Trailer Park Boys star, often mistaken for Patrick Swayze on the show, and instead offers up both Harry Styles and Eliza Butterworth as two more realistic prospects.
However, there is one less obvious option that bears consideration.
In 2010 the hit TV show Community aired the far more recent and much easier to recall episode “Beginner Pottery,” paying homage—albeit with tongue-in-cheek—to the original film, making reference to, and promptly banning, the act of “ghosting.” It stands out as one of the show’s best episodes. Much like Patrick Swayze’s character (spoiler alert), Community met an untimely demise, failing to live up to its full potential of six seasons and a movie.
So, while it’s probably past due for Ghost to see a remake, we’d preferable like to tick off a few extra boxes; specifically, the one where we would see Donald Glover and Gillian Jacobs fill the parts previously played by Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze, respectively.
“Donald Glover is Simba,” states Shears. “Need we even go further?”
“The real question is who does Chevy Chase play?” asks Shears, tying up a loose end of the Community cast, despite Chase’s character already returning from the dead as a hologram on the show. “That is my entire knowledge of the movie gone. So, maybe they need to just write Chevy Chase in as himself in the remake. Christmas lights don’t put themselves up after all.”
Naturally, Whoopi Goldberg returns to her role in the original film as Whoopi Goldberg plus psychic powers.
Hypothetical crossover film remake aside, Strangelands has it own crossover moment by tapping MusicNL 2020 Pop Artist of the Year Rachel Cousins and Toronto-based rapper Presidris.
“I’ve always wanted to work with Rachel since this project started,” says Shear who says that he first hear Cousins in after she had put out her 2019 single “Dangerous Love.”
“I was all about it. Usually, I write music and then look for artists who will fit with the song. This song I specifically wrote to pitch to her. She has incredible control over her voice, and we have a ton of musical tastes in common. It just always made sense to me to collaborate on something with her.”
After putting the rest of “Sweet Phantom” together, it was just a matter of putting on the final touches and tweaking a few cars; a process that ended up taking Shears weeks before coming across Presidris.
“I had a Quavo type of vocalist in mind, something heavy on autotune. Just started searching on Instagram for a Canadian artist who fit that vibe,” says Shears. “I came across Presidris and he has some serious bangers online like ‘For Real’ and ’12am in Toronto.'”
Presidris delivered in a single shot. As Shears notes, what was sent after their conversation on Instagram is exactly what you hear on the track.
“It’s funny because we’ve never met, never chatted on the phone or even had a virtual meeting. Just a few back and forth messages on Instagram and it was done,” says Shears.
“The best part of all: when I was writing up the press release for the song I had to message him and get a bio because I realized that I only knew him as Presidris and didn’t actually know what his name was (which is AJ it turns out). If you search #hiphopcanada on Instagram you really never know what will pop up. It’s the wild wild west.”
Donald Glover was not available for comment.