Single Premiere: Emily Haavik, “If I Were a Ghost”
The rising Americana star follows up her breakthrough album Wingspan with a new single. Hear it first here!
Emily Haavik. Photo credit: Michelle Bennett / Wolfskull Creative.
With her 2024 album Wingspan, Emily Haavik cemented her status as one of the most skilled and engaging songwriters on the Twin Cities Americana scene. In addition to garnering praise from local press, Haavik snagged nominations for two 2024 Midwest Country Music Awards (Album of the Year and Songwriter of the Year).
Now, Haavik is following up Wingspan’s success with a new single. “If I Were a Ghost” drops this Friday, April 4, and she’ll celebrate at Icehouse in Minneapolis that night. We’re honored to provide an early listen to the new single today!
Emily Haavik’s “If I Were a Ghost” single artwork.
“If I Were a Ghost” takes the premise suggested in the title and presents haunting as a cozy, loving notion, a comforting way to ensure we'll never abandon our loved ones even after we die. It resonates with the nearly universal instinct in humans to bolster ourselves with the memory of the people who loved us, and to believe (or at least wish) that they’re still with us in some form.
It also tackles one of the main reasons we dread our own death. “I wrote this song to confront my fear of passing away and leaving my husband and young son behind,” Haavik says. “I thought of all the ways I would continue to care for them from beyond, if given the chance. It gave me peace to imagine my love following them around, watching over them after I'm gone.”
As always, Haavik’s lyricism is pitch perfect—she knows how to sprinkle just the right amount of metaphor into straightforward descriptions to paint scenes the listener can instantly visualize:
I’d stay out there for hours on the chance to see you passing
With the morning in your eyes
And the day stretched out before you
And the world on your chest
And your chin up like a soldier
The track’s fluid instrumentals—just guitar and piano (both by Dave Mehling)—ripple and flow behind Haavik’s distinctive vocals as she explores the many ways we might wish that the dead could be there for the living, from childhood to old age, and from the gently humorous (“If I were a ghost I’d help you find your glasses when you lost them”) to the profound:
When you found yourself afraid that you could not do this alone
I would come to you with strength
You would feel me in your bones
“If I Were a Ghost” is the complete package—catchy and listenable, simple yet profound, bittersweet but ultimately uplifting. Emily Haavik once again emphatically proves why she’s a Minnesota artist to watch.
Listen to “If I Were a Ghost”!
Join Haavik for a double single release with Maria and the Coins at Icehouse in Minneapolis this Friday, April 4, 2025! Tickets are $20 in advance and $27 at the door. Doors open at 6pm and the music starts at 8.
“If I Were a Ghost” Song Credits
Written by Emily Haavik
Recorded & Mixed by Dave Mehling at Salon Sonics
Mastered by Jason McGlone
Emily Haavik - vocals
Dave Mehling - guitars, piano
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Carol Roth. Photo credit: Dan Lee.
Adventures in Americana co-founder Carol Roth is a novelist who publishes both under her name and the pseudonym T.A. Berkeley in a range of genres, from horror to thriller to YA. She loves to play guitar, sing and occasionally write songs. Her wide-ranging passions also include vegan cooking, personal finance, watching queer romance TV/movies and learning to speak Thai. By day she’s a marketing writer/brand strategist.
