On Sunday, May 4, 2025 I got to hang out with the members of Colorado Springs-based Ghost Tail and St. Louis-based Dear Genre at Bar 404 in Denver.
Bar 404 has lately become more focused on local music and is quickly becoming one of my favorite places to go for local music. Bar 404 is the home of May Be Fern’s Four O’Fern monthly artist showcase and has become the latest place to host Indie 102.3’s monthly 303 local music meetup. This emo-centric, slightly Star Wars-related “Taking Back Tattooine” show featured Dear Genre and local bands Alive At Nine, Ghost Tail and HOWRU?.
Before the show I got to go to the basement green room and spend 15 minutes interviewing André Cataldo who is Dear Genre.
André met up with Ghost Tail when Ghost Tail played in St. Louis, Missouri. They became friends and invited André to Colorado to get to know our music scene by playing shows at Vulture’s in Colorado Springs and Bar 404 in Denver.
The name Dear Genre is intended to give people pause. A goal of the project is to be genre-less which allows André the opportunity to play any style of music with any number of instruments. André wants audiences to experience Dear Genre like we would experience art at a museum and let us experience our own interpretations of the music.
A Dear Genre set can either be a one-man show with André and his guitar or include up to 5 other musicians for the full effect. Bar 404 got to experience Dear Genre as a one-man show that highlighted André’s ease and ability to interact with the audience. The Dear Genre music we find on the internet is all written, produced and played by André and he depends on session musicians to help out with live shows.
Since this site is focused on Colorado music, I asked André about the St. Louis music scene. He described it as a close, tight-knit, eclectic scene with a lot of hardcore and emo. That music scene includes helpful champions like the River Front Times and Dave Harris who used to host the St. Louis Music Underground show on STLPR which still produces shows to highlight local music like “On The Air”.
You can hear more of Dear Genre’s songs on Spotify and follow the project on Instagram at deargenre.
I also got to sit and talk for 15 minutes with Ghost Tail members Brittany (rhythm guitar), Jordan (vocals), Felipe (drums) and Zach (bass)! Ben (lead guitar) was also at the show.
Brittany, Zach and Ben were members of Aughter which was also based in Colorado Springs and they met Jordan and Felipe through the musician-meeting app, Vampr. Jordan hit it off with the band after meeting the band for the first time and, despite his girlfiend’s warnings, going into the basement with strangers to make music. This seemed apropos since we were doing the interview in the basement green room at Bar 404.
Ghost Tail’s first EP was recorded with help from Rich at the Ghosthouse studio in Denver. The EP is called “Villain Era” and contains darker lyrics that give the feel of coming out of the darkness. Brittany and Ben primarily write the rhythm and melodies with Jordan providing the lyrics. Ghost Tail takes pride in their lyrics that talk directly about substance abuse and mental health. They want people to know they’re not alone and to give voice to it.
Ghost Tail is planning on spending 2025 working on their next EP then recording an “acoustic” version of their Villain Era EP. You can hear more of Ghost Tail on Spotify and keep up with the band on Instagram by following ghost.tail.band.