The Mojo of Music featuring A Sunken Ship Irony
If you’re going to have any conversation about how fashion intersects with music, it’s as good a place as ever to start with Minneapolis synth-laced indie punk-folk band A Sunken Ship Irony. Fashion is an extension of their artistic identity. With a distinctive black-and-white aesthetic, symbolic floral crowns, and a stage presence that fuses life and death, the band’s look tells a story just as vividly as their music. Their iconic haunted forest set that involves antlers, bones, flowers, and ghosts, and building to the conclusion that the term “mojo” is faithfully tattooed in every aspect of their music.
A Sunken Ship Irony has already compiled a collage of music projects starting from 2004, and like tracks to an X on a map, have led to a more focused sound and aesthetic. For frontman Josh Wirtanen, the journey into personal style started as a rebellion against small-town conservatism. As a teenager, his slayer punk attire - complete with spikes, bracelets, a chain that would lock around his neck with an actual padlock, and neon-dyed hair - was a deliberate departure from the norm.
(L-R) Mia, Hayley, Josh, Morgan, Ivy, Michelle
“My parents were very concerned. I mellowed out as I got older, but in the past couple years have been a lot more intentional about what I wear. I’ve realized how creatively empowering it is to develop your own look and wear it out to see how people respond,” shares Josh.
The cast of A Sunken Ship Irony has changed over the years, but the current lineup of Josh, Morgan, Ivy, Hayley, Michelle, and Mia bring their own twist to the band’s established aesthetic. The black-and-white color scheme serves as a visual metaphor for life and death, a theme that has infiltrated their music ever since Josh’s near-death experience following a kidney cancer diagnosis in 2021.
Josh had surgery right before Christmas that year. It was supposed to be a simple in-and-out process, scoop the cancer out and send him home. But something went wrong and he almost bled out on the operating table. When they finally discharged him from the hospital five days later, he was barely alive.
He spent most of 2022 carrying around a death obsession. Hyper focused on the idea of experiencing death from a first person perspective and self-grief, Josh understood that so much of our cultural conversations about death is grieving the loss of other people. This creates an implied cognitive distortion that death happens to other people. Josh spent a year feeling rattled and being forced to look inward on his own mortality.
The outlet of all these feelings and thoughts took shape in his songwriting. The song “Partial Nephrectomy” is a prime example in dealing with questions of feeling cold and empty, counting your breaths, and asking if you’re really okay. “Everyone Dies” hits this more directly with visuals of drowning and coming to understand the inevitable comes for all of us. But just writing the music wasn’t enough. Josh wanted to explore these themes with visuals that complemented the narratives they were performing. This introspection bore the first idea of them all to start dressing up in funeral attire and have a little ceremony as if Josh has died.
“I wanted to implement flowers in some way, and that’s when I remembered the black rose as a symbol of death. In researching this, I discovered that the white rose is symbolic of birth, and that’s kind of when everything came together. Instead of making flower arrangements to put on stage, what if we wear flower crowns? What if those crowns have alternating black and white roses to symbolize the cycle of death and rebirth?”
-Josh Wirtanen
Even their striped shirts, a striking visual choice, reinforced the contrast between these two themes. Initially intended to be an all-black funeral aesthetic, the incorporation of stripes added an eye-catching dynamic while remaining true to their concept. Inspired by a period in 2022, in which Josh likened himself to a dying animal experiencing existential terror, he wanted to transcribe those feelings onto the stage.
Josh started to incorporate antlers into his flower crown. Morgan (synth) added stick antlers and feathers to her crown. Michelle (bass) often wears ram horns. They’d decorate the stage with birds and play bird samples during key parts of their set. Initially as a collaboration with Josh’s friend Cassidy from the band Artificial Flowers, they developed what ended up being coined as the Haunted Forest. This concept—contrasting lush plant life with ghostly remnants of decay—began to become a tangible representation of the themes running through their music.
Even their instruments and equipment are stylized to match the concept. Josh built his own microphone from an old rotary phone because he wanted to create that lofi, distorted tone for his voice. Mounted onto a severed mannequin arm to hold the microphones, it’s a striking visual that when closely inspected, the mannequin arm is mirroring the black and white stripes.
“I mean, I would be lying if I said our visual style wasn’t hugely inspired by Tim Burton films, from the black-and-white stripes to the macabre visual themes of ghosts and death.”
— Josh Wirtanen
Macabre originates from the French phrase "danse macabre", meaning "dance of death," which emerged in the late Middle Ages. It refers to artistic and literary depictions of death, the supernatural, and the grotesque. The concept of the macabre was born in medieval Europe, where the Black Death and plentiful wars led to a cultural preoccupation with mortality. This recurring theme in medieval art and literature portrayed skeletons leading people to their inevitable death, emphasizing the universality of mortality. In modern times, the macabre remains prevalent in horror literature, films, and art, often exploring themes of death, decay, and the supernatural in a blend of terror and fascination. Tim Burton’s fascination with macabre began in his childhood, where he preferred to spend time in cemeteries and wax museums instead of playing with other children.
What instantly stands out when gathering the full band together is the cohesive strategies on incorporating in the core element of black and white stripes. Josh has been wearing Chuck Taylors for as long as he can remember, and Hayley deliberately wears her pair because of the band. She wrote on each shoe the name of her bands (A Sunken Ship Irony and Ditch Pigeon) on them, alongside a ghost. Ghosts have become their little mascot, even being brought to life with Ivy wearing a full floral sheet on stage sometimes, which they call them “Ghostie.”
The bonds existing between the band members are easily evident. Back in 2024 Ivy had to take a 3 month break from the band to take care of themself. They needed residential level care on treating an ever-worsening and isolating anorexia issue. They traveled to Seattle for treatment and instantly missed the band. Ivy used the abundance of time for crafting. It made sense to make friendship bracelets. Ivy made black and white ones for their bandmates in A Sunken Ship Irony and shades of green ones for Poison Ivy And The People, their other band. They presented the bracelets to everyone during their first band practice back. Making those bracelets helped them feel connected to everyone from afar during that time when they really needed it.
The band’s dedicated approach to fashion hasn’t gone unnoticed. Many fans and fellow musicians alike have taken inspiration from their unique aesthetic. Seeing their visual themes resonate beyond their performances is a testament to how deeply their imagery connects.
“I really love to think that the themes we’re presenting on stage – from the fashion to the decorations to the sort of improvisational choreography – are spreading into other bands and other shows, even when we’re not present. I’ve seen people in the audience start wearing stripes at our shows, which is super flattering and exciting.”
— Josh Wirtanen
The collection of albums from A Sunken Ship Irony are a lot like mood rings. Each one provides a cathartic aid in putting tough feelings into words and allowing space to absorb. Songs offer up that neighborly hand, beckoning you into a safe space to listen. Josh’s songwriting brilliantly addresses big emotions, breaking them down into manageable pieces. The result is an almost instant connection and empathetic force that draws you into the songs.
Their newest release Tangled Smoke evokes a Conor Oberst goes to Laurel Canyon feel. The harmonies of Ivy and Morgan are strong, comforting hugs to Josh’s voice. “Tangled Smoke (Rhymes with Poison Oak)” exemplifies community and friendship, beckoning the ability to be sad together. “Heads or Tails” follows with themes of being lonely while keeping your head up. It’s in these songs about feeling empty that ultimately help you feel full.
“Filaments” provides a more grizzled sound and heaviness, while “Forest Sounds” floats with clean acoustic guitar whistling through the song. The synth in “Candles” sonically sounds like a flame flickering in the dark. The album tells the story of two people moving toward a relationship, until a series of intense dreams interrupt things.
The culmination of Tangled Smoke lies in the repeated warbles of voices in “Smoke over the Hill.” A distorted lofi chant repeats again and again, churning and building up until eventually the sweet chime of the xylophone triggers a frenzy of effects.
“I can see the smoke over the hill.
It will guide me to a deeper darkness still.
I hear ancient voices on the wind.
Never will I go back home again.”
When the band steps onstage, Josh’s desire is that people instantly recognize the themes. You don’t have to understand what it all means, but instead allow it to open up some thought internally on how it relates in your own unique way. Even before playing a single note, their appearances signal that something significant is about to unfold.
Just as their music evolves, so does their approach to fashion. Their 2023 album, Flower Crown, was named after their signature stage accessory, and their newly released EP, Tangled Smoke, sees them incorporating more color into their signature black-and-white palette. Though their themes are now shifting to more romance and relationships, it forces them to reconsider the narrative devices like fashion, to support the music. Their visual identity serves as a flexible, evolving canvas that continues to reinforce their message.
For A Sunken Ship Irony, fashion is more than an afterthought; it’s an essential part of their storytelling. Every stripe, every flower, every antler has meaning, creating a seamless fusion between music and image that leaves a lasting impact. As they continue to grow, their aesthetic will undoubtedly grow with them—remaining, as always, an integral part of their art.
Check out the links below for ways to follow A Sunken Ship Irony and all the things we mentioned above.
A Sunken Ship Irony website - Instagram - Tangled Smoke - Poison Ivy and the People - Tim Burton - Laurel Canyon
