Textbook Ghosts from Margins by Lockerboy

# About This Track: Textbook Ghosts

Buried whispers come back to life when you least expect them. That's what happened during the 2AM recording session for "Textbook Ghosts" - we actually emptied our old backpacks onto Devin's basement floor, flipping through marked-up chemistry worksheets and finding margin doodles we'd completely forgotten about. The static-laced opening came from literally dragging a microphone across dusty textbook pages.

The half-tempo breakdown wasn't planned. Tyler's amp started making this weird feedback hum after his little brother spilled Mountain Dew on it, and instead of fixing it, we built the whole middle section around that haunted sound. Ms. Keller (our old English teacher who actually supports the band) came by and whispered some of the real notes she'd confiscated from us back in sophomore year - that's her voice you hear beneath the guitar squeal at 2:13, played backwards because we thought it sounded more like memories trying to resurface.

Beneath the buzzy guitars and that anxious drum pattern, there's a story about how your past mistakes never really disappear—they just hide between pages, waiting to jump out when you're least prepared. Jake's vocal crack during "pages tear, so near" wasn't supposed to happen, but it captured exactly that feeling of your voice betraying you when you're trying to act cool about something that actually terrifies you.

The song gradually transforms from panic to something almost defiant by the final chorus. That thundering floor tom was recorded separately in the school's empty gym after hours (thanks to the janitor who pretended not to see us). "Textbook Ghosts" is basically our anthem for facing the embarrassing stuff you thought would destroy you, only to realize it's just paper after all.

Tracklist

5.	Textbook Ghosts	3:00

Lyrics

Faded lines on graph page
Margins tattooed in mistakes

Dusty spines stacked, fake gold streaks
Old report cards shiver with jokes
Stuck dog-ears from panic weeks
Coffee stains blur what I wrote

Textbook ghosts hide here
Notes I feared appear
Pages tear, so near
Ghosts aren’t clear
(Textbook ghosts, textbook ghosts)

Locker slammed, flinch by the shelves
Yearbook faces pressed in the fold
Laugh-track memories clown themselves
Secrets scrawled, never retold

Flashing back, tremor in my chest
Cringing at the mask I let slip
Every page holds a failed test
But I underline my script

Textbook ghosts—still here
Pages blur, unclear
Ghosts draw near (draw near)
But I’m here
(Textbook ghosts, textbook ghosts)

Read your scribble—'I lied', back row,
Graded F—still stuck in the glue
Folded corners, what did I show?
(Nobody knew, nobody knew)

Textbook ghosts—still here
Notes I feared appear
Ghosts draw near, so near
But I’m clear
(Textbook ghosts, textbook ghosts)

Credits

from Margins, released June 15, 2025

License