Ghost

The last few years have been an ardent journey of self-discovery for pop prince Matthew Mole. He has poured those experiences into his third album, Ghost and the character of Olly the Ghost—its central protagonist, and a way for him to explore themes of how to overcome fear and insecurity. Mole revealed the intricacies of his concept during a deep-dive interview with Apple Music.

Colours
“This song is about trying to find the colour, and by colour, I mean trying to find the positive side, the good, trying to be an optimist. It’s about trying to find the good in all of the bad that you’re stuck in, that you’re going through. I wanted it to be track one on the album because musically it’s quite a diverse-sounding song, there’s a lot of dynamics—it starts kind of weirdly, very percussive with fast vocals. Then it kind of picks up, there’s a few hooks and then it suddenly changes and becomes a bit darker and slower. It picks up towards the end again and I think it represents the whole dynamic of the album very well.”

Back to You
“This is a song about standing up for yourself. It talks to the things in life that you encounter and ultimately allow to control you. The song is a realisation that you are stronger than you thought you were and will no longer allow anyone to dictate who you are. This is something that I’ve had to learn a lot about, I’m basically preaching to myself in this song. I think it’s an encouraging message to hear because it focuses on the positive side of intimidation, overcoming feeling intimidated and not being able to speak up for yourself. This is also quite an uptempo song, I’ve never written a song this fast which makes it a lot of fun to play live.”

At the Corner
“This was the first song I wrote for the album. I wrote it almost two years ago and the message in this song is the message for the whole album—it talks to fear. It’s a journey that begins in a place of imprisonment, becomes a realisation of strength and finally ends in overcoming an overwhelming sense of fear. So many people don’t get to live the lives they are meant to live because everything they are is being help down by fear. The song is very dynamic sonically and even tempo-wise—representing the ups and downs of overcoming such a difficult journey. This is a super-dynamic song, I wanted the chorus to be very quirky and kind of hooky. A word that describes this song well is, cheeky. I hope people enjoy this one because it’s my favourite track off the album but also, I think it’s the best song I’ve ever written.”

Keep It Together
“This also represents a common theme on the album which talks about facing difficult situations or specifically being in a very difficult season in your life where you can’t seem to see the light at the end of the tunnel. This song is telling you to hold on, stay strong and you will make it through this very difficult night and that the morning will come and it’ll be bright.”

Next to You
“Humility characterises this song. As human beings we all struggle with humility, and we can get very frustrated with people and the things that they do, you might not agree with the things that they do and you might think that you’re always right. I don’t think that anyone’s always right. So when someone frustrates you, this song deals with trying to understand where they’re coming from and trying to look at everything through humbled eyes. It’s also one of my favourite sounding songs on the album—it’s not uptempo, but when we play it live it’s got a cool energy to it.”

Let Me
“This is a song about looking past our selfishness to love one another. It’s so easy to get self-involved in almost everything we do but the way that you see others can have the biggest impact. My marriage is a reference in this song, I talk about how we can walk together, dream together and love each other unconditionally. Sometimes, just to love someone can be difficult if you let yourself get in the way. I started writing this on electric guitar, which is something I’m very new to, but it ended up representing that quirky side of the album quite nicely.”

Kilimanjaro
“This is one of the most personal songs that I have written. I hope to relate to anyone trying to put their past behind them and look towards their future. When we recognise where we need to change and open up about it, things get easier. The song talks about facing a mountain and not being lazy and actually doing something about it.”

Be Gone
“This almost didn’t make it onto the album because I wanted to save it for a later stage and surprise people with it because, even though I love this track, I didn’t imagine it fitting so nicely in the way that is does. The main theme of this song is the overcoming of doubt—it’s so easy to doubt yourself and it’s a horrible feeling. When you believe in something you should just go for it, because all doubt is going to do is make you give in to that fear. So do not give into that fear—just go for it.”

Brother & Sister
“This is a personal one but I tried to write it in a way that other people can relate to it. It’s from my point of view, as a brother, to my sister. In it I’m saying thank you to my older sister, thank you for what you’ve taught me, thank you for being my partner-in-crime when we were growing up. I hope it’ll be received as an emotionally feel-good song.”

Autumn
“It’s a very old song but I wanted to put it back on the album because it’s a re-recording and a fresh take on the song, because so much about it has changed over the last six years of playing the song live and just getting sucked into it. I thought it would be great to add it to this album because its message fits in so well with the overall theme of Ghost, which focuses on the changing of seasons in your life.”

Lost on You
“This is a very important message that I’m talking about in this song, but ultimately in all of the songs behind the album—a message of love. But it’s talking about a love that we don’t understand—that unconditional love, love that will be there for you forever. It will be there to overcome everything you can possibly do as a person. It’s talking about how now, it might be hard to understand that love, but one day we will understand it and that it will be there to help us overcome all of these fears and insecurities.”