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"From out of the dark"

From Out Of The Dark

From out of the dark is a collection of 6 songs finished during the infamous Covid lockdown of 2020, drawing musical influences from many different genres and based on different themes close to my heart.

Some with a narrative, others about how I felt a particular junction in life, playing music, writing and recording songs has been a great outlet for me and helped me deal with and express myself in a productive fashion.

With no single genre over the six songs I decided to put them out as From out of the dark, to show how something good can come from the darkness. I hope you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed making them.

I appreciate so much all the friends and family who have helped critique these tracks ready for public consumption. Thanks also to my younger sister, Hannah, for providing her vocal talents and lyric writing on two of the songs.

Please listen below and follow me on all of my social networks using the links above.

Matt x

Playing #FantasyLife Vs Living #RealLife

Hello to the farthest corners of the internet. In true tradition, I'll begin my post with the words "It's been a while since my last post". This is mainly to a lack of time to dedicate to my usual hobbies - gaming time has been either hard to come by or I've simply not been in the mood. Other than that I've been quite busy socially and at work. This then is a purely selfish post then, just as an update for nobody about how life is going.

I'm typing this with a cup of Christmas tea I purchased from a health food store in Moseley, with the latest episode of the Walking Dead on in the background. The tea is quite brilliant and is pure Christmas in beverage form. As for the Walking Dead, the episodes seem a bit slow currently, but when they're good they're very good. I'll of course be sticking with it.

This has been my birthday weekend. I'm 27 years young. Time to start figuring out what I want from life presumably? Though I seem to say that every year. I was bought some lovely things, including some rather trendy (and smaller in size) coats, some whiskey and the Saboteur card game among others.


I tried to arrange an all-encompassing night out on Friday, with colleagues and friends at a pub and a club, in an attempt to entice everybody out for at least some of the evening. This seemed to work, and I had an ace evening with some lovely people. For those who wanted to party in town, we went to Levana in Birmingham's Arcadian and despite it not being my usual kind of scene, had an excellent time. The teacher I work with had arranged with her boyfriend (who runs the Friday night) to get us a booth with a big ice bucket full of a variety of alcohols. They placed a giant sparkler in the top, and decorated with a Birthday Princess balloon and gifted me a Birthday Girl badge. Definitely one of the girls at work it would seem...


My friends were surprised when I met the rather lovely lady I've been seeing there, and proceeded to give me (and possibly her when I wasn't looking) ALL of the relationship advice. I'm glad some of my friends have met her now though, and they were extremely supportive in their own drunkenly gushing ways. I do feel very lucky and quite the content and happy bean. After getting home Saturday I went for a recovery carvery with my dear mother and perused the Christmas display at Melbicks garden center. I do love Christmas and all of it's associated tat. Saturday evening I went out with the lads, and consumed far too much Jack Daniels. It was good fun to see them and have a catch up.

As well as tuning another year older, my birthday was also the day I reached another weight loss milestone. The goal of 15 stone I'd set for myself to teach by the end of 2014 I have passed by 1 pound. That means a total loss now of approximately 9 stone! Because a lot of my exercise compromises of weights, I seem to have avoided the strange excess skin problem as well, and am slowly but surely toning up and becoming more shapely. The only downside to this progress is the expense - having to replace with new clothes is quite costly - thank God for George at ASDA, without whom I would be very naked a lot of the time... You can see some of what I chucked out below.


In the world of gaming, I've not really been playing a massive amount. I bought Fantasy Life for the 3DS which has had most of my time when I've gamed at all. It's really enjoyable, if a little repetitive at times. It's a very attractive game and I enjoy the mix of life sim and RPG, much like Rune Factory was on the DS. I think when we get our Rune Factory 4 release on the eShop that'll surpass for me the charms of Fantasy Life, with a slightly more mature art style and more focus on the combat and RPG elements. I keep meaning to go back and finish some titles I've started. Kingdoms of Amalur, Deus Ex, Mass Effect 3, but just can't seem to get into anything.



In music I actually wrote an entire song from start to finish. I do have a habit of half starting something and never finding the time or inspiration to finish it, so I was very pleased with myself. I will find some time to do a demo to share with the world at some point. I also recently upgraded my phone contract so that it now includes Spotify. I just can't remember a time without it now - It's such a brilliant way of finding and listening to such a wide range of music, and I've discovered loads of new bands. Whilst quality will never be on a par with CD/Vinyl, unless you have the ears and the money (my ears are alright, but I definitely can't afford the highest quality speakers and headphones) then the quality is just fine. Finally, I went to see the Antlers and the Oobleck at Birmingham's custard factory. It was an excellent gig with Marika Hackman supporting. Both were incredibly beautiful. Between Spotify and a newly discovered app Songkick, I've found lots of gigs I'd like to go to. I forgot how much I enjoy going to hear live music.


Before I sign off, I thought I'd mention my dearest papa, who the other week ran the Great Birmingham Run (a half marathon (13.1 miles)) in 2 hours 8 minutes and some seconds in aid of Asbestos support UK. He's raised over £500 for the charity. You can see his page here: http://m.virginmoneygiving.com/mt/uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserPage.action?userUrl=DavidAbbott6&faId=500566&isTeam=false


Anyway, I can't think of much else to say. Feel free to comment and what have you, even to just make conversation. I hope you're well and loving life :-)