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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

#PoetAnderson by Tom Delonge and Suzanne Young mini spoiler free book review


Poet Anderson was drawn to my attention, as I'm sure it will be for many, by the involvement of ex blink 182 frontman Tom Delonge. As a big fan of all things blink related, I am already familiar with Tom's obsessions with the occult, conspiracy theories, sci-fi and so forth, and make regular visits to his website Strange Times, a page dedicated to the exploration of unexplained phenomenon. As a big fan of Science-Fiction I was immediately intrigued by the premise of a novel with contributions from the musician.

The character of Jonas in the story is immediately likable and relatable with a downbeat back story - his parents died when he was younger, and his guardian and brother Alan is currently in an unresponsive coma after an accident en route to their old home town where Alan was hoping to begin work in a hotel, and Jonas would enrol at yet another new school.

Alan and Jonas are Lucid Dreamers and are able to directly effect their surrounding environment within their dreamscapes simultaneously, both being apart of the other dreamers world whilst they sleep. Jonas is determined to find his brother in the dreamscape, and becomes obsessed with the idea that his brother is lost there, which is why he is unable to wake from his coma. During his search, Jonas meets other, intricately described lucid dreamers and realises that they all actually enter into a shared consciousness together whilst they sleep. He explores many similarly detailed environments, all of which are expertly described with a grungy realism. He must deal with Nightstalkers, Dreamwalkers and his own personal night terror, as well as the attempted Harbinger of destruction to the dreamscape: REM (as in Rem Sleep), who is hell bent on entering the 'waking world' to wreak his malice upon it.

The relationships created throughout the book feel realistic, and are not always straightforward. I particularly found Young and Delonge's description of love interesting particularly captivating and well told. I also found the entire premise of the story to be well founded and believable, and I found myself feverishly turning pages and even making myself late in my desire to see the story through to it's surprising conclusion.

There are some slow passages, but in all I was glued to the epic and original tale crafted by Young and Delonge, and would highly recommend the story to anyone with an interest in well told tales of science fiction. It is also accompanied by a comic book and audio EP which only serve to enhance the multimedia project that Delonge has embarked upon. Role on the next book!

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