Last year’s single ‘You Don’t Know Nothing’ set the foundation for a brave new era in the resurgent career of Matt Terry.
Introducing a fresh new sound, the track fired to #1 on the iTunes Pop Chart, #3 on the iTunes Chart and #22 on the Official Singles Download Chart, achieving his first chart impact since the release of his debut album ‘Trouble’ in 2017. Now Matt takes that momentum in 2024 and looks set to achieve a bigger moment as he today shares the follow-up single ‘Ghost of Me’.
‘Ghost of Me’ is a song that finds the optimum balance between Matt’s three core talents: the power and drama of his heartfelt vocal delivery; his flair for translating sorrowful emotional pain into compelling songs; and the way he infuses R&B and hip-hop production touches to add edge and attitude to his songwriting. His words capture universal truths of relationships gone wrong, especially with the blunt simplicity of cutting lines like, “Now you want to hold me, but it’s only because you’ve been lonely.” Matt wrote the song with its producer James Lewis (Rudimental, Dan Caplen).
Matt says: “‘Ghost of Me’ tells the story of how I fell in love with somebody that gave up on me at my lowest when I needed them most. But years later, after working on myself and moving on, they came running back expecting me to be in the exact same place they had left me in.
“However, with time and growth I am a very different human today and I’m not willing to take any steps back. So I feel like they’re holding on to a version of me that no longer exists, ‘The Ghost of Me’. Most of us will experience this at some point in our lives and I’m happy to say I got through it.”
A song which sources new strength from personal travails, ‘Ghost of Me’ feels like it could also be a metaphor for Matt’s career story. He raced to the top at the outset of his career, quickly achieving 130 million streams for his debut track ‘Sucker For You’ followed by a #3 chart position for ‘When Christmas Comes Around’ (written by Ed Sheeran and certified Silver just last month) and then a Top 20 Platinum hit alongside Enrique Iglesias and Sean Paul with ‘Sύbeme La Radio’.
But deep down, Matt knew he wanted to be his own artist rather than the pop star that others in the industry were shaping him to be. He stepped back from the spotlight and found a different form of success as collaborator, co-writing ‘Rock With You’, a#1 in South Korea and Japan for K-Pop heroes SEVENTEEN, working on ‘Heartbreak Anthem’, the BRIT-nominated #3 smash from David Guetta, Galantis and Little Mix, and writing with Dutch dance star MOTi. Having established a career which allows him the freedom to embrace fresh tangents and unlikely opportunities, Matt also joined the cast of ‘Rock of Ages’ by playing its key character, the wild rock star Stacee Jaxx.
So that’s professional growth and personal growth running in tandem, positioning Matt as an artist who is authentic to his true self but also as someone with the ability to excel at any pursuits that inspire him. There’ll be much more to follow from his solo artist rebirth - rich with the stories that have defined his life so far - but as for what else comes next?
Well, just stay tuned…
