Related to Strangers & Matthew. - Ghost (2025) [Hi-Res]

My band Related to Strangers just dropped our debut album GHOST today. This is a new project myself and the members of Kindergarten Cartel have taken on and I couldn’t be more excited. Same cast and crew– me on vocals/guitar, Kevin Leonard on bass, Derrick Chan on drums/production. This is our first foray into writing original material together and I couldn’t be prouder of what we created. You’ll hear the post-hardcore and punk influences from our favorite bands like Thrice, Bayside, and Rise Against all over this record, both in the sonic ground we covered and the themes we explored.

Which brings us to GHOST. An album about loss and death.

It’s a nuanced subject, one that as humans we typically don’t like to talk about in casual conversation. It’s not exactly dinner table fare. But as I have begun to get older (turning 38 this year) and have been blessed on this journey with an amazing wife and two wonderful kids, I’ve started to consider my own mortality a whole lot more. There’s a reason for that of course– once you become a husband and parent you very quickly realize that your life is no longer your own. You have a much greater responsibility to take care of yourself so you can be there for your family as they grow, both financially as well as emotionally. And there becomes an inflection point where you’re forced to make a decision to either a) let those feelings of mortality crush you with anxiety or b) use it as motivation to get better as a human being.

For me it has played out in interesting ways. I’ve become much more health-conscious over the past two years (as anyone who is close to me knows I’ve been exercising a ton and am now positively obsessed with my VO2 Max numbers). I’m eating better food and taking better care of myself. And I also was able to work through those nagging feelings of mortality (and the anxiety that comes with those thoughts) via the songwriting process, an act of self reflection that has truly become one of the greatest gifts in my life. Exploring these themes was a process that has been incredibly hard and also incredibly rewarding. Today we get to share those thoughts with the world.

So yes, GHOST is certainly about death and the various forms it takes– the end of life, the end of morality, the end of civilization, the end of innocence. But if you peel back the onion a bit, at its core this album is actually about a celebration of life. It’s about embracing the fact that our time here on Earth is finite. It’s about doing our best every single day to make the most of every single moment. It’s about the sadness of loss and the crushing weight of grief, but it’s also about recognizing the toll loss takes on us only feels that way because the joy of life is so damn sweet and rewarding.

So come get comfy and explore the meaning of life alongside of us here today. I hope you enjoy listening to this album.

I sure know we enjoyed creating it.