With his brand new album ‘The Great Escape’, Jamie Mathias has started a fire in the hearts of many. His latest body of work is guaranteed to blow your mind!
By documenting the various stages of a relationship, Jamie beautifully captures the intricate emotions of the heart. He bares his soul and innermost feelings on the record.
On the day of its release, ‘The Great Escape’ soared straight to number one on the iTunes singer/songwriter chart. That, in itself, is a testament to Jamie’s phenomenal talent.
In celebration of the album’s release, Jamie Mathias has exclusively revealed to us the stories behind the songs. The rising star’s explanations are refreshingly honest and we’re sure that his profound lyrics will resonate with listeners all over the world.
Without further ado, we’ll let Jamie talk you through the record in his own words…
Introduction
Just to give you a little run through of the album – this was intended to be an EP which was going to be titled ‘The SRK project’. These are the initials of an ex of mine who inspired the lovely songs I was writing about her at the time. When we broke up, it gave me more inspiration to write and I then had a balance of songs that were of an expression of the various stages of the relationship and the breakdown of it. I scrapped a couple of songs that were going to be on the EP and kept a couple of them. I then found myself writing a lot and before I knew it, I had way too many new songs for an EP so I decided to make an LP which then turned into an album. I think a lot of people are quite coy about giving too much specific information away regarding the meaning behind their songs but I want to be as honest with you as possible. Props to my producers Chris Mace, Donny Stax & Truth for making this record for me.
1. Nothing To Show
Produced by: Chris Mace
This song came after receiving 3 or 4 instrumentals from my producer Chris when I was in the process of writing and recording the album. I had been staying up until 4am and waking up at 8am and starting the cycle all over again. I got to a stage where I spent so long just wrapped up in my own little bubble of exhaustion but you don’t stop because you’re so desperate to make a success of yourself. The song is about working so hard to knock down doors in the music industry and the realisation that unless you’re very well connected or very lucky, you’ll get no where without constant graft and no sleep. I was feeling really deflated at the time but kept thinking to myself this will all be so worth it in the long run hence the lyric ‘I’ll burn from both ends of the candle if I’m shining bright’.
2. Started A Fire
Produced by: Truth
The chorus for this song actually came towards the start of the relationship. I had never felt for a human being the way that I felt about her and it scared me a lot. I drove myself crazy thinking that I was in way too deep and that maybe I wasn’t good enough. I think the problem that I had was that I fell for her a lot quicker than she did for me. In those instances, in a relationship, the person who isn’t as invested is in control which is never going to be a healthy thing. I revisited the song once we broke up and I realised how right I had been about the way I was feeling and the verses are quite descriptive about the mental state I found myself in afterwards. I became a fairly self-destructive person afterwards and didn’t handle things particularly well, I don’t think I had the emotional maturity for it.
3. Ahead Of Myself
Produced by: Chris Mace
Ahhhhh this song just reminds me of being in Thailand. I took a much-needed month out in January as before I went, I found myself becoming increasingly self-absorbed and addicted to social media (which although I need I still find to be a little toxic). I was in Koh Phi Phi, one of the most picturesque places I have been to and I saw the most beautiful little human being I have ever seen in my life. 5’2, dark hair, blue eyes you’d get lost in and the loveliest most infectious smile you’d ever seen. She was a load of fun to be around, I got absolutely hammered on the beach with her and the group we were in, danced like idiots and talked ’til the sun was coming up. I went back to my hostel still really drunk and penned this song. Turns out she has a boyfriend anyway so not exactly a fairy-tale ending, but at least I got a song out of it!
4. Great Escape
Produced by: Chris Mace
This song I wrote when I was probably at my lowest post break-up. At this point, I’d just like to point out that long-term relationships have never really been my thing and it takes so much for me to become attached and emotionally invested in a person. When I finally do, I fall for them hard. This is probably the only time I would consider what I had to actually be a relationship. But back to the song, I was having trouble sleeping at night and was always on my brain. I think when you go from having someone in your life that you would do anything for to them suddenly not being around, you have to go through a grieving process as though part of you has died until you can start to feel better. This song was all about my struggles with that and not being able to break free of the psychological shackles. This song has quite a vast array of sounds which is just Chris all over really. We often laugh about some of the noises that he suggests we include and he seems to have a bit of a fetish for alien noises.
5. Get By
Produced by: Chris Mace
This song I wrote in a rehearsal studio with a couple of lads from Horsham. Probably the quickest song I’ve written to date and it all just happened so naturally. I think lyrics, melody and music were all finished in about half an hour. My other half was travelling round Asia/Australia at the time which she had planned long before we were together and we were trying to make long distance work (if you’re ever thinking about doing that, DON’T). At the time, I was very optimistic that we’d be able to maintain everything and I wrote the song to reinforce that everything was going to be okay and we’d come out stronger than ever.
6. When You Leave
Produced by: Donny Stax
This is the first song on the album that I carried over from a release called ‘Identity Crisis’ a couple of years ago. I wrote this about a girl that I was seeing briefly who was so damaged by the way her last boyfriend had treated her that she found it very difficult to trust and let anyone in. The song was a way of telling her that not everyone else is going to treat her like that. Some people feed off of other’s insecurities to create obsession and it can be an awful downhill spiral. She’s okay now though, saw her recently and she’s been with someone for years and bought a place together. All’s well that ends well.
7. My Girl
Produced by: Chris Mace & Donny Stax
This is the first song that was written initially for the EP and is a song when I was loved-up and things were great. I felt stable for the first time probably ever. I had the fact that she’d be travelling at some stage looming over my head but that didn’t matter because I was determined to make it work.
8. Blow Your Mind
Produced by: Donny Stax
This is just pure lust. I don’t want to go into too much detail as this is a family friendly website but I wrote this about someone who I didn’t know particularly well but she drove me mad. Everything with her was just acting purely on instinct.
9. Aching
Produced by: Chris Mace
This is actually written about a friend of mine that we had been toying with the idea of getting together on and off for years but nothing materialised for one reason or another (mainly me). It was one of those things where I would say I’m not ready for it but then get jealous if I saw her with someone else and was being selfish about it if I’m honest. She’s the sort of girl that now I’d marry in a heartbeat but I had messed her around too much and the song was about regretting how I’d treated her.
10. The Day That We Collide
Produced by: Donny Stax
The first solo song I ever recorded and still one of my favourites. This also features on ‘Identity Crisis’ and like the bulk of my songs, was initially written on an acoustic guitar. I recorded this in Donny’s old basement flat in the tiniest little makeshift vocal booth you’ve ever seen. I wrote this song when I was a bit younger about meeting your match and the power struggle that ensues.
11. Friends With Benefits
Produced by: Donny Stax
The last song that was carried over from ‘Identity Crisis’. This is a happy, cheeky little jam about developing feelings for someone that you’re only supposed to be messing around with. I see it happening all the time and it’s usually not reciprocated and usually ends up leaving a bad taste in the mouth of the person who caught the feels. Strong word of advice for anyone reading this: if you’re looking to keep things casual and nothing more than friends with benefits, don’t meet each others families.
12. If Only
Produced by: Chris Mace
This is the only song on the album that I didn’t write for me. As a side project to my own music, I write songs for other people. These usually consist of writing songs about people’s relationships for their first dance or in the place of a speech at a wedding. This person got in touch to ask me if I could write a song for him in memory of his husband that he had very sadly lost to brain cancer really young. We wanted to make the song emotional and heartfelt but at the same time, nostalgic as to remember the good times and not just those of when he was unwell. I’m really happy with the way it turned out and I know he is too. We are going to be filming a video for this soon and releasing it as a separate single with all the proceeds raised being split between Cancer Research and the hospice that treated him.
13. Shards
Produced by: Jamie Mathias & Chris Mace
I wrote this after the album was finished and shouldn’t have made it to the album if I’m honest. But I really wanted it on the album so settled for having a live acoustic version that Chris added a little bit of bass to and got it mixed and mastered in record time. I wrote this whilst I was at one of my friend’s houses in London. I was playing round with the guitar and then the melody just came to me and I had to tell her to be quiet for 45 minutes (politely of course) whilst I got it written before the melody went out of my head. I’d had the idea for the lyrics for quite a long time and the song is about when you’re in that early stage of a relationship where everything just feels amazing and brand new. You know when they’ve stayed at yours for the first time and the smell of their perfume lingers on your bed sheets and you just feel at home.
‘The Great Escape’ is currently available here on iTunes and you can also stream it here on Spotify. From the lustful ‘Blow Your Mind’ to the utterly heartbreaking ‘If Only’, there really is something for everyone. It’s an incredibly strong collection of tracks.
To celebrate the launch of his album, Jamie recently performed at Patterns in Brighton. Plans are also in motion for a tour next year and we’ll post more details when they’re revealed. You can keep Jamie on your radar by following @JamieMathias on Twitter.
As more and more people discover his outstanding music, Jamie Mathias is sure to keep on rising in the industry. The future looks very bright for the talented musician.
Are you loving ‘The Great Escape’ by Jamie Mathias? Which are your favourite tracks on the record? Make sure you let us know over on Twitter @CelebMix!
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