Matt Goss opens up about his late mother’s influence on new album
EMOTIONS are running high when I meet Matt Goss.
We are in a central London hotel where the former Bros singer has flown in from his US home to talk about his forthcoming solo album The Beautiful Unknown.
There are tears when he opens up about his late mum Carol, who influenced a lot of the record, but plenty of joy as Matt tells me how proud he is of The Beautiful Unknown and why it’s time he was taken seriously as a solo artist.
South London-born Matt, who now divides his time between his houses in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, makes regular trips to the UK.
He is feeling sentimental about being back in his home city and is looking for a base here after a lonely time in lockdown.
It’s difficult for the singer when he talks about his beloved late mum, who died of cancer in 2014.
Matt, 53, says: “There’s lots of memories here, and the pandemic meant we were apart from people.
“Being in London, playing this new album, made feel quite emotional because it felt like the first time people are hearing it.
“It’s a very mindful record and I’m proud of it as a pop record as well. I wanted to lift people up.”
He describes working on the album as “cathartic” as he processed the grief of losing his mum.
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Wiping tears from his eyes he says: “She had cancer in the gall bladder that had metastasized into her whole body including her liver.
“I was performing at my residency at Caesars Palace when Mum got very sick.
“I took her to Atlanta to try homeopathic treatment and was travelling from LA to Vegas to Atlanta.
“It was so tiring, then it became apparent that approach wasn’t working for Mum and she said, ‘I just want to go back to yours’.
“So I took Mum back to my house in LA and cared for her.”
‘I want to compete with the big boys’
The tears begin to flow as he describes how every day he had to clear his mum’s lungs because of the tumours and one time her stomach ruptured and he was covered in her blood.
He says: “It was such a violent experience. Right at the end she was really not herself and in a great deal of pain. Mum was only 67 when she passed.”
It is about my mum, my family and my experience with pain. There’s great symbolism in that video. It’s been important that I express my feelings on this record. My mum would be so proud of it
Matt
Matt needs some time out after opening up about his mum’s final days.
And when he returns to our interview, he apologises for getting upset. In 1988, at the height of their fame, Bros brothers Luke and Matt lost their sister Carolyn in a car crash.
Matt says his recent single Somewhere To Fall was influenced by the death of his mum and sister.
He says: “It is about my mum, my family and my experience with pain. There’s great symbolism in that video. It’s been important that I express my feelings on this record. My mum would be so proud of it.”
Matt smiles as he tells me how a friend compared The Beautiful Unknown with George Michael’s classic album Faith.
“She said, ‘Matt, this is your Faith’. She’s not comparing it to that record, but how important it was to George in the way this means to me. It’s a record where I get to travel and share my music again.”
It also shows off Matt’s soul voice, and is rooted in classic pop.
He says: “I didn’t want to go down the nostalgic route, I want to compete with the big boys, and I think this album does it.
It’s about when two people stop communicating and become these soldiers of war. I was coming out of a relationship where I loved this woman, but we just couldn’t meet in the middle and it became somewhat toxic
Matt
“It’s current and contemporary. It had to be, otherwise I wouldn’t be sitting here with you. I wouldn’t want to waste your time with something that wasn’t real.”
Somewhere To Fall is not the only track inspired by an idol. The album’s title track is “a little hats off to The Beatles and Billy Joel. I love the song”.
Matt says he is particularly proud of beguiling ballad Soldiers Of War — his favourite song on the album.
He adds: “It was one of the last songs I wrote. I felt like we needed a relief moment because they are all bangers. It’s just got a George Michael element to that song, which I love.
‘I loved this woman but it became toxic’
“It’s about when two people stop communicating and become these soldiers of war. I was coming out of a relationship where I loved this woman, but we just couldn’t meet in the middle and it became somewhat toxic.
“And that’s where Soldiers Of War comes from. You know, we used to be defenders of love.
"Then you turn into these people that kind of self-sabotage.”
Matt has been open about looking for love and says he has still not met the right person to settle down with — a surprise to hear from a man who was one of the biggest pin-ups of the 80s.
He says: “My last girlfriend just wanted to be on social media all the time and that’s just not how I want to live.
It’s a song about the hope that comes out of a dark situation. It also has a bit of Stevie (Wonder, Matt’s idol) in there too.
Matt
"I said, ‘We either have a life together where we hold hands, go out and have dinner as girlfriend or boyfriend or you post our life online’. I realised a social media life wasn’t going to work for me.
“And so there is a song on the album called Saved, which is about the pain you go through to find joy, and that right person.
“Even though the song is about adultery, it’s positive — how you broke my heart but saved my life.
“It’s a song about the hope that comes out of a dark situation. It also has a bit of Stevie (Wonder, Matt’s idol) in there too.”
As Bros, with twin brother Luke and schoolfriend Craig Logan, Matt was in Britain’s biggest band when they released songs When Will I Be Famous and I Owe You Nothing in the late 80s.
With their good looks and catchy pop songs, they sold more than 16million records worldwide and reformed for two 30th anniversary gigs in 2017 at the O2 Arena in London.
Today, Matt is still dapper and good-looking at 53 and says: “We were only young in Bros and that’s why I still feel young.
I’m thankful fans have stayed interested.”
He is hoping this new album connects with his fans. And Matt is still not short of them, after enjoying a successful 12-year residency in Las Vegas.
He is proud of what he achieved there, which included the Icon Award at Caesars Palace in 2018 and being given the keys to Las Vegas Strip.
He also saw August 8 declared Matt Goss Day there.
He says: “Las Vegas was an incredible learning curve for me. I’m very proud of my residency and there’s been a lot of accolades.
“I’m proud of getting the Icon Award and getting my own day. I love America. I was lucky enough to record at Prince’s Paisley Park. Prince was incredible. Small guy, deep voice.
‘A PlayStation is how Luke and I connect’
“And I played for President Joe Biden recently too who was very lovely.
“He’s genuine and very, very kind. He asked me about my mum and talked about his late son. He was a gentleman to me.
“But I don’t know why I always have to go out to America to have the success.”
Matt is specifically referring to wanting this record to be a hit in the UK. His last album, 2013’s Life You Imagine, reached number 27.
He says: “I’m not saying I’ve not had success here as I’ve played the Royal Albert Hall many times and I won best show of 2016 at The SSE Arena, Wembley.
"The last thing I did was the Proms, playing to 60,000 people in Hyde Park.”
Matt and his brother Luke enjoyed a resurgence in popularity after the 2018 documentary Bros: After The Screaming Stops was a huge and unexpected hit.
I can’t tell you how many people say, ‘It let me know that we’re not the only family that is dysfunctional'.
Matt
Cameras followed the then estranged brothers as they launched a Bros comeback and ironic scenes included Matt ranting about conker fights, which he thought had been banned in England, and telling the Gallagher brothers to end their feud and reform Oasis.
He also explained why, thanks to Stevie Wonder, he is not superstitious, how the letters H, O, M and E “personify home” for him, and how the rules of his house are: “You break it, you fix it. But you can break anything you want.”
The film was watched 20million times across the globe and won a Bafta, and Matt — who can see the funny side of the film too — says: “Me and my brother are much closer because of it.
‘In a good place and album shows that’
“It swept the nation. It’s the most downloaded documentary in history and was on every plane in the world.
“I can’t tell you how many people say, ‘It let me know that we’re not the only family that is dysfunctional’.
“That was such a compliment because we were dysfunctional.
"We had to learn each other’s language again. But me and Luke today? Well, we are there for each other.
"See there is a PlayStation there (he points to a console), the hotel put one in for me, as that’s how me and Luke connect.
"We are there for each other. We are each other’s go-to now. We’ve always felt we’ve had to apologise. I’m done apologising. I’m a grown man and I’m not going to apologise any more.
“I am ready for the next chapter. I feel very observed by my family in heaven. They are looking at everything and I have such a deep desire to make my mum proud.
"And my grandmother and my grandfather and my sister. “I feel very observed and protected. I’m in a good place and this album shows that.”
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l The Beautiful Unknown is out on March 25.
