Though the songs were written in 2021, it wasn’t until later Costolo felt in a position to record them, and some of this frustration and unease works its way into the very sound. The sense of the ground being unstable beneath you, of being unable to rely on anything to take your weight. But with Tom Morris (Swim Camp) joining on drums, Costolo embraced these feelings and ushered in a new stage of the Ghost Fan Club project. One which didn’t look to solve the things holding it back but instead understand them as key components to its artistic process. Songwriting not as a method of escape from dark emotions but a canvas upon which they might be laid out and examined from a new perspective.

New single ‘Now and Then’ pushes further into these emotions. Brighter in tone than the previous single, the song is nevertheless caught within a mournful air. But in keeping with the spirit of the release, the sound is more than Ghost Fan Club bemoaning present circumstances. “I’m tired of hearing it’ll get better,” as Costolo sings “And maybe one day I’ll look back at all this and laugh.” As though to commit to the optimism of change is to in some deny a part of yourself. To render the present as a kind of meaningless void. A sentiment, it bears pointing out, which differs from fatalism. Because a life predicated entirely on some future transformation is not a life at all. Why not instead embrace the present on its own terms, at least for now?

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Though Costolo is pushing the Two Meters sound increasingly into metal territory, he wanted to preserve a space to continue a more restrained, emo-inflected bedroom style. Hence Ghost Fan Club, a brand new project that will serve as an outlet for the softer side of things.

If you were wondering about the choice of name, then introductory single ‘Passing Through’ gives a good indication. With a soft and cautious style, the track tiptoes forward with something between bummed out slacker stillness and a kind of weighted trepidation, as sad and scared and bored as any spirit unable to pass on. But the ghost here is still very much living, the life slipping past before his eyes very much his own. The goal is not the bright afterlife but a far duller paradise—a sense of contentment, comfort in one’s own skin. The feeling that, yes, you really are living, right here and right now.

Another morning
6 am just falling asleep
Birds outside remind me
Of what I’ve always known
I’m not living I’m just passing through

Losing days faster now
Will time ever slow down

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