Brooklyn-based musician Dan Goldberg has been recording homespun, acoustic songs as the Spookfish for years now, and in a couple of weeks he will release his new album, Black Hole, by way of Fire Talk Records. “Black Ghost With Red Eyes” is the album’s latest single, and it tells an interesting story; when Goldberg was a little kid he woke up from a dream to see a green monster with red eyes perched atop his dresser, staring at him. They watched one another for a long time, and Goldberg never told anyone about it out of fear that seeing a monster meant something was wrong with him. Years later, when Goldberg was working as an English tutor, one of his students described seeing a similar creature during a speaking exercise. The student’s version of the monster was a black ghost with the same red eyes. Knowing its backstory makes “Black Ghost With Red Eyes” a meditation on childhood shame and the loneliness one feels when they hold onto a secret for too long. Some specters of the past never leave our conscience — they just haunt us and resurface in different forms as years go by. Listen below.

Black Hole is out 4/21 via Fire Talk.