matt berry

Matt Berry: “I don’t ever look back”

23 Jan 2025 | | By Adam Davidson

The British actor and comedian on Oscar-nominated The Wild Robot and why music will always have his heart

Matt Berry needs no introduction. He’s been a beloved figure of British TV since the early 2000s, having stolen the show with his larger-than-life persona and stentorian vocals in cult comedies such as Toast of London, What We Do In The Shadows and The IT Crowd. What you probably didn’t know, however, is that Berry also has ten studio albums to his name.

A lifelong obsession, his latest album, Heard Noises, will be released on 24 January 2025, cementing his multi-hyphenate status and continuing a musical career with some perhaps unexpected credits – including providing guitar and vocals for the Strictly Coming Dancing theme tune. However, Berry’s journey as a musician was almost over before it even began.

Passionate about music from a young age, Berry hit a stumbling block when he wanted to study music at school: his teachers wouldn’t allow him to take it as a GCSE because he couldn’t read sheet music. Undeterred, he set out (and succeeded at) proving his teachers wrong. In hindsight, however, he sees this rejection as a blessing in disguise, preventing his hobby from becoming a tedious school subject.

matt berry
Berry at the Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny premiere in London, 2023. Image: Fred Duval/Shutterstock

“I wasn’t even given the chance to spend any time at school doing music, even though it was obvious to all these teachers that it was the only thing that I was interested in and yet it was the only thing they wouldn’t allow me to do,” he explains.

“I think it’s very different now. You can spend time at school doing music and not have to learn theory, which is fantastic and how it should have always been. If you’re a teacher that’s worth anything, and you spot that a kid is interested in one thing, then that’s what you should allow them to do while they’re under your care.”

From folk to Northern soul and psychedelic rock, Berry has experimented with a range of genres and concepts, including his 2020 album, Television Themes, which did exactly what it said on the tin with covers of the Doctor Who and Rainbow theme songs, among others.

With Heard Noises, however, Berry is mixing things up. Having previously followed a ‘manifesto’, which prescribed a specific concept or sound when making an album, Berry compares this process to a painter who only allows himself to use four colours. Now he has given himself the full palette to play with. “That kind of discipline pushes you to do things that you wouldn’t have done before. That can be interesting if you give yourself restrictions,” he explains. “But with Heard Noises, I didn’t do that. I did whatever I wanted regardless of style or genre.”

The result is Berry’s most personal album to date – encapsulated by back-cover artwork featuring a table laid with personal items which represent the many facets of his life. Among them are Lazlo Cravensworth’s teeth from What We Do In The Shadows – the spin-off sitcom of Taika Waititi’s hugely popular vampire movie, which recently ended after six seasons.

Berry asserts that he doesn’t usually mix his acting and music careers but What We Do In The Shadows was such a big part of his life that it had an impact on everything else. “It needs to be noted, not in loads of detail but that was that, here’s the evidence and let’s get on to the next thing,” he explains. “I’m not a nostalgic man. I don’t ever look back at old stuff, once I’ve done something I tend to lose interest and can only think about the next thing.”

Said ‘next things’ have recently included the critically-acclaimed animated movie, The Wild Robot, alongside Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal and Bill Nighy. The movie tells the story of Roz, a robot who is shipwrecked on a deserted island and must adapt to the harsh surroundings, along the way becoming the adoptive mother of an orphaned gosling. Berry was captivated by the story from the moment he read the script but it wasn’t until director Chris Sanders showed him a 10-minute snippet that he knew he was involved in something truly special.

“[Chris] turned all the lights off and we played it in the recording studio and, honestly, [I realised] that this is what I need to be doing. This is something that I need to now fully concentrate on because I knew it was going to be exceptional.” Having, on the day this article was published, received an Oscar nomination, who are we to disagree?

Heard Noises is released on 24 January via Acid Jazz.

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