More about: Matt Berry

You know him as Stephen Toast In Toast Of London, Douglas Reynholm in The IT Crowd, Dixon Bainbridge in The Mighty Boosh, Dr Lucien Sanchez in Garth Merenghi's Darkplace, Beef In House Of Fools - all roles enhanced by his sideways and inside-out take on the world. However, Matt Berry's greatest and most surprising role may well be off-screen. 

Since 1995 in his early 20s and long before he stepped foot in front of a camera, the future comedy hero has been releasing music. As well as lending his touch to the soundtracks of TV shows, Berry has been surprising fans and critics with his theatrical sonic expressions - from the prog-rock of Opium, to the folk-tinged psychedelia of Kill The Wolf and the night-time companion album, Music For Insomniacs. 

As Matt Berry and The Maypoles gear up to hit the road once again, we caught up with the polymath to discuss what goes into his music, what he's working on at the moment, the music he loves, and why Fleet Foxes mean so much to him. 

Your earliest shows that I saw back in 2008 or so were a fair mixture of multimedia, comedy, some songs from Opium and tracks from Garth Merenghi and Snuff Box. Can the same be said of your current tour?

"No no, it's just music. There are songs from the shows in as far as 'Take My Hand' which is from the Witchhazel album and is the theme to Toast Of London, and we do play some songs from the shows but there's no kind of tie to it. There's nothing stand-up or comedy about it, it's been that way for the last five or six years, just in music venues - there's no kind of crossover."

Do you have a lot of people coming to the shows or picking up a record based on how they've seen you on screen, and then experiencing something entirely different?

"I think most people now who come to the shows, know that it's not going to be stand-up. They've probably heard the albums before. There will be the odd person expecting stand-up, but usually not now." 

Your albums are pretty interesting and brilliant in their own right, of course. Do have many people come down who aren't even aware of your on screen work?

"I don't know, that could happen but it's doubtful because mainly because the brighter light is shone on the TV work, due to the medium that it is. I would imagine that everybody is aware of that."

Well this is music for music fans, these aren't 'comedy albums' by any sense.

"Exactly, yeah."

We were talking to Benjamin Clementine after he won the Mercury Prize, and he said that 'we are all actors' - in that he assumes different characters to tell a story. With you being a writer and actor yourself, do you find yourself more naturally doing that through your music?

"Well if that's what helps him by writing about fictitious people, then I totally understand, or if he needs to do that to get back into that frame of mind when he wrote that song, then that could be the same thing, but it depends on what you're doing - whether you're storytelling or confessional, I guess. 

"A lot of my songs are about things that concern me personally, not a heightened version of myself or any of the characters that I play. They're about the changing of the seasons and nightmares that I've had and fears of different things. That's what I write about, I can't really help it." 

Do you find that cathartic?

"I've always done music, I've always painted, I wouldn't not. When you come to the end of a TV project, it's good to be able and I'm kind of lucky that I can just go into a different medium, make another album or do whatever."

You put out your first album in 1995 long before you started in TV. Was music your first love or has it always run parallel to everything else?

"I'm interested in all of it. I didn't know how interested I was in performing until I did Darkplace. I hadn't done anything really up until that point, I didn't mind the cameras and I didn't know that I would enjoy it."

Music For Insomniacs and Kill The Wolf were two markedly different albums - where would you say you are now?

"They are very different and they were meant to be. Music For Insomniacs was a side project amd just a reaction to the fact that there was nothing on the market that you could listen to when you were suffering. The only that was around was whale song and panpipes, and that wasn't good enough. I just did something that was a bit more interesting, I did it for myself and the record label put it out, which was great. It has nothing to do with Witch Hazel or Kill The Wolf. "

So Kill The Wolf was two years ago and was the last record to feature what you'd call 'traditional songs'. How's progress been on new material since then?

"Since Kill The Wolf I got commissioned to do Toast Of London, which has kind of taken over my life and the third series is on now. I've had to work in and around that so it's not running as far as I or the record label would like, but I can concentrate more on that now. There's more of an electronic kind of feel to the new stuff. Kill The Wolf was very string-orientated, and this one will be too, but it will be more electronic - not in a dance-y way but an atmospheric kind of way."

What's inspiring you lyrically at the moment? Still fears and nightmares?

"Well I'm kind of going deeper with that at the moment. It's about how much you dare to share with other people. I've kind of given a bit away, but with this one I don't care as much but I'll try to convey real worries, anxieties and these kinds of things. That's the hope.

"It's kind of like someone else is doing it - someone else has come into my room, put all these things in my head, not told me how they're going to work with each other and then I've got to do it. Everything is relevant, but I don't know why. That's going to take about six months. It's only when you're deep in the middle of it that it all makes sense."

What would you say you are listening to at the moment?

"I listen to a lot of Clarke, and I'm listening to Abba in terms of record production. Some of the Morriconne lesser-known soundtracks, because I want to hear everything - all the stuff from the films that didn't do any business from the 1970s. It's like what he was doing while no one gave a shit."

What would you say are the records that you always come back to?

"I always come back to Jesus Christ Superstar, the original concept album. I always come back to the gentler stuff like Simon & Garfunkel and the Fleet Foxes' first album - that's quite an odd one. It's one of these ones that when I first heard it, I fell in love with it - I thought 'because it's a new album I'll probably like it in a year or two'. You know, 'good but not a classic, one that I could live without', but it is a classic, it has turned into one of my essentials. That's something I never would have expected."

So have you invested in the Father John Misty album?

"No, I don't know that."

He was the drummer of Fleet Foxes gone solo, his new one I Love You, Honeybear is one of the best of the year. 

"That sounds interesting. They've split, right? From what I understand, they were never meant to get that big - they just kind of did and it became this massive album which wasn't what everyone wanted."

Yes, it was a bit too early. 

"I think so. I saw them live and they were quite nervous."

Ah, well Father John Misty is anything but nervous.

"Good, I like that."

Matt Berry And The Maypoles' UK tour kicks off tonight. Full dates are below. For tickets and information, visit here.

Wed 2 Dec – Club Academy, Manchester
Thurs 3 Dec – Oran Mor, Glasgow
Fri 4 Dec – Riverside, Newcastle
Sat 5 Dec – Fibbers, York
Sun 6 Dec – The Library @ The Institute, Birmingham
Mon 7 Dec – The Fleece, Bristol
Tues 8 Dec – The Old Market, Brighton, UK
Thurs 10 Dec – The Forum, London

More about: Matt Berry