Origin London, England Name Matthew Strachan Labels Nono, Nessus | Years active 1986–present Instruments Piano Spouse Bernadette Strachan | |
Born 11 December 1970 (age 53) ( 1970-12-11 ) Genres Rock/pop, country, soundtrack, musical theatre Occupation(s) Singer-songwriter, composer, lyricist Role Composer · matthewstrachan.co.uk Albums Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? The Album Associated acts Klaus Harmony, Kim Ismay, Tom Kimmel Similar People Keith Strachan, Catherine Porter, Don Henry, Fred Knoblock, Tom Kimmel Profiles | ||
Matthew Strachan Live at the St James Theatre
Matthew Strachan ( or ; born 11 December 1970) is an English composer and singer-songwriter.
Contents
- Matthew Strachan Live at the St James Theatre
- Biography
- Discography
- Music for motion pictures
- Music featured in motion pictures
- References
His best known work is the music for the television game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? written with his father Keith, and the BBC Radio 4 World War I drama series Home Front. He has also contributed music to film and television productions such as Extract, The Detectives, Question Time, Winning Lines, jingles for several television commercials, and scores for stage musicals.
As a singer-songwriter Strachan is regarded as having a bittersweet style, often employing satire and characterisation to make political points about unusual subjects such as social networking and the media. He has remarked of his style that he is "somewhere on a spectrum somewhere between Dr. John and Richard Stilgoe". He has also noted that he is out of step culturally. "My sensibilities are retro-fitted. It took me a decade to realize U2 were a good band ... I was sitting in a hotel and said to my wife of a record, 'mark my words, that track is going to be big.' It had been a hit across Europe for weeks." As a composer of stage musicals he is noted for writing songs with a complete narrative arc.
Strachan has won twelve awards from ASCAP (American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers) and in 2012 received the ASCAP Hall of Fame Award in recognition of ten consecutive wins for the soundtrack of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
He is also the creator of the comic fictional 1970's composer Klaus Harmony. In March 2017 Simon & Schuster announced that it would be publishing a series of crime fiction books co-written by Strachan and his wife, Bernadette Strachan.
Biography
Strachan began writing songs as a teenager and his first professional job was to write five songs for the BBCTV drama Boogie Outlaws.
After training at Dartington College of Arts and Goldsmiths College, University of London, he worked as a soundtrack composer throughout the 1990s creating music for television, radio and theatre productions until concentrating on songwriting in Nashville, Tennessee where he collaborated with songwriters Don Henry, Tom Kimmel, J. Fred Knobloch, and Thom Schuyler.
Following two years in America he created score and lyrics for the stage musicals About Bill and Next Door's Baby. In 2012 he announced the creation of a comedy oratorio based on the life of the Coronation Street character Ken Barlow for inclusion in his live shows.
In 2012 Nono Records released 25 Year Songbook, an album of Strachan performing a selection of songs from his back catalogue. The second volume, 25 Year Songbook Part II, was released later in 2012.
A new studio album by Matthew Strachan titled Serious Men was released by Lonely Goat Records in August 2016.