Music Interview: Matt Deighton

When hi-fi+ calls UK singer-songwriter Matt Deighton at his home in rural Wales to talk about the writing and recording of his new album, Today Become Forever—his seventh, the first since 2018, and one of his best—he tells us he has just finished fitting a mono cartridge to his near-mint Thorens T160 turntable, which he recently bought for £200.

“I’d been living with Pink Floyd’s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn in mono through a stereo headshell – it now sounds gorgeous and really focused,” he says, delightedly.

“I’m going down a rabbit hole with hi-fi. You know what it’s like. If you’re not careful, you end up on your knees, penniless. It’s the curse and the beauty of eBay.”

Vintage hi-fi fan and vinyl lover Deighton is the former frontman/ guitarist of ‘90s English acid jazz outfit Mother Earth.

He has played and recorded with acts including Paul Weller, Dr Robert (The Blow Monkeys), Mick Talbot (The Style Council) and Squeeze’s Chris Difford – he was even briefly in Oasis when Noel Gallagher quit a European tour in 2000.

Deighton has made several brilliant, soulful, and rustic solo albums steeped in folk-horror, mod-rock, and pastoral beauty, yet he remains one of Britain’s best-kept musical secrets.

The Observer Music Monthly once said of him: ‘His true spiritual ancestor is Nick Drake,’ while the Sunday Times wrote: ‘It is impossible to imagine fans of Nick Drake and John Martyn not falling in love with him.’

Today Become Forever, the follow-up to 2018’s Doubtless Dauntless, features Weller-like anthemic rock, gorgeous folk songs, a touch of jazz, soulful brass, string arrangements, and a Hammond organ.

As hi-fi+ said in its review of the record in the November 2023 issue, ‘High Time (Figured It Out)’ features splashes of country piano. ‘Stringless Heart’—acoustic guitar and strings—is a great showcase for Deighton’s playing and his aching vocals, while ‘Letting Go’ has a flute on it that gives it a Nick Drake circa Bryter Layter feel.

Today Become Forever was partly produced by Ken Scott (The Beatles, David Bowie, George Harrison) and Deighton himself. 

“It’s from three album sessions spread about a year apart,” he explains.

“We recorded some of it at a place in Leeds and the bulk of it was at Monnow Valley [in Monmouthshire, Wales]. Doubtless Dauntless was done from start to finish at Monnow Valley in two weeks, which was exhausting – I didn’t want to do that again. I enjoyed it but it did my nut in because I had to produce it… You had to have a certain amount of songs done by the Tuesday because the string section were coming in… Oh my God.

“The new record was done how I like it, as and when I had something to put down in the studio. I picked the recordings to see which ones worked with each other.”

SH: Can you tell me about the recording of the new album?

MD: I worked with Callum Marinho, who is now at Noel Gallagher’s studio at Tileyard [in London]. The majority of the album was engineered by Callum and I produced it – I basically just said, ‘More reverb.’ I was stuck on Callum’s monitor mixes right until the eleventh hour because I loved the sound of them.

For about a year I was adamant they were the ones but then my manager said they needed mixing again, so we got Dave Lynch from Echo Zoo in Eastbourne to do it – he put it all through original gear, like a desk from Trident [Studios, in Soho, London], which was really fitting, as Ken Scott used to work there. His stuff came home.

How was Ken Scott to work with?

He was brilliant – he used to cut the lacquers at Abbey Road.

I worked with him for about a week. We did three songs live. We were talking about the benefits of mono – I enjoy mono recordings. 

He was lovely and he’s got a similar view to me on digital – if you start overdubbing with Pro Tools, I think it starts to show its limitations, as opposed to two-inch tape. I don’t think I’m going to do another album – that it’s now – but if I do, it will be on tape. I won’t be doing anything digital anymore. I like tape.

But the new album was recorded digitally, wasn’t it?

Yeah – partly because of budget. Doubtless Dauntless was going to be done strictly on two-inch tape until we saw the price of a reel. It was two grand for four reels – it just wasn’t right…

I prefer seeing a reel-to-reel in a room… Ken said an important thing – now with Pro Tools, sometimes people are looking at the music and not listening to it. If there’s a tape booth, you’re just listening to two speakers – you’re not looking at soundwaves. That’s kind of where I come from. 

I like the new record’s sound – it’s warm and intimate…

It’s live, other than overdubbing vocals – that was down to the practicalities of getting the vocals separate from the acoustic guitar. All the band recordings were one or two takes.

Which musicians did you play with?

Lucy Morgan, who is a really good viola player – she was in Dexys and I knew her through [arranger] Ben Trigg, who works with Richard Ashcroft and is my secret weapon as far as strings go – he’s brilliant and he’s also a great bassist and a Hammond player, so he’s invaluable. We had a brilliant drummer called Conor Lawrence and an amazing flautist, Jacko Peake, who works with Paul Weller – he’s a lovely bloke. It was a mixture of people, but not many – everyone I work with is just down to earth.

This is your first album in five years…

Something like that – it’s been quite a while. I don’t put albums out every day – I’ve got nothing to say until I’ve got something to say… In some ways it’s fortunate not being on a major label – I’m not pressed to literally press records every year.

It’s taken a while – there are a couple of songs on the new album that were written 15 years ago. Some of the songs weren’t right for the last album, Doubtless Dauntless. 

There’s a song on the new album called ‘Stringless Heart’ – I’ve had that since 2002 or 2003. It just didn’t seem to fit the running order of whichever album I was putting out. 

Why do you think this record will be your last one?

I’ve done enough. I know this isn’t a great promotional interview…

I don’t understand it when people are putting out records all the time because they have to. They run out of titles and eventually they just call their album the name of the band they’re in – I’m not into all that. If I’ve got nothing to say, I’d rather shut up. That’s why my albums take a while – it’s not because I’m perfecting them in some sort of magical way, but I’m not inspired. I stop for a while but then all of a sudden there’s a bloody tune in my head and I think ‘I’d better record it…’ There’s a song on the new album called ‘Letting Go’, which is as it came out when I made it up.

It’s a beautiful song with a stripped-back, jazzy acoustic guitar…

Yeah – it’s nice that one. I came up with it when I was in a band called The Family Silver.

I saw The Family Silver play in London, with Steve White on drums and Damon Minchella on bass…

Blimey – we didn’t do a lot of gigs, so you were lucky to catch us. I miss being in that group – I loved it. I’d do that again anytime, but it’s quite a hard thing to keep together.

I did ‘Letting Go’ at BluePrint Studios in Salford – I just picked up a guitar and played it… It’s weird – I had it happen recently too. I picked up a guitar at home and came out with a complete song, with the words. It does blow your mind sometimes when it happens. 

Are you a prolific songwriter?

I’m really f***ing lazy! Saying that, I’ve got three albums I’ve co-written that are unreleased. One I co-wrote with Dr Robert – it needs mixing but it’s going to come out next year. I’ve written an album with Kathryn Williams – that’s not been recorded – and I’m working with Gary Carpenter and Andy Tompkins, who were on the soundtrack of The Wicker Man. It’s folklore stories from around the British Isles.

There’s a lot of great new music out there now. Who do you like?

I don’t have any idea who’s well known or who’s got a record out – I haven’t got a clue. That’s not deliberate but I don’t listen to modern music – I haven’t got the time. 

I’ve got so many old albums I’m still investigating again. You get that thing where there’s an album you know, but five years later you play it again and it makes you feel different – you grow around music or it grows around you.

I’m happily dwelling a bit in the present but mostly in the past – I just love all that. 

Today Become Forever is out now (Karousel Buried Treasure & Matt Deighton). 

www.mattdeighton.co.uk

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