Feature: Interview - Terry Messenger talks to comic Matt Berry
Published: 21 April, 2011
by TERRY MESSENGER
AS befits a psychedelic folk album, Witchazel by TV comic Matt Berry is something of an enigma. Matt made a name for himself as a young, acerbic and cynical comedian in shows such as the IT Crowd and Snuff Box.
His most prominent YouTube appearance sees him turn from smarmy to abusive when women tell him they have boyfriends. Yet Witchazel, we are asked to believe, is a sincere tribute to that most earnest of musical genres – early 1970s folk rock and psychedelia.
Matt recorded the album in his flat, playing most of the instruments himself, creating a lavish, skilled and highly complex piece of music. He is staging a mini tour to promote the record, culminating with a gig at The Garage, Highbury Corner, with his band The Maypoles on Tuesday.
However, lyrics like “I live in a barn and I don’t give a darn for the cows and the sheep as they strain to excrete” do beg the question: Are you pulling our leg, Matt?
“It’s not tongue in cheek and I’m certainly not ridiculing the music,” he insists. “I’m not interested enough in comedy to do a sketch that would last the length of a whole album.”
Witchazel was a labour of love made purely for his own satisfaction and marketed commercially only because his friend and fellow comic actor Johnny Owen recommended it to Ed Piller at Acid Jazz Records.
Inspired by folk rock legends Pentangle, Matt says: “Anything rustic and British I’m into. There’s nothing cool about it and that’s what I like. People can tell whether you’re in it just to make money or pose or you are just doing it because it’s from the heart.”
Is that convincing? I don’t think we should give him the benefit of the doubt – because it really doesn’t matter one way or the other.
Listen to Witchazel and if, like me, you were into folk rock and psychedelia first time round, just drift nostalgically away to a far off time and place when you were off your face and should have been studying for your A-levels. Enjoy.
• Matt Berry and The Maypoles play The Garage, 20-22 Highbury Corner, N5, on April 26, 7pm, £16.50, 020 7619 6721