Matt Prior
Composer, producer, and the late Bonnie Tyler's guitarist from 1998, across more than seventy countries, alongside sessions, scores and a whole second career in sonic branding for the likes of Formula 1 and Sony. Matt is warm, funny and strikingly candid, and this episode goes deeper on mental health than any so far.
About this episode
Matt was headed for football, with trials at West Ham, Aston Villa and Norwich, until at fourteen he heard the intro to Have You Ever Loved a Woman on one of his dad's albums and everything changed. Hendrix, Van Halen and Marillion stacked up, and a village kid's lessons and obsessive practice turned into a life in music.
He maps out the whole working portfolio, how the Bonnie gig and the branding work fit together and how the money actually flows, but the heart of it is an open account of years of severe anxiety and perfectionism, a long stretch where he could not deliver work for fear of being judged, and the help, including CBT, that got him through.
In this episode
Every theme we put to every guest. Jump straight to it in the video.
- 6:37The Road InParents who gave him money to go to the pub just to get him out of the practice room, and a village blues club where he went on shaking, with a Strat and a wah pedal, and learned what authority sounded like.
- 37:09The CraftGetting the gig is one thing, sounding like you belong is another. Matt on his first day among professionals, able to play every note and still not doing the job.
- 50:08The HeadSix years where he could not hand a track in, because he could not face being judged. One of the most open accounts of perfectionism you will hear from a working player.
- 1:11:02The MoneyTouring, PRS, mechanicals and sonic branding fees, and how a year's money can arrive in a single month. Also: half a million streams, seventeen pence.
- 1:24:10The MachineWhat happens when the intern can generate a backing track. Matt on AI in library music, and A/B-ing an Abbey Road master against an AI one and finding it uncomfortably close.
- 1:41:19The BodyTouring with food intolerances nobody knew about, coming home lighter after every run, and training at nine at night because the work finished at half eight.
- 2:08:02The GearThe room he built so a hard drive can go to British Grove or Abbey Road and still translate, and what he actually reaches for when the red light goes on.
- 2:22:45The ReckoningHis therapist's homework was to draw a line without a ruler and accept that it was not perfect. What he has made peace with, and what still nags.
New interviews, straight to you.
Notify me when a new episode lands. No spam, just the interviews.