{"id":107947,"date":"2025-08-31T03:06:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T03:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/107947\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T03:06:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T03:06:08","slug":"matt-deighton-the-sde-interview-superdeluxeedition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/107947\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Deighton \/ The SDE Interview \u2013 SuperDeluxeEdition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Singer-songwriter and guitarist Matt Deighton\u2019s<\/a> latest solo album,\u00a0Today Become Forever, is No 44 in the SDE Surround Series and is released next week. Limited to just 1,000 units, it\u2019s available on blu-ray audio featuring Dolby Atmos, 5.1, stereo and instrumentals mixes, alongside a previously unreleased bonus track and four videos.<\/p>\n

Deighton, who was the frontman and guitarist with \u201890s acid jazz outfit Mother Earth, also played with Paul Weller<\/a> on 1997\u2019s\u00a0Heavy Soul\u00a0tour, and joined Oasis<\/a> in 2000, when he temporarily replaced Noel Gallagher, who quit the band mid-tour.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Observer Music Monthly\u00a0once said of him: \u2018His true spiritual ancestor is Nick Drake<\/a>\u2019, while the\u00a0Sunday Times\u00a0wrote: \u2018It is impossible to imagine fans of Nick Drake and John Martyn<\/a> not falling in love with him.\u2019<\/p>\n

Deighton\u2019s life was documented in the Sky Arts film,\u00a0Overshadowed, and he\u2019s also worked with Chris Difford of Squeeze<\/a> and English singer-songwriter, Bill Fay (who died in February).<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Deighton released a collaboration album with Dr Robert of The Blow Monkeys<\/a> \u2013 called\u00a0The\u00a0Instant Garden, it\u2019s a stripped-back, folk-psych record inspired by Tyrannosaurus Rex, Fred Neil and Tim Hardin.<\/p>\n

Today Become Forever, which was originally released in 2023, is Deighton\u2019s seventh solo album. Partly produced by Ken Scott (The Beatles<\/a>, David Bowie<\/a>, George Harrison<\/a>) and Deighton himself, it features anthemic mod rock, gorgeous folk songs, a touch of jazz, soulful brass, cinematic string arrangements and Hammond organ.<\/p>\n

SDE talked to Deighton about the Dolby Atmos version of\u00a0Today Become Forever, writing and recording the original record, and his plans to make a new acoustic solo album on a reel-to-reel tape machine.<\/p>\n

SDE: How did the idea of doing an SDE Surround Series Blu-ray Audio edition of\u00a0Today Become Forever\u00a0come about?<\/p>\n

Matt Deighton:\u00a0I subscribe to SDE, I saw an unboxing video of The Beatles\u2019\u00a0Revolver, I liked Paul Sinclair\u2019s eye for detail on graphic design, and I started buying stuff from the website. I spotted Paul at a Dolby Atmos playback event for Mike Oldfield\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0Tubular Bells,\u00a0and I approached him and told him I liked what he was doing with physical releases in a world of streaming.\u00a0<\/p>\n

About a month later, my mate, Chris Sheehan [musician and manager], got in touch \u2013 he said he\u2019d heard from a friend called Tim Burns, who he had worked with at a studio in Wood Green (North London). Tim had heard\u00a0Today Become Forever, liked it, and asked if he could do a Dolby Atmos mix of a couple of tracks. But Chris being Chris, said: \u2018I dunno \u2013 if you\u2019re gonna do it, you need to do the whole album\u2026\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, Tim said, \u2018Alright\u2026\u2019 We went from there and we ended up at Tileyard [studios in King\u2019s Cross, London], where we mixed the album for Surround Sound. I got on well with Tim.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your take on the Dolby Atmos version of the album?<\/p>\n

Most of it is mind-blowing! \u2018Snow Lit Lovers\u2019 sounds like I\u2019m in a forest\u2026 It\u2019s immersive, but it doesn\u2019t detract from the mixes, and it just emphasises how well Callum Marinho [engineer] and Ken Scott had set things up when we originally played and recorded stuff. It doesn\u2019t make it feel exposed or ill-suited for such scrutiny hi-fi-wise.<\/p>\n

Do you think hearing the capabilities of Dolby Atmos will affect how you work in the studio in the future?<\/p>\n

I\u2019d bear it in mind, because I\u2019ve found it luscious, but it would depend on the music \u2013 if it\u2019s just guitar and vocals, that\u2019s a hard ask. The next thing I\u2019m working on probably wouldn\u2019t lend itself to Dolby Atmos. My album,\u00a0Doubtless Dauntless, would be pretty good for it \u2013 \u2018Need Never Be\u2019 is cathedral-esque.<\/p>\n

\"\"Matt signing the art cards for signed blu-ray<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a previously unreleased song from the\u00a0Today Become Forever\u00a0sessions called \u2018Satisfiction\u2019 that\u2019s exclusively available on the SDE Surround Series version of the album. What can you tell us about that? It\u2019s a soulful rock\/pop song\u2026<\/p>\n

I\u2019d forgotten it existed. I\u2019d made a point of wiping anything I wasn\u2019t happy with, but I forgot about it! I\u2019m glad I didn\u2019t wipe it\u2026 It\u2019s got some good bits, but it\u2019s an outtake for a reason\u2026 it just didn\u2019t fit on the album. I tried it but it wasn\u2019t welcome. I misheard Joni Mitchell singing what I thought was \u2018satisfiction\u2019 on \u2018Song For Sharon\u2019 from\u00a0Hejira, when I was slightly enhanced, and I thought, \u2018Oh \u2013 satisfiction\u2026 I bet no one\u2019s thought of that\u2026\u2019 But they had \u2013 there\u2019s many a track called \u2018Satisfiction\u2019\u2026<\/p>\n

You worked with legendary producer and engineer Ken Scott on\u00a0Today Become Forever.\u00a0What did he bring to the sessions?<\/p>\n

Sixty-five years of colossal experience\u00a0of doing beatific stuff! We bonded over mono\u2026 I\u2019d read his book\u2026 he used to cut acetates at Abbey Road. He cut Pink Floyd\u2019s<\/a> single, \u2018Apples and Oranges\u2019 loud, and I spoke to him about that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After he initially vetted me in front of a few engineers who he was showing how things worked, I was thinking, \u2018Don\u2019t think about David Bowie<\/a> or\u00a0The White Album\u00a0\u2013 I should just go home\u2019, but he was brilliant \u2013 he wasn\u2019t standoffish in any way, but he was observing, because he\u2019s done it all\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

Me and the musicians set up in a room and we started playing and recording live, with headphones on, but we couldn\u2019t get the right mix and the blend was weird.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When Ken went to the cafeteria we decided to play without headphones, so we could hear each other. We then asked him if we could do that, and he said, \u2018yeah\u2019 \u2013 it was just great. He\u2019s so musical. We worked with him for a week, and we got three songs done: \u2018Snow Lit Lovers\u2019, \u2018High Time (Figured It Out)\u2019 and \u2018When All Heaven Breaks Loose.\u2019 It was an absolute joy to sit with him and quiz him about all the things he\u2019s worked on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today Become Forever\u00a0has a warm and intimate sound and was largely recorded at the famous Monnow Valley Studio in Monmouthshire, Wales, which was used by Oasis, Black Sabbath and Queen. What was it like being there?<\/p>\n

It was beautiful, but it\u2019s a very haunted place \u2013 the last time we were there, I just wanted to leave. It\u2019s because of Black Sabbath \u2013 they did a Ouija board there and there\u2019s a portal down at the end of the corridor. I had a horrific dream there, when we were recording \u2018Ruthless Grin\u2019 and \u2018Somewhere To Climb To\u2019 \u2013 I dreamt I was being dragged down the corridor to room 3, which was dodgy. When I was left in the studio, I heard a female voice that sounded like Kate Bush<\/a>, and it said \u2018Matt.\u2019 There was also shuffling in the room. It was creepy. I got out of there sharpish.<\/p>\n

The engineer on the songs you recorded for\u00a0Today Become Forever\u00a0at Monnow Valley was Callum Marinho, who now works with Noel Gallagher\u2026<\/p>\n

I\u2019m so pleased for him\u2026 He\u2019s good. I was happy with Callum\u2019s monitor mixes \u2013 I\u2019m a believer of getting it done on the day, because it\u2019s in the air \u2013 that\u2019s the weather you\u2019re at, sonically. It was the same with [engineer] Matt Glasbey, who worked on the track \u2018Stringless Heart\u2019 \u2013 he mixed David Gilmour\u2019s<\/a> last album,\u00a0Luck and Strange. I was lucky enough to work with him and Callum.<\/p>\n

\u2018Stringless Heart\u2019 was originally intended for your 2018 album\u00a0Doubtless Dauntless\u00a0\u2013 it\u2019s an old song that you wrote in 2002 or 2003\u2026<\/p>\n

Yeah \u2013 it was a long time ago, to the point where babies were born, grew up, got jobs, and had their own children\u00a0(laughs).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u2018Letting Go\u2019, from\u00a0Today Become Forever, dates back from your time with The Family Silver, the band you were in with Steve White (The Style Council and Paul Weller) and Damon Minchella (Ocean Colour Scene, Richard Ashcroft). Didn\u2019t that song just tumble out of you when you were in the studio?<\/p>\n

Yeah \u2013 it\u2019s from when we went to Blueprint, in Salford. It was quite emotional \u2013 I was sort of in tears\u2026 I don\u2019t want to sound dramatic, but without sounding pretentious, doing music is an emotional thing \u2013 you\u2019re tapping into your heartbeat and all the rest of it \u2013 good and bad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We\u2019d done \u2018Overshadowed\u2019 [the Sky Arts documentary] which was cathartic, but I was overwhelmed by it, and I thought it was a bit heavy\u2026 I didn\u2019t think I should\u2019ve felt like that, as it was only music\u2026 There was a guitar sitting around, I picked it up and \u2018Letting Go\u2019 came out verbatim \u2013 I played all of it as it was\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

Is it quite rare for a song to fall out of you fully formed?<\/p>\n

When I was in my teens [and I read about it happening to people], I thought, \u2018That\u2019s a bit flash\u2019, but then when it happened to me, I thought, \u2018Oh \u2013 it does\u2026\u2019. It\u2019s emotional \u2013 I get choked up thinking about it. I don\u2019t know why \u2013 that\u2019s probably something for a psychologist\u00a0(laughs)\u2026<\/p>\n

I picked the guitar up yesterday, and a tune popped out\u2026 I thought, \u2018Have I worked that out before?\u2019 but I hadn\u2019t\u2026 Bill Fay used to have it too \u2013 he called it \u2018song finding.\u2019 It\u2019s in me \u2013 it\u2019s like gardening \u2013 if you\u2019ve got green fingers and you\u2019re passionate, you\u2019re in tune with it\u2026 It comes from within you. It was my tune, and it came from me \u2013 not some guardian angel on Saturn\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today Become Forever\u00a0opens with \u2018A Song That\u2019s On My Mind\u2019, which is a big, soulful, psych-rock track with brass\u2026<\/p>\n

It\u2019s me trying to channel my inner Mother Earth again.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Snow Lit Lovers\u2019 is one of my favourite songs on the album \u2013 it\u2019s so cinematic\u2026<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of my favourites too, but I like them all\u2026 That song was new territory for me \u2013 it\u2019s a deep number and scary, but hopefully not depressing. I love it \u2013 I\u2019m so proud of it. I\u2019d had it for a while. It was on a cassette somewhere and was called \u2018Baroque Thing.\u2019 It came from a guitar that someone got out of a skip \u2013 you could only play the first five frets on it, but it was a beautiful hand-built guitar\u2026 It was from a school in London that was being cleared out.<\/p>\n

Where did the album title,\u00a0Today Become Forever, come from?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s from a particular book I was reading \u2013 I just took the \u2018s\u2019 off Becomes\u00a0(laughs).\u00a0There\u2019s nothing deep about it \u2013 I just thought it was an odd title\u2026 I\u2019m a stickler for titles. Me and a mate were talking about titles by The Fall: \u2018\u2018Bingo Master\u2019s Breakout?\u2019 What\u2019s that about? I\u2019m going to have to listen to it\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n

When you said you took the \u2018s\u2019 off Becomes, it made me think of Oasis, when they called their album\u00a0Standing On The Shoulder of Giants, rather than the grammatically correct\u00a0Standing On The Shoulders of Giants\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yeah \u2013 they took it from the side of a \u00a32 coin when they were pissed in Soho, so what do you expect?\u00a0(laughs).\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fair to say that when\u00a0Today Become Forever\u00a0was released in 2023, it went under the radar. It\u2019s a brilliant album, but not a lot of people got to hear it and it didn\u2019t get much press coverage\u2026<\/p>\n

It was only thanks to you, Sean, that it got a review \u2013 you were the only person that noticed it existed! It was so unknown that when I was on tour and someone saw a copy of it on the merch stall, they said, \u2018What album\u2019s that?\u2019 I said, \u2018It\u2019s the new one!\u2019\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The SDE Surround Series version will give it a new lease of life and a second chance\u2026<\/p>\n

That\u2019s exactly what I\u2019m thinking. I\u2019m seriously so excited about it, and it\u2019s coming out on my birthday \u2013 5 September. As far as I\u2019m concerned, it\u2019s one of the best things that\u2019s happened to me in my solo career \u2013 a highlight in my musical existence. If there\u2019s any chance of this album getting heard and noticed, it\u2019s now. I will be doing more [music], but if nothing else happened, I\u2019d be happy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On that note, you have been doing new music. You\u2019ve made\u00a0The Instant Garden\u00a0album with Dr Robert of The Blow Monkeys, and you\u2019ve been working with folk group Magnet, including founder member Gary Carpenter, on their first album since they did the soundtrack for\u00a0The Wicker Man\u00a0in 1973. You\u2019re crowdfunding the Magnet album<\/a>, aren\u2019t you? How\u2019s that going?] <\/p>\n

As far as mixing and manufacturing it, it\u2019s a tall order \u2013 it\u2019s such a large amount of money\u2026 I\u2019d rather give the record to a label to do it.\u00a0 It\u2019s too easy to say it\u2019s jinxed, but there\u2019s something about doing something with\u00a0The Wicker Man\u00a0that keeps some people at arm\u2019s length\u2026 It\u2019s weird and so personal for some people. I get the feeling that the record is destined not to be heard in my lifetime, but hopefully there will be a way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On a positive note, it has been recorded for Dolby Atmos purposes.\u00a0(laughs).\u00a0Every song on it is a story or a folklore myth from around the British Isles. It will happen\u2026 it\u2019s just that we can\u2019t predict when \u2013 the record will tell us when it\u2019s going to do its thing somehow.<\/p>\n

Are you going to make another solo album?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to do an album that I will probably record on reel-to-reel \u2013 I got given a TEAC 4-track recorder that was going to end up in a skip.<\/p>\n

It will basically be me and an acoustic guitar. For the past 20 years, I\u2019ve been asked why I don\u2019t do a record with an acoustic guitar and no one else. Well, I\u2019ve been too scared to do it, because of the opportunity to put a Hammond on it\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

Recently I\u2019ve been listening to June Tabor, and Shirley Collins and Anne Briggs and it\u2019s unaccompanied, so I\u2019ve been thinking, \u2018Matt \u2013 why are you making albums that are loaded because this is what I like?\u2019 It\u2019s been in plain sight, and I hadn\u2019t even noticed. The album I like most by Nick Drake is\u00a0Pink Moon,\u00a0and the June Tabor stuff I\u2019ve been listening to was recorded in a stone cottage with one mic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My son has turned me on to Jessica Pratt, but my favourite track by her wasn\u2019t recorded in a flash studio \u2013 it was done on an iPhone, you can hear the traffic in the background, and it clicks off\u2026 I love it. So, I\u2019m just going to record at home \u2013 I\u2019ve got some tunes that turned up in my head. From memory, it\u2019s stuff I did 15 years ago\u2026 I picked the guitar up and I played one of them without thinking. I love it when that happens.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thanks to Matt Deighton who was talking to Sean Hannam for SDE. An edited version of this interview appears in the booklet of the Today Become Forever SDE blu-ray, which is out next week. The last copies of the blu-rays are still available and new to the SDE shop is the album on vinyl (which was pressed at Optimal) signed by Matt (limited to 40 copies!)<\/p>\n

SuperDeluxeEdition.com\u00a0helps fans around the world discover physical music and discuss releases. To keep the site free, SDE participates in various affiliate programs, including Amazon and earns from qualifying purchases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Singer-songwriter and guitarist Matt Deighton\u2019s latest solo album,\u00a0Today Become Forever, is No 44 in the SDE Surround Series…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-107947","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}