Background
Written with his father Keith, and the British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 4 World War I drama series Home Front.
Written with his father Keith, and the British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 4 World War I drama series Home Front.
Goldsmiths, University of London.
His best known work is the music for the television game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? He has also contributed music to film and television productions such as Extract, The Detectives, Question Time, Winning Lincolnshire, 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 Doctor John and Richard Stilgoe".
He has also noted that he is out of step culturally.
"My sensibilities are retro-fitted. lieutenant took me a decade to realize U2 were a good band.
He is also the creator of the comic fictional 1970"s composer Klaus Harmony. 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, 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 Participant II, was released later in 2012.
A new studio album by Matthew Strachan titled Perfect World Now Possible was released by Nono Records in September 2014. Mostly Dead, UkFilm.co Love Is a Four Letter Word Worth Seven Points, Boxfly Media, (2015) In Limbo, Nine Ladies Films, (2015) Extract, Composer – Wundercrotchen, Miramax Films, (2009) Slumdog Millionaire, Composer – Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Fox Searchlight, (2008) Millions, Composer – Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Fox Searchlight, (2004) Celador Films Theme, Celador Films About a Boy, Composer – Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Universal Pictures, (2002) A Kind of Hush, Composer/lyricist – Confusions, First Film Company/Metrodome, (1998).