Biography

Matthew Strachan was a 12-time ASCAP Award-winning composer and songwriter. He began his career writing songs for a BBC drama series and continued composing media music throughout the 1990s gaining such diverse credits as The Detectives, The Ward, Question Time, and the iconic soundtrack for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire which followed the show to over 100 countries. His theme for WWI drama Home Front played from 2014-2018 on Radio 4.

In the early 2000s Matthew moved to Nashville where he wrote songs for recording artists, collaborating with writers such as Tom Kimmel, Don Henry and J. Fred Knobloch. Returning to England, he wrote music and lyrics for the stage musicals Next Door's Baby and About Bill both of which were produced in London. He also composed numerous incidental scores for acclaimed productions in London, the West End and regional theatres.

Matthew's music was used in a number of movies including Slumdog Millionaire, Extract, About a Boy, and A Kind of Hush. He released several albums of his own characterful songwriting and performs from time to time at London venues such as the St James Theatre and The Pheasantry. Matthew was the creator of the comic 1970s composer Klaus Harmony and his first novel, under the pseudonym MB Vincent, was published by Simon & Schuster in 2018.

Matthew created music for Michael Dennis's Dark Sublime, which played at the Trafalgar Studios, starring Marina Sirtis.
- IMDb mini biography by: Broad Oak Music

He and his wife Bernadette (a novelist who also writes as Juliet Ashton) co-wrote the 'Jess Castle Mysteries' series of novels under the joint pseudonym M B Vincent.

Someone once said I was somewhere on a spectrum somewhere between Dr. John and Richard Stilgoe. I don't want to think about which end.

My sensibilities are retro-fitted. It took me a decade to realize U2 were a good band. I was sitting in a hotel and said to my wife of a record, "mark my words, that track is going to be big." It had been a hit across Europe for weeks.