Jul 03 – Interview With X-Factor Winner Matt Cardle
Chart-topping X-Factor winner Matt Cardle is currently on the Rock and will be performing some of his big hits at the Miss Gibraltar 2015 tomorrow night.
A press conference was held at the Sunborn, where Matt said this was his second visit to Gibraltar, and he loves this place because it reminded him of his home Halstead, in Essex, in that it had a real community feel and “everyone is so lovely”.
Matt is currently working on his fourth album, which he describes as soulful and electro, but until the October release, he is debuting on the West End playing the role of Huey in Memphis the Musical, starring opposite British soul singer Beverley Knight.
Speaking about his new role, the 32-year-old said: “The first thing I had to do was get over myself. This is a whole other world for me and it took a while to get the confidence in acting, but it was a lot to chew off for the first entrance into the West End.
“I got a phone call from Beverley, and I fell in love with the character and the show and everything about it.”
He’s confident about the transition from performer to actor as he spends so much time on stage anyway.
Matt went into rehab for prescription drug addiction earlier this year, but he has have landed on his feet now, and things are moving forward for him.
With early musical influences such as Michael Jackson, Crowded House, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush and later Nirvana, Slipknot and Pearl Jam, and his favourite band Rage Against The Machine, Matt said his fourth album is his best one yet.
He said: “I had a year off and I found myself going to the studio to write and perform because I wanted to, not because I was on a deadline or meeting anyone else’s expectations.
“Now I find myself making the type of music I have wanted to make from the beginning.
“I was a bit of a robot while on the X-Factor, and nothing inspired me.
“It’s with this album that I can say it is no longer about fame or Simon Cowell, it’s about my music.”
Miss Gibraltar 2015 has been organised by the Ministry of Culture, the Gibraltar Culture Services and Santos Productions.
It will be shown on live on GBC at 9.30pm.
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