Matt Berry

Mentioned in this March 7, 2011 Roland & Boss TV interview at 8:58.

[Berry] I just gotta say before... the Fender Reverb pedal, the Boss one, is amazing and...

[Interviewer] The Deluxe Reverb one?

[Berry] Yeah, yeah, yeah and the other one... the '63 one. Yeah, it sounds like real, you know, spring reverb, well done.

[Interviewer] Wow, I didn't ask him to say that either.

[Berry] No, no, no, no, you know, where credit's due. It's good, it's a decent pedal. I've put synths through it, I've put, you know, sort of guitars through it, obviously and, I kind of thought I don't know how this is gonna, this isn't gonna sound like a, you know, spring reverb, 'cause it's [shapes small Boss enclosure with hands], and it did! It was great.

Mentioned in this March 7, 2011 Roland & Boss TV interview at 8:58. it is also pictured in this December 2020 Sound on Sound interview.

[Berry] I just gotta say before... the Fender Reverb pedal, the Boss one, is amazing and...

[Interviewer] The Deluxe Reverb one?

[Berry] Yeah, yeah, yeah and the other one... the '63 one. Yeah, it sounds like real, you know, spring reverb, well done.

[Interviewer] Wow, I didn't ask him to say that either.

[Berry] No, no, no, no, you know, where credit's due. It's good, it's a decent pedal. I've put synths through it, I've put, you know, sort of guitars through it, obviously and, I kind of thought I don't know how this is gonna, this isn't gonna sound like a, you know, spring reverb, 'cause it's [shapes small Boss enclosure with hands], and it did! It was great.

Two can be seen on the back cover of Music for Insomniacs Part IV, while one is visible in this photo used for the back cover of Music for Insomniacs.

Visible in this photo used for the back cover of Music for Insomniacs and the back cover of Music for Insomniacs Part IV.

Two can be seen on the back cover of Music for Insomniacs Part IV, while one is visible in this photo used for the back cover of Music for Insomniacs.

Mentioned in this December 2020 Sound on Sound interview.

Further remote instruction from Oldfield came when the multi‑instrumentalist appeared on Blue Peter in 1979, in a section filmed showing him multi‑layering, on 24‑track tape, his version of the show’s theme tune. “To then see him on Blue Peter,” Berry says, “where you actually saw him build it track‑by‑track, I had more of an understanding.”

Berry’s sole instrument at the time was a domestic Hammond organ, which his parents had bought him. To emulate Oldfield, he bought a Tascam 424 Portastudio and began layering up his own recordings, using the Hammond’s basic beatbox and feeding its various flute, strings and oboe sounds through cheap guitar effects pedals.

“They weren’t even Boss,” Berry points out. “They were Orion, and I had a stereo delay and a flanger. By that point I was obsessed with Oxygène by Jean‑Michel Jarre — mainly that string sound that I know now is a phased string sound. I thought that was an expensive keyboard that could make that sound. I didn’t realise it was a string synthesizer that was effected by a cheap guitar pedal. If I’d have found that out a lot earlier, my search would’ve been complete at age 14 or whatever.

Mentioned in this December 2020 Sound on Sound interview.

Further remote instruction from Oldfield came when the multi‑instrumentalist appeared on Blue Peter in 1979, in a section filmed showing him multi‑layering, on 24‑track tape, his version of the show’s theme tune. “To then see him on Blue Peter,” Berry says, “where you actually saw him build it track‑by‑track, I had more of an understanding.”

Berry’s sole instrument at the time was a domestic Hammond organ, which his parents had bought him. To emulate Oldfield, he bought a Tascam 424 Portastudio and began layering up his own recordings, using the Hammond’s basic beatbox and feeding its various flute, strings and oboe sounds through cheap guitar effects pedals.

“They weren’t even Boss,” Berry points out. “They were Orion, and I had a stereo delay and a flanger. By that point I was obsessed with Oxygène by Jean‑Michel Jarre — mainly that string sound that I know now is a phased string sound. I thought that was an expensive keyboard that could make that sound. I didn’t realise it was a string synthesizer that was effected by a cheap guitar pedal. If I’d have found that out a lot earlier, my search would’ve been complete at age 14 or whatever.

A box for a DS-1 is pictured in this December 2020 Sound on Sound interview.

Pictured in this December 2020 Sound on Sound interview.

For electric pianos and organs, Matt Berry favours his Orange and Fender guitar amps. He is also an avid pedal collector; the Small Stone Phase on the upper tier of his pedalboard was a gift from Jean‑Michel Jarre, who used it on his seminal Oxygène album.

Pictured in this December 2020 Sound on Sound interview.

For electric pianos and organs, Matt Berry favours his Orange and Fender guitar amps. He is also an avid pedal collector; the Small Stone Phase on the upper tier of his pedalboard was a gift from Jean‑Michel Jarre, who used it on his seminal Oxygène album.

Pictured in this December 2020 Sound on Sound interview and mentioned in this April 30, 2021 Guitar.com interview.

I couldn’t live without my…

“Boss Blues Driver. It’s a boring and frequent answer, I’m sure, but I reckon they struck gold with that pedal. I believe, in some way, it helps every one of my guitars. The second would be an Orange Tiny Terror for sure.”

Pictured in this December 2020 Sound on Sound interview.

For electric pianos and organs, Matt Berry favours his Orange and Fender guitar amps. He is also an avid pedal collector; the Small Stone Phase on the upper tier of his pedalboard was a gift from Jean‑Michel Jarre, who used it on his seminal Oxygène album.

Pictured in this December 2020 Sound on Sound interview.

For electric pianos and organs, Matt Berry favours his Orange and Fender guitar amps. He is also an avid pedal collector; the Small Stone Phase on the upper tier of his pedalboard was a gift from Jean‑Michel Jarre, who used it on his seminal Oxygène album.

Pictured in this December 2020 Sound on Sound interview.

For electric pianos and organs, Matt Berry favours his Orange and Fender guitar amps. He is also an avid pedal collector; the Small Stone Phase on the upper tier of his pedalboard was a gift from Jean‑Michel Jarre, who used it on his seminal Oxygène album.

Pictured in this December 2020 Sound on Sound interview.

For electric pianos and organs, Matt Berry favours his Orange and Fender guitar amps. He is also an avid pedal collector; the Small Stone Phase on the upper tier of his pedalboard was a gift from Jean‑Michel Jarre, who used it on his seminal Oxygène album.

Pictured in this December 2020 Sound on Sound interview.

For electric pianos and organs, Matt Berry favours his Orange and Fender guitar amps. He is also an avid pedal collector; the Small Stone Phase on the upper tier of his pedalboard was a gift from Jean‑Michel Jarre, who used it on his seminal Oxygène album.

Pictured in this December 2020 Sound on Sound interview.

For electric pianos and organs, Matt Berry favours his Orange and Fender guitar amps. He is also an avid pedal collector; the Small Stone Phase on the upper tier of his pedalboard was a gift from Jean‑Michel Jarre, who used it on his seminal Oxygène album.

Pictured in this December 2020 Sound on Sound interview.

For electric pianos and organs, Matt Berry favours his Orange and Fender guitar amps. He is also an avid pedal collector; the Small Stone Phase on the upper tier of his pedalboard was a gift from Jean‑Michel Jarre, who used it on his seminal Oxygène album.

Pictured in this December 2020 Sound on Sound interview.

For electric pianos and organs, Matt Berry favours his Orange and Fender guitar amps. He is also an avid pedal collector; the Small Stone Phase on the upper tier of his pedalboard was a gift from Jean‑Michel Jarre, who used it on his seminal Oxygène album.

Pictured in this December 2020 Sound on Sound interview.

For electric pianos and organs, Matt Berry favours his Orange and Fender guitar amps. He is also an avid pedal collector; the Small Stone Phase on the upper tier of his pedalboard was a gift from Jean‑Michel Jarre, who used it on his seminal Oxygène album.

Pictured in this December 2020 Sound on Sound interview.

For electric pianos and organs, Matt Berry favours his Orange and Fender guitar amps. He is also an avid pedal collector; the Small Stone Phase on the upper tier of his pedalboard was a gift from Jean‑Michel Jarre, who used it on his seminal Oxygène album.

Visible on the back cover of Music for Insomniacs Part IV.

In an interview on That Pedal Show, published on December 5, 2025, Matt Berry confirms his use of the JHS Smiley. At 49:09 of the link below, he states, "That's that, kind of low-battery sound. Yeah, that's what I love." This statement from the video provides direct evidence of Berry's use of this specific gear.

See the full rundown here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYQfpe4mEDc

In an interview on That Pedal Show, published on December 5, 2025, Matt Berry confirms his use of the DigiTech FreqOut. At 55:13 of the link below, he states, "And the FreqOut... it's a really useful thing because on the end of those sort of high notes or whatever, if you don't want to step back and walk towards your amp and try and find that spot... you can just do it with, you know, one pedal." This statement from the video provides direct evidence of Berry's use of this specific gear.

See the full rundown here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYQfpe4mEDc

In an interview on That Pedal Show, published on December 5, 2025, Matt Berry confirms his use of the original Boss OD-1. At 44:11 of the link below, he states, "...I'm as much focused on the overdrives. And I know there's a lot of Boss there... and I've been listening to a lot of pedals, and I've auditioned a lot of pedals over the years, and the Boss First Overdrive is still one that I can't get rid of because it has exactly what I want." This statement from the video provides direct evidence of Berry's use of this specific gear.

See the full rundown here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYQfpe4mEDc