Paddy Considine on the underrated “lyrical genius” of Robert Pollard
Paddy Considine has great taste in music.
However, as an aside, I also feel it important to discuss his performance in Shane Meadow’s 2004 film Dead Man’s Shoes, for which he won a ‘Best Actor’ award exactly 20 years ago, which was such an amazing bit of acting, absolutely fizzing with unbridled hatred and menace, that it should be studied as a guide to anyone attempting to express anger on film forever more.
If you don’t know what I mean, firstly you should watch the film, obviously, a scorching British tale of vengeance set in the English countryside, or if you don’t have 90 mins to spare, simply put ‘Considine palm of hand’ into youtube and enjoy a taster of the man’s frankly terrifying ability to convey inner chaos masquerading as calm.
Now that we have that out of the way, we can move on to Considine’s love of the band Guided by Voices, who, if you don’t know them already, are an American indie band who have been going for quite some time now, releasing some 40-odd albums since the 1980s and drawing comparisons with the likes of REM.
Considine is such a fan that he was inspired to form his own rock group in 2006, named Riding the Low, going on to release an EP and an album before appearing as support for the Charlatans in 2014. They also released a second album and managed to rope in Guided by Voices bassist Chris Slusarenko to appear on it.
GBV’s main songwriter, Robert Pollard, is also a huge inspiration for the actor, who named him as his musical hero, telling Fred Perry, “Robert Pollard. Released over a hundred albums. Master of melodies and hooks. A lyrical genius. In his 60s and still out there doing it. A true artist to his core. His work floors me. Every album has a moment that blows me away. I think he writes very enlightening lyrics at times. Get him in the Hall of Fame.”
Considine’s love of music is well documented; aside from once naming a band after the frankly beautiful song by The Black Crowes – ‘She Talks to Angels’ (look up the acoustic version when you get a chance), he also heavily features quality music in his films, like Nick Cave in 2017’s Journeyman, which he both directed and starred in.
But he reserves most of his praise for the Ohio veterans who, in fact, were responsible for what he says is the best gig he’s ever been to, adding: “Guided By Voices. Iowa City. Bob Pollard started the show by announcing ‘Hey! Paddy knows this one!’ Then kicked into ‘Closer You Are’. Doesn’t get any better.”
This month, it was announced that Considine will star in a four-part thriller on Netflix written by Black Mirror’s Charlie Brooker. It comes hot on the heels of the actor appearing in MobLand alongside Tom Hardy and Pierce Brosnan in the Guy Ritchie-directed gangland hit.
The Burton on Trent-born actor has also teamed up with Ritchie again for a film with Benedict Cumberbatch and Rosamund Pike called Wife and Dog. Ritchie has written and directed the black comedy that’s due to hit cinemas early in 2026.
