Billions and Band of Brothers star Damian Lewis turns to music - and is gigging in Hampshire

For every tasteful Hugh Laurie detour into blues, Steve Martin’s distinguished bluegrass banjo, Keifer Sutherland going country, or Johnny Depp’s numerous detours into rock, where the artist has emerged with credibility intact, there’s a project like Russell Crowe’s 30 Odd Foot of Grunts, which should have stayed in the pub, or Bruce Willis massacring Motown.

And then there’s the downright weird – like William Shatner (check out his cover of Lucy in The Sky With Diamonds if you’re not already familiar...).

Hoping to join the former camp is Damian Lewis, the British actor who released his debut album in June – the jazzy, bluesy Mission Creep. Featuring mostly original compositions by Lewis, there’s also a smattering of covers.

Lewis is renowned for his leading roles in major TV hits both in America and here, such as Band of Brothers, Wolf Hall, Homeland, Billions and many more, as well as numerous films.

But as he tells The Guide, music has always been there, alongside the acting in his formative years.

“I loved acting, I loved being in the theatre, and although I played the guitar and I sang, I didn't ever really have the confidence really to write my own stuff at that age. I felt where I wanted to be was the theatre – I wanted to be with actors in productions in the theatre, that was really my thing.”

However, the lure of a different kind of performing was never far off in the early days of his career. “I had a motorbike when I was young, in my 20s, and a pen and a guitar, and I used to take myself off around France, around Paris, and down to the south of France and into Spain in the summers and I used to busk out in the market squares. So I loved being in front of an audience and playing music, but I went to drama school and became an actor.

“You come to a fork in the road and you go left instead of right – and I pursued acting seriously. I took it very seriously the way you do as a youngster – you find ways to cement your identity, don't you? Who's your tribe? Who are you part of? What do you want to be? And I very much became a professional actor – I surrounded myself with actors and the theatre, TV and film folk.

“But there was always a guitar in the room – we always played at home, we always had a nice singsong but I never thought of doing anything seriously until lockdown.”

It was during the pandemic lockdowns, with most acting shutdown and time on his hands, that Lewis began to turn more seriously to music.

“We were all sat at home and I was just thinking about maybe doing something different after lockdown lifted. I got an introduction to a musician called Giacamo Smith and we started talking, we started thinking about things that we could do together.

“And here I am a year-and-a-half, two years later, I've got a record and I'm going out on tour. It's been a series of accidents, but happy ones!”

So if there had been no lockdown, there would be no album?

“Yes – the world's loss!” he laughs. But Lewis is acutely aware of how actors trying to be musicians can be perceived.

“It's a tricky one, I'm as sceptical as the next person about an actor who thinks he's a rock star or a rock star who thinks he's an actor, of people wanting to do different things.

"We attach, don't we, very particular ways to our heroes and our fantasies – I'm not claiming to be anyone's hero by the way – but there are people who identify with me as (Band of Brothers’) Captain Winters, or (Homeland’s) Nicholas Brody, or (Billions’) Bobby Axelrod, or whoever it is. And it might be weird standing in the crowd looking at the stage and thinking: 'Why is Captain Winters in Hampshire singing me a love song?' It is weird, and people can't seem to get their heads around it, so you have to convince people that it's worthwhile and there's only one way to do that, which is just to make sure that the music is good.

"The music is personal to me, I've penned it, and I believe it's good and the reviews have been good so far. I feel like I've got over that first hurdle, which is: ‘Oh god, is this going to be embarrassing?’ And then you've just got to persuade people that it's worthwhile spending 20 quid to come and watch you or to buy the album.

“It's a thing, it's a journey, but at the centre of it all, crucially, is that I'm really enjoying writing music and playing it with a band – it's a really wonderful outlet.”

Breaking down the album’s influences, Lewis explains how he listens to “everything at home, like lots of us do,” but explains: “The influences on this album are there in a couple of the covers – there's a JJ Cale cover (After Midnight), who I love, which is a very laid back, mellow kind of blues shuffle. There's Neil Young (Harvest Moon), there's a bit of Bowie influence in there, a little bit of early-70s rock'n'roll in there, T-Rex and Led Zep, there's a little bit of Elvis who I listened to a lot when I was a teenager. I got stuck into the ’50s listening to Jackie Wilson and Eddie Cochrane, Bill Haley, Chuck Berry...

“All those influences are in there on the album. I will say, that I think on the tour, our live show is a different kind of show. I've written a couple of new songs which we play in the live show, and we also do a couple of other covers – really fun stuff, like Werewolves of London by Warren Zevon. The live show feels more like a rock'n'roll show – it's a good time, rather than a mellow event.”

Lewis's wife, fellow actor Helen McCrory died of breast cancer in April 2021. The family had kept her diagnosis secret and she’s kept working, so her death came as a shock to her many fans.

Given that her husband was putting the album together during her illness, people will scour its lyrics for references to their relationship.

”Songwriting is a bit like journal entries aren't they?" he says when asked if any of the songs are about her. “They reflect the time you're writing them. There are absolutely a couple of songs in there which reflect that period of time and reflect Helen, but it's not a 'grief' album. Inevitably there are moments of tenderness and reflection, but there are plenty of songs which have nothing to do with Helen.”

When it comes to tackling a “big” song like Harvest Moon, did Lewis ever have any doubts?

”No,” he says emphatically. “Every piece of music morphs and changes for different people, even the lyrics change. Look what Rick Rubin did with Johnny Cash – he brought him almost out of retirement and produced that album (American Recordings) for him that was a smash hit and beautifully wrought. The lyrics of all of those songs changed meaning in Johnny Cash's mouth. That's what can happen with songs, they're there for reinterpretation, and I think that's a wonderful thing about art generally, that the borrowing and the adapting that goes on, it's germane to the art. It's the evolving, turning, amoebic force of music, and it's important that it stays like that.”

As Lewis says, he’s already written more songs, and there will be a second album, “and yes I am trying to balance it with the acting. But life is short, so have at it!”

He’s already looking ahead to next year and playing more shows. He’s also mentioned his wish to play Glastonbury – is he hoping if he mentions it enough, someone will notice?

”That's it exactly!” he laughs. “It's all about suggestability... It would be great fun to play some festivals next summer, wherever it is. I've played a couple and they're really fun to do. There's a really good vibe, a really good atmosphere at festivals. I love going to festivals myself, so hopefully we'll be able to book a few in for next year, that would be the dream.”

On the acting front, he’s just finished a vampire film due out next year called The Radleys. And when this tour wraps up, he’s returning to the role of Henry VIII to complete the Wolf Hall trilogy. “Hilary Mantel wrote a third novel called The Mirror and The Light and we start filming that in November. Spoiler alert: I've got to take Cromwell's head off, there's no happy ending for him there!”

Damian Lewis plays The Concorde Club in Eastleigh on November 9. Go to theconcordeclub.com.