Berkshire County — While he’s been all around the world thanks to his music career, Matt Cusson loves to call Berkshire County his home. And if the stars align just right on February 5, Cusson just might bring a Grammy award back to his Berkshire home.
Cusson, a Pittsfield native who currently lives in Williamstown with his family, has been in the music industry for 20 years as a musician, arraigner, songwriter, and music director. He has worked with musical giants including Stevie Wonder, Dua Lipa, James Taylor, The Roots, Boys II Men, and has toured with Christina Aguilera. He’s received various awards throughout the years including a Billboard Songwriting Award, and a John Lennon Songwriting Contest Award.
But he has never won a Grammy award. “It’s pretty insane,” Cusson told The Berkshire Edge. “I thought it was unattainable or wasn’t going to happen. It’s an unbelievable validation that I didn’t necessarily need, but it’s got me awestruck and it’s pretty surreal.”
Cusson was born and raised in Pittsfield and he wanted to be either one of two things when he grew up. “It was either being a musician or being in the NBA,” Cusson said. “I don’t have the gift of height and athleticism that NBA players have. That’s why I stuck with music, and it’s honestly all I have ever done. Music is a very big part of my family because my mother is a classical pianist and my father is a choir director and songwriter.”
Cusson said that ever since he was a young child, he was “always banging on the piano.” He explained, “My father liked jazz, my mother liked classical, my sister likes rhythm and blues, and my brother likes the singer and songwriter type of music. I was born into a melting pot of different kinds of music.”
While he has been around the world, both he and his wife decided that the Berkshires is the best place to call home. “Me being born and raised in the area may have helped us both to decide on where to live, but we both think that the Berkshires is a perfect place to raise a child,” Cusson said. “My wife had a baby about two years ago, which helped with the decision on where to live. The people around here are wonderful. The community here is like the happy medium of everywhere I’ve been in the world. It’s got beauty, people, food, and music. The Berkshires has a tiny bit of everything that is good.”
Just like other musicians all around the world, during the height of the pandemic, Cusson found himself collaborating virtually with other artists. During that time, he received a voice memo on Instagram from Gabe Kunda, the bass singer from the Dallas, Texas-based a capella group Kings Return. “He said ‘Hey, we’re an a capella group and there’s four of us, can you do some arrangements for us?’” Cusson said. “This was during the start of the pandemic, and I found out my wife was pregnant. We were just beginning to move up to the Berkshires from New York, but we had no place to live. I had to set up a makeshift studio in my parents’ guest room.” Cusson said that, at that time, he pretty much said yes to any offer because “we needed all the money we could get.”
From his makeshift studio in the Berkshires, the Texas a capella group requested Cusson to virtually arrange an a capella version of the Bee Gees classic song “How Deep is Your Love.” “I spent a couple of days of back and forth with Gabe and then the arrangement was done,” he said. “They performed it in a YouTube video and it went viral. Within the first few hours, it had half a million views.”
“It was a very good arrangement from the very beginning,” Cusson said. “I was very psyched about the song. It’s a song that I’ve loved my whole life. When I first listened to them performing it, I was kind of in shock. I was just like these are the most beautiful voices I have ever heard in my life.” The Recording Academy loved Cusson’s arrangement so much that they nominated him for a Grammy award for Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella.
“I’ve become musical soulmates and really great friends with all four members of Kings Return,” he said. “But we’ve never met in person.” Cusson said that this will change when he finally gets to meet all four members of Kings Return at the Grammy ceremony. He is also planning on further collaborations with the group and several other projects this year. “My third album is coming out at the end of the summer and I have a single that’s coming out on January 16,” Cusson said. “I am also producing four albums right now. I do have a ton of collaborations coming up because wherever there’s music, I’m hoping to be a part of it.”
