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Mat McHugh – The Beautiful Girls

The Beautiful Girls have hit the road for a massive Australian National Tour to celebrate 20 years of their iconic album, We’re Already Gone. Spanning capital cities and regional stops, this tour will be a must-see for fans old and new.

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For the first time ever, the band will perform We’re Already Gone in its entirety, alongside some of their biggest hits.  With a six-piece lineup bringing the songs to life, expect an unforgettable night of sun-soaked melodies, reggae grooves, and deep nostalgia.

I speak with Mat McHugh on the tour and the music….

Markus Hamence: So Matt McHugh, The Beautiful Girls, you are in the middle of the 20th anniversary tour of the iconic album, We’re Already Gone. How’s the tour going so far?

Mat McHugh: It’s going great guns. I don’t know how many we’ve done, we might have done six or seven at this point. It’s been really, been really awesome.

It took a couple to kind of make it feel like it’s second nature, so we can go places with it. And we’re there, we’re kind of hitting our stride, we’re right in the peak of it, I’d say.

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Markus: So cool. Obviously it kicked off on May the 2nd in Brunswick Heads. You are wrapping up July the 18th, which is still bonkers ages away yet, and that’s going to be wrapping up in Townsville. But excitedly, this Friday, the 6th of June, you are hitting The Gov right here in Adelaide, my hometown.

I’m going to be there. We have spoken about, you know, The Gov being such an iconic venue in Adelaide. What is it about Adelaide that keeps you coming back for more?

Mat: I think it’s, well, ordinarily I’d say the people, because that’s the truth. Last time we were in Adelaide, we spent a couple of days down on the beach, and I’m going to say that too. You know, that was, the whole vibe there was amazing. But I think Adelaide, the people in Adelaide are just 100%, they just go, they’re there, you know, and it’s not always the case.

You kind of, some towns and some collective consciousness vibes in some places are a bit more restrained or a bit more, you know, reserved. But Adelaide, everyone just feels like everyone’s alive, you know. You play a gig and everyone’s just going crazy from the start to the end.

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MarkusL I like it. Everyone’s on that page. Now, look, I don’t want to rain on your parade, but I’m going to... well, I’m not going to, but the weather is. When you get to Adelaide on Friday, it’s 15 degrees with 75% chance of rain. So I don’t think it’s going to be beach weather. Sorry about that, Matt.

Mat: You know what, this is, I think I might have some kind of superpower, because everywhere that we’ve been is 15 and raining. Like it had been raining two weeks ago, it had been raining in Sydney all week.

Literally the morning we left, we jumped on the plane, I looked at the weather map and the clouds were clearing in Sydney and forming in Perth. And I’d never seen rain in Perth when I’d been there. And we landed and it was 15 and raining.

And I kid you not, the moment we left, the clouds evaporated. We came back and the clouds appeared. And it seems like everywhere we’ve been, it’s 15 and raining.

Markus: Oh, my God. Sorry, all the poor farmers that are having droughts at the moment, we need to send the beautiful girls to the regions of Australia.

Mat: Yeah, we’ll go there free. Next time they need us, just send a Greyhound bus ticket, we’ll be there. I

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Markus: Hey, Matt, We’re Already Gone, obviously came out in 2005, which is, I mean, clearly symbolic of the 20th anniversary tour that’s happening. About 50 million streams only so far. I mean, I’m sure there’s more to happen yet. But how does that feel? Clearly, when you brought that album out in 2005, that was the last thing you thought would ever happen. But how does that feel for you now, knowing that you’ve had that many views, streams?

Mat: Well, for one, it’s kind of like, I don’t even understand that number, you know, it just seems ridiculous. But I also think if I thought in those terms, that it frees me up for the rest of my life.

So I kind of try not to pay too much attention to it, because I think it’s a danger. But it is crazy, because when we, you know, I made the record, kind of as a reaction to, you know, us being one of the spearheads of this acoustic kind of root scene that blew up in the early 2000s. And I started feeling so disconnected to that, I just didn’t want to be a part of that, you know, I felt like it had already, within 18 months turned into a cliche.

And I was in danger of just constantly vomiting on myself. So I just needed to make a record that like, emancipated ourself, but I thought was almost like a career suicide note. You know, I was like, well, this is it for us.

I’m just going to make a record that has all the stuff that I love in it. And walk off into the sunset, because people probably hate it. And then initially, there was a few scratched heads, but it just kind of picked up steam.

And critically, it was pretty well supported. And then people just started liking it, I guess, and it’s just kind of gone that way ever since. And 20 years later, here we are.

Here we are. Selling out shows all around Australia. And, bringing the rain.

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Markus: Exactly. Hey, back in the early days, who were some of your inspirations musically that really led your career?

Mat: Well, particularly for this record, I would think about all the stuff that I would hear growing up.

So I grew up in a pretty kind of poor suburb on the beach in Sydney, it was all kind of housing commission at that time. But a lot of us, most of us were all from single families, single parent families, and we congregate down at the beach, and there’d be a bunch of older guys in their cars, and we’d all go surfing and hang out. And I would always think about the sounds and the smells and what that felt like as some kind of like, ideal, you know, and those vibes were like, there was a lot of class and dub reggae, the class and dub reggae and a lot of early hip hop and a lot of punk rock and kind of street music, you know, there wasn’t a whole bunch of pop radio happening or really not much even rock music.

It was pretty kind of pretty street vibes, you know, so I would always think in my head, what would be accepted in that environment, you know, if I made music, what would work in that environment? What would sound cool coming out of the back of one of these cars with their boot open, you know? And I think if it was too flowery or too inauthentic, it wouldn’t fly. So that for me, all those influences just kind of mashed together into this thing where I was like, I’ll just put all of them in the same thing, you know? And I think that’s the way a new kind of style gets invented. It just happens by smashing everything together.

And then, yeah, I’ve kind of heard that sound now, which didn’t exist then. I’ve heard it now trickle down into bands like Sticky Fingers and Ocean Alley and all these kind of acts that kind of spring-boarded from there. But before we started doing that, there wasn’t, there just wasn’t.

So I thought, man, I’m just going to soundtrack what that feels like to me.

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Markus: And back in those days, Matt, was it always a music career for you? Were you hell bent on that was what you were going to do?

Mat: Never, ever, ever in my life to this very day have I applied to a music career. Never once.

Yeah, I played music since I got my dad to march me up to the school and beg them to let me join the school band when I was six. So I’ve always loved music. But I didn’t, I don’t really enjoy attention.

And the idea of standing on a stage in a spotlight or having my photo taken is the most horrible things to me. I just am so uncomfortable in those environments and in those aspects of the whole thing. But it just kind of happened accidentally.

Our first demo got in the hands of someone on the radio and they played it and it just got a lot of phone calls and then started getting rotation and then shows sold out and nothing ever was part of an aspiration. It was kind of like, you know, what are we going to do with whatever this is? You know, so we always just tried to respond as best we could to the situation. You know, we always try to keep our ethics in our heart and deal with these opportunities the best we could.

But never with any grand plan of, you know, stardom. I think if I had that grand plan, things might have been different, but then that’s not me.

Markus: So do you think, I mean, obviously a good couple of years ago now, we saw an artist, you know, Sia, really repelled from wanting to show her face in video clips and, you know, on her album covers and all that. In a way, was that something that you kind of resonated with that, you know, you kind of understood the point of view that she, where she was coming from?

Mat: Well, maybe, but also Sia’s on a giant major label, record label, and she’s also writing huge pop hits for huge pop stars that are funded by these giant corporate labels. So I don’t completely identify with a lot of it. And maybe I’m not sure whether the no image is an image in her case.

But for me, I don’t really think about that stuff very much, right? So like the whole time, I’ve just been willing to like walk away from it every single footstep I take. It’s kind of like, listen, I’m just going to try and make the best record that I can with the people that I love and do it the right way and treat people who come to a show or listen to it the best I can treat them. And then if the whole thing falls apart tomorrow, then I know that I acted with integrity and that’s it.

That’s completely it. We had the big record deal offers, the big money, the brass ring dangled in front of us, the this, that, the other. And I turned every single one of them down because that’s just a game I don’t want to play.

Markus: Yeah, I get it. Hey, obviously, the tour is halfway through, almost halfway through. What is one of the most memorable experiences that you’ve had on the tour so far?

Mat: I think there was a bit of blue sky that we saw on one of the weekends. I think the temperature rose to like 16 degrees and there was this tiny blue patch, haha. And then we all sat around and had cupcakes with candles on them. That was about it.

No, it’s all pretty. And we’re all pretty focused on getting the job done now, which has been a great thing. You know, we used to be on the road, my first tour in America, we were on the road five months straight, every single day we had a gig.

And, you know, it gets pretty scrappy and it gets pretty destructive after a while. But when you’re kind of in the position we’re at now where you pick and choose your shows, the shows take on a lot more importance. And I think that’s not lost on any of us.

Right. So we just want to go out there and be fully healthy and fully engaged and fully committed to delivering what we need to deliver. And then that’s really it.

We talk to people around the shows and after the shows and we share stories, all of us. And the great part is we, you know, people say stories about when they first heard it or when we when we crossed paths in the past. And we’re just getting to kind of reconnect with people and sharing that they’re as much of a part of our story as we are to them.

So there hasn’t been any outrageous things happen, but it’s just all been pretty good for the soul, this whole experience. I love that. And that’s exactly the way it should be.

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Markus: Hey, so, you know, you packed down the show, July the 18th in Townsville. What’s next for you guys? Is there a new album, new music? What’s coming up for us?

Mat: Well, I probably since the last record, so I just make the records the same way. However, whatever it says on the team.

So whether it ends up being a Matt McHugh or Beautiful Girls, I just go into a room and come out with a record. And it just depends when when and how that arrives and what I want to do with it. I’ve probably made, to be honest, probably made about 10 albums worth and recorded about 10 albums worth of material since the last one.

It’s been like 10 years, but I just haven’t. I haven’t felt like I just felt exhausted by the constant. I just felt exhausted. So I just wanted to get back to just making music for the sake of music like I used to when I was a teenager with a four track. So just making songs and kind of chipping away at the marble, trying to find something in there that necessitated going back out into the world. But I think that this tour, even though I was initially reluctant, has been another step towards that, because it has been such a great kind of heart filling experience where it’s like, oh, man, that’s right.

This is what the whole thing is like sharing it and hearing stories. And, you know, and I think being so cloistered in my little space, I forgot about that part of it. I was just becoming a bit self indulgent with it and just making it for its own sake.

So I think this has kind of been pulling me out of that. So I’m kind of thinking there’ll be some music at some stage soon.

Markus: Hey, I’m going to ask you one last question and go deep again. What drives you musically? Because, I mean, obviously you’ve got a lot of spirit and soul inside of you that, you know, it foundates you. But what really drives you musically?

Mat: I think that the ticking of time. I feel like you kind of get, you’re given your time here, this time around on earth, and then you’re given your gifts and you’re given your tools and then you make the best of what you’re given. Right. So I think for me, I want to just try and get as much done artistically as I can with the time I’m given. And that doesn’t necessarily mean putting albums out and going and doing an album cycle and doing interviews and all that stuff.

That’s just the commercialisation of the art, I guess. But for me, the art is the imperative. So it’s kind of, I just need to, you know, I’ve only got this many days here on the planet this time around.

So I just need to get at something. You know, I need to kind of, I need to get closer to whatever it is I’m trying to get closer to. And I do that through making music and making art and kind of communing with the spirits through that.

You know, it’s kind of a personal and spiritual process, really. And then it’s always been the kind of industry part of it that has been the toughest part, having to promote things and have photos taken and go on the road and having a light shining in your face and people looking at you. Like they’re things that I have put up with and participated in because they are a side effect of putting music out that people connect with.

And so I’m like, yep, that’s cool. I’ll deal with these things that make me feel uncomfortable because they’re necessary. But I got to a place where they weren’t that, you know, I could, I can live and I don’t necessarily need to do those things right now.

So I’m just going to do art. But I feel like, yeah, this tour again has reminded me that it is important to share art. Otherwise, you know, you’re the tree falling in the forest.

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Markus: Matt McHugh, you are an exceptional human being. You really are. You’ve got so much talent, so much inside of you that, you know, what the world needs to see it. It’s incredible. It’s beautiful. I can’t wait to catch up with you when you hit Adelaide this Friday, the 6th of June. Matt, thank you so much for your time and all the best with just being an incredible creative human being. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Mat: And yeah, we’re looking forward to it. Can’t wait to be there. Thanks, buddy. Have a great day. See you later. Bye 🙂

TOUR DATES:

Friday, May 2: Hotel Brunswick, Brunswick Heads
Saturday, May 3: Miami Marketta, Gold Coast
Friday, May 9: Hotel Steyne, Manly
Saturday, May 10: King Street Warehouse, Newcastle
Friday, May 23: Indian Ocean Hotel, Perth
Saturday, May 24: The River, Margaret River
Friday, May 30: Corner Hotel, Melbourne
Saturday, May 31: Torquay Hotel, Torquay
Friday, June 6: The Gov, Adelaide
Friday, June 13: Lefty’s Music Hall, Brisbane
Saturday, June 14: Kings Beach Tavern, Kings Beach
Friday, June 20: Oxford Arts Factory, Sydney
Thursday, July 17: Tanks Arts Centre, Cairns
Friday, July 18: The Warehouse, Townsville

For all tickets go to
https://threekingstouring.com.au/artist/the-beautiful-girls/

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