Beautiful Girl Solo & Acoustic: Mat McHugh Coming To Newcastle - Win Tickets!

by Helen Henry on August 4, 2011

I caught up with Mat McHugh (formerly of The Beautiful Girls) ahead of his show at Lizottes in Newcastle on Friday, 19 August. He was talking to me from the road, on his way to perform a show at Seattle’s Crocodile Café – an amazing music venue that has housed concerts by Seattle rock royalty Pearl Jam & Nirvana among others… We talked about his new EP ‘Go Don’t Stop’, performing solo, devolution, The Beautiful Girls, live performance, his music career to date and, of course, the future…

In the past you’ve shied away from the spotlight, using The Beautiful Girls to promote your songwriting. What changed, what made you realise that you were ready to perform under your own name and record this EP?

You know, it’s not so much that I gained all this new found confidence, more a case of why not? There were a few things… with the last Beautiful Girls record, I put together every sound molecule on that record, it took me a long time, I pieced it together and was really proud of it – it was me that made the record, and then I released it under a certain name and get the guys to play shows. That’s kinda how it’s always gone, and was getting more and more that way, and so I just thought what’s the point? I’m a grown man now, I shied away from calling it my name in the beginning because I didn’t really want to be a musician – it just kind of happened and was a bit of a joke. Now I’m confident in my own ability to make records. I just had a baby as well, which is a great inspiration to cut out all the bullshit I guess. It’s more like these are my songs, this is my name, if you like the songs this is what they’ll be released under, if you like it – great, if you don’t there’s plenty of other music you can listen to. I don’t want to play the show business game anymore, you know, I just want be like “hello, my name is Matt, these are my songs”.

In The Blacktop Diaries, you speak about going through a devolution process. Tell me more about that.

I suppose I would consider when I look back on my life in the Beautiful Girls that that period of my life was so amazing, and was also such a learning experience. I refused to make the same record twice, and probably pissed a few people off along the way because they’d expect me to be one way and I’d be another. I just really needed to see how far I could push things within a certain framework, and a lot of times that was my agenda.

Now, in the spirit of getting rid of all the excess bullshit around everything, I just want to keep things simple. I want to put across my feelings, ideas and my emotions, and all of the good stuff that you’re supposed to do when you write music, in a setting that is the most appropriate and what I do best. Generally that’s pretty stripped back, pretty simple and honest, you know. I don’t know if it’s a devolution because that indicates that maybe I’m getting stupider (laughs), but I don’t necessarily agree with that. I think I’m getting simpler, and maybe that’s smarter. For now, that’s where I’m at. I like the idea of making a record that will sound the same today as it will in 50 years – it won’t have any of the trendy, current sounds on there that you listen back to in a couple of years and think “so 2011”, you know.

What do you get from performing live? What would you like audiences to take away from seeing you perform?

I just think that this a necessary point in my life as a musician. I think that stripping the songs back to their bare essentials really gives them a new life again. I love all my Beautiful Girls songs and my new songs and getting them back to their barest state is a healthy thing for me.

I don’t intend to always be standing on a stage by myself , I can see it expanding into a band in the future. This period in my life is an important to me and I really appreciate anyone who comes to a gig and is part of it – I’ll never forget it.

Is there anything in particular you try to do to connect with a crowd?

I certainly feel it’s easier with the gigs I’ve been playing lately, as opposed to the big Beautiful Girls shows where it’s been a bit more of a drunken free for all. Now it’s more like I get a chance to talk to the crowd. I don’t want to make the mistake of coming across like “yeah, let’s all connect and that’s my schtick”. What I actually feel is that there is so much synthesised life around us now, pre-packaged food, kids spending 8 hours a day on the computer, Facebook and there’s all these hyperrealities, everything moves faster & faster. I think that as human beings we understand the need to sit still and just chill out and be cool with who we are. I’m feeling that, and I think it’s cool to go and play these shows in a really simple way and share that with people and I feel like a lot of people have that idea too, you know. I don’t want to jump on stage and smash people over the head with sound, I just want to get there and share some ideas and it is as much about the people that turn up as it is about me and that connection is healthy for me as well. It gives me life, to know that there’s other people out there that feel the same.

I know that despite you becoming a musician almost by accident, you grew up in a house full of music. What music did you listen to when you were growing up?

My dad died when I was pretty young but prior to that we didn’t really have a television happening for a big part of my childhood so we’d sit around and listen to old country, jazz and blues and stuff. He played guitar and he’d really try to give me some insight into what was happening on the records that we’d listen to. To tell you truth, I kinda hated it, I just wished I had a television and could go to school and talk to the other kids about what was on TV last night. When we did get one, any time any music would come on TV I would switch it off. I suppose when your parents get you into something you tend to think it’s pretty daggy. I played in the school band in first grade, but then quit and just went surfing and skating and listened to punk rock – I just distanced myself. I found out when I left school that it was more a connection with my dad and my childhood, and that music came pretty naturally and I loved it, but I never ever thought I’d be doing it as a job. That seemed like pretty ridiculous notion, or it was for me. I’m the opposite of a careerist musician, I didn’t go to a fame school or anything…

You’ve said before that your demo accidentally ended up being played on national radio. I’m sure there are a lot of musicians out there wondering how this happened…

Our manager at the time - he wasn’t even our manager, he was just a friend of ours – knew someone in the ABC, which was the same building as Triple J and he kind of somehow snuck into the Triple J office and we had this homemade demo that he put in everyone’s pigeon hole and I guess that they thought that it was official stuff that they should listen to! Some people played it and then they started getting calls and getting a good reaction. He did that stuff without us actually really knowing about it, you know. Next thing you know, we’re driving around and our song comes on the radio and it was just like “what?!”. Then we had to get some artwork done and CDs pressed, then gigs started being sold out from the start. We had to work it out as we went, because we were a pretty shit band, we didn’t really know what we were doing. But it’s all kind of worked out to this point, I guess.

We’ve continued to try and operate a bit differently along the way. We’re tried to employ our friends and tried to stay pretty credible & ethical and do stuff with heart. That’s why we remained independent and tried not to put out terrible music or promote ourselves in any false way. I think I’m pretty proud about how we’ve actually gone about it. It might have all happened accidentally, but we have certainly approached all of our opportunities with a degree of consciousness.

What do you like most about the Australian music scene & the industry?

I don’t really care about the music industry to tell you the truth, but what I like about music itself is that I think for Australia, considering how small it is, the quality of the music that comes out here has been phenomenal. People in America just trip out about the amount of good music we make in Australia. I think there’s a lack of kind of labels and categorisation in Australian music that is refreshing. In America, everything is packaged up and put in its own little genre and off you go. In Australia, it more like “let’s make some songs and if they sound a bit like this and a bit like that, then all the better”. There’s a lot of respect for Australian music in the world, that’s for certain. People are always asking me why Australia is so prolific with music, and I don’t know why it is, but I’m happy.

What’s next for you?

After the shows in August, back to America & Europe in September then I have more shows in October in Australia that I’ll be announcing soon. Just shows and trying to build some momentum and get my name out there before recording this record that I’m hoping is the best thing I’ve ever done. I want to be playing music until I die – you’ll have to drag me off the stage. I’m just in there trying to get better and trying to approach it in a workman-like fashion – turn up, work hard and do the best you can. I don’t want to be a pop star, I don’t want to be famous or wear the coolest new clothes, I just want to make songs that someone out there (as well as me) cares about, really.

Want tickets to see Mat perform live in Newcastle? Good news - we’ve got a double pass to give away to his show at Lizottes Newcastle on Friday, 19 August. To enter on…

Facebook: Go to the Urban Insider Facebook Page, like it (if you haven’t already) and post: “I want to win tickets to see Mat McHugh perform at Lizottes!”.

Twitter: Tweet “I want to win tickets to see Mat McHugh perform at Lizottes @Urban_Insider”.

The winner will be announced on Friday, 12 August.

Please only enter if you are able to attend the show. Winner selected by random draw.

If you want to lock your seat in, head here to make a booking.

Keep up with Mat by checking out his website, Facebook or Twitter.