Yelo Music Editor Penny Brand chats with Mat McHugh, AKA The Beautiful Girls, about losing his father at a young age, living in an Indian ashram, and touring on top of the pops for 10 years straight.
As I find myself sans-kids and sinking into the lounge in a post-Christmas haze, I decide to flick on my ‘songs to listen to’ Spotify playlist.
I choose “La Mar” by The Beautiful Girls and instantly I’m back in 2003.
Ah, the glory days.
I’d just finished a stint living in London and travelling the world, and I had finally finished off that pesky university degree, which took two years too long.
I met the father of my two children, and we spend our days gigging around Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast, being loved up, and chilling in our cosy worker’s cottage.
Every indi girl’s dream
I think every indi girl in the early 2000s had a crush on Mat McHugh.
He just exudes that uber-cool, surf-pop, stoner-rock, rootsy-vibe we were all fanging for back then.
It was at a time when Ben Harper was king. Xavier Rudd and The Cat Empire were garnering bigger festival crowds, as stoners lounged in their hammocks to the soft, sultry, accoustic-dub sounds of The Beautiful Girls.
Interviewing Mat all these years later, I realise he is far more than than just a pin-up face.
He’s a wonderful soul, actually. Careful with his words, yet excited about life. He’s reflective and gentle. A solid, dependable dude.
Reminiscing about the past
Mat lost his dad when he was nine, and now both with tweens of our own, we reminisce about how hard that would have been for him at such a tender age.
“My dad was a chain smoker and whiskey drinker. He got lung cancer,” he said.
“Mum worked really hard and had to raise two kids.”
Losing his dad was hard on him, and he now treasures every year with his 12-year-old son Kingston, who he has full-time.
“Every year (after he turned nine) it’s like I get to experience having a kid with a dad, but I get to experience it from the other side/perspective.”
Talking from their Cronulla home, Mat fills me in on the last 20 years, and everything in between.
He’s easy to talk to – chatty – which means I don’t have to continue to pepper him with questions, and he’s happy to steer the conversation.
The Indian ashram
Mat tells me living in an ashram in Indian at 20-years-old helped him heal from his childhood wounds.
“My girlfriend wanted to travel, and I wanted to as well, so we booked an around the world ticket.
“I’d never done yoga and I didn’t even know what an ashram was. I wasn’t going out and partying, I got to heal a lot of stuff.
“I had a chip on my shoulder, but I got to a certain age where I just realised I can’t do this forever. It was a formative time in someone’s life. I started unravelling the thread of my childhood and the emergence of my adulthood.
“It allowed me to get a better perspective of the world.”
Busking in New York
Following that transformative year, a young gypsy Mat floated through Nepal and Europe, eventually landing in the US, where he tried his hand at busking in NYC subways.
“I had been writing songs. I recorded a demo, which became the first Beautiful Girls record. I recorded that in three hours for $300.”
Sometime during that time, Mat’s music blew up.
“The timing of that whole sound; I was in the right place at the right time. I played 10 years non-stop.”
His band, which he prefers to see as a “collective” and a project where players come and go, soon struck a chord not only in Australia, but internationally too.
Global tours bring wider acclaim
Two years after his debut EP, The Beautiful Girls toured Japan, Canada and the US.
His songs landed on ARIA charts; there were Triple J Awards; an APRA nomination, and more international tours.
By 2010, there were a dozen world tours in eight years, which is impressive considering he was doing it all independently: no major label or corporate sponsorship in sight.
A streaming success
With a track record of over 500,000 albums sold and 100,000,000 streams, Mat has firmly ingrained himself in the home-grown music scene, with more than 343,000 monthly streams on Spotify.
His music is still so popular he lives comfortably off its royalties.
And while you may not have heard from him for a while, he points out that he has only gained more listeners over time, not less.
Mat released his first live album, “Rumble Inna Jungle”, in December last year, showcasing the best of his vibrant and spirited performances.
He’s continued to reinvent himself, and all the magic happens at his shows.
Laughing about monotony
This is where Mat made me laugh, explaining what it’s like to perform repetitively year after year.
“Imagine saying a super funny joke 20 years ago… and you have the say it over and over again on the stage.
“You have to be authentic and that entails respecting the moment that you exist in. I’ve always got new music and I’m always writing and recording.”
From the new album, “Periscopes” holds a special place in the hearts of the band, being the first song from their debut album.
His live shows are where it’s at
“There’s been a whole lot of life between these two moments, and you can hear it.
“The live record is a good one. I didn’t want to be associated with (the earlier music) so much, so I got back into what I loved, hip-hop, soul music, music that I found more interesting.”
And it’s all about creating good authentic music, instead of putting out music for the sake of making money.
Quality music over greed
“I don’t feel the need to commercialise it if I don’t need to, I wont. I’ve never done it to chase money.
“I don’t want to recreate something just ‘cos it’s popular; that seems cynical and capitalist.
“All I try and do is show up, be authentic, I want to create things that is an offering, a song is an offering, an expression, a devotion, you make it and the joy is in the process, not the result.”
Mat’s blend of bass-heavy rhythms, dub, folk, soul, jazz, and hip-hop has captivated audiences since his early days of guerilla shows at a local skate park.
“I was in heavy/stoner rock bands in my teen years, but overseas I was playing acoustic.
“I grew up on the northern beaches and when we first started up, there wasn’t any music coming out of there.
“You had huge bands in the 80s like Midnight Oil and INXS. Then nothing when we were growing up in the 90s and 2000s.
“Then heavier, punkier, surf/punk bands; and then we started doing really well, and then it all just happened such as Angus and Julia (Stone), Lime Cordial, and Ocean Alley.”
Songs with soul
Mat is only making music that “has the right heart to it”.
“And there’s a sense of creative exploration. I’m searching for that as a listener, rather than finding the perfect pop song. Unless it’s ACDC “Black”, then you’ve got a pass.
“Neil Young and The Beatles were (also) creatively restless. I’m a creative person. Ultimately my purpose is to answer my creative urge.”
In the past decade, every song sung, every note played, every beat struck on a Beautiful Girls record has all been down to Mat.
Mat loves the Sunshine Coast
Last year, he played at two Sunshine Coast boutique-festivals, Kick Ass Festival at Kenilworth in September and Yowie Festival, Kilkivan, in November.
“It’s pretty beautiful out there. It was our first time going out there, and really driving that far west. I hadn’t seen it. I feel like I’ve seen everywhere, but when the opportunity comes where we haven’t been, it’s a massive bonus.
“My favourite place to play is in Australia. We used to be on the road for 10 months at a time, US mostly, but when we came back here it was always home.
“Culturally it’s home and you feel really relaxed. It’s pretty easy to relate to everyone because we’re all Aussies.
“Interviewers always wanted to know what the beaches were like here, and what it’s like to live here.
“We’re pretty much a coastal dwelling really, with such a similarity between all of us.”
A culture in Nambour
He said the Sunshine Coast had a lot to offer, beyond the suburban sprawl of Sydney.
“There is a culture in Nambour, and it’s really free. Sydney is so urban. It’s such a developed city.
“But in the Sunshine Coast hinterland… everyone is finding their piece of paradise there.”
Mat McHugh and The Beautiful Girls play the Eumundi Imperial Hotel on Friday (January 12).
Tickets: https://tickets.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/174e50eb-180a-4bf3-94e7-2ce744858265.
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