The Beautiful Girls
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia | INDIE
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Former SURFING “Sounds” band The Beautiful Girls are back with a new album. Last time we spoke with them, they were just about to tour the US — but visa issues caused them to cancel the shows. So the went home to Australia and recorded a new album. Now they’re back, and they want to give SURFING readers a couple free tracks (bottom of page) from the new album as a thank you for your continued support. Frontman Matt McHugh talked with us about the album before headin’ out on their new US tour.
SURFING MAGAZINE: Do you get to the beach much when you’re on tour?
MATT MCHUGH: Not as much as I’d like. I find if I’m not near the ocean for an extended period though, I start to get stressed out. I’ve had a chance to surf at most places around the world. The strangest one would have to be a little jetty kind of set up just outside of Amsterdam. It’s right next to a shipping lane with giant windmills on the beach. The waves don’t get good there often but it’s fun just for location alone.
What sort of headspace was this album written from? What was your process?
It’s actually the first time I’ve had a chance to write an album in one sitting. I rented a little place just outside of Byron Bay with my girlfriend and would surf in the mornings and write songs all day while she was at work. I had a little laptop setup and pretty much every note on the album was written before we went in to record. It only took a couple of months.
The sound of this album is much fuller than previous ones — what’s changed?
In the past, I would write the skeleton of a song and we’d just do whatever we could to it in the studio, whereas this time around I had a really strong idea of what each song would contain as far as parts go. Sometimes in the past I wish we would have put a bit more thought into it.
Last time we spoke, you seemed pretty amazed at how well everything was going and the fast success of the band? Has putting out a fourth album changed things; are you feeling more established now?
Ha, no, not at all. We are just an independent band that has to find a foothold with every release. By choice we don’t have a major label budget or marketing plan to help us be established. The only way we can even compete in the circus that is the music industry is by having something to say and saying it as honestly as we can. It’s a constant battle, but I wouldn’t have it any other way because, for the most part, the music industry and it’s style of hyping every “next best thing” makes me sick.
What’s the last album you bought that got you excited?
I really, really love a band from New Zealand called Fat Freddy’s Drop. Every time I listen to their album I get so jealous that I didn’t write it. They’re very clever and their singer has an absolutely beautiful voice.
What’s the most personal song you’ve ever written?
To a degree, they’re all personal. If a topic doesn’t inspire some kind of personal, emotional response — I won’t bother writing a song about it. It’s would be too boring.
What aspect of Ziaggarauts are you happiest about?
I like the sounds on the album. I like the songs and the playing.
What’s up with the “bonus tracks” — what’s bonus about them?
I don’t know why they’re on there. Our record label just wanted to put them on to make the album a little different to the Australian release. They’re just home demos. If it was entirely up to me, they wouldn’t be on there.
What’s a Ziggaraut, away? Why’d you name the album that?
It’s a temple. A halfway point between the heavens and the earth. I kind of feel that music is exactly the same thing.
Have you got your US visas in order this time around?
Ha ha, yeah. The whole visa thing is just a joke. A couple of the band had incorrect visa’s and they put us through the ringer. Our tour manager, Matty Woo, is still banned for another five years. It’s a shame the world has ended up in a place of such fear and paranoia that a bunch of musicians are treated like international criminals for not having the right letters on their passport. It hasn’t changed my opinion on George W though. I already thought he was an idiot. - surfingthemag.com
Discography
* Morning Sun (January, 2002)
* Goodtimes (November, 2002)
* Learn Yourself (September, 2003)
* Black Bird (2003)
* The Weight Of The World (2004)
* We're Already Gone (2005)
* Water (2006)
* Ziggurats (2007)
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Bio
Ziggurat (pl. ziggurats): A pyramid temple of the ancient Mesopotamian valley.
"Music is a weird thing," says Mat McHugh. "If you're doing it right, you're only trying to respect the spirit of it, but it seems that every step in making it is a compromise of ego and industry. Maybe you never actually get there. Maybe music is the halfway point between heaven and hell."
Welcome to the Beautiful Girls' latest songs: divinely inspired and realized by human hands; magnificent monuments to unattainable perfection: Ziggurats.
These 10 were made of wood, wind, metal, wire and a surprisingly large dose of electricity in a small studio in Sydney, and mixed in Los Angeles in early 2007. Some of the names and faces around the band's singer-songwriter-guitarist have changed. Expectations engendered by their previous albums are perhaps best left here.
"I'm playing way more electric guitar," Mat says. "There's just the two acoustic songs this time, which I guess is partly reactive. I keep hearing about this acoustic movement, this blues and roots scene, and my feeling is like, F--k that dude, I don't want anything to do with any movement."
The Beautiful Girls' name alone was a pretty good indication of their intention to walk their own trail, regardless of prevailing footwear fashions. Five years ago, no band could get arrested playing acoustic instruments in Sydney. "Periscopes" was therefore a bracing staple of Australian airwaves in 2002.
Two albums later - Learn Yourself and We're Already Gone - four songs would echo the zeitgeist to lodge in the Triple J Hottest 100 in Australia, the latter picking up nominations for an ARIA and a J Award.
Meanwhile, a grassroots live following had escalated to bushfire proportions in the USA. It was there that Ziggurats began to take shape, in the aftermath of a fortuitous disaster. In September '06, several members of the band were deported. From the window of a fleapit hotel in Hollywood, Mat found himself contemplating a fresh musical future.
"On this record I was really determined to say what I wanted to say," he says. "I wanted to make the guitar really wiry, make the music angular and tough and a bit darker. I wanted the rockier ones to sound tougher and then the pretty ones prettier. It was time to make the record I wanted to make."
In typically contrary style, he soon found influences seeping in through holes in his prior musical education. "Growing up, I kind of avoided all those massively famous bands - the Police, U2, Midnight Oil," he recalls. "I grew up listening mostly to country and blues, enjoying the left field vibe. But the last few years I've gone back and listened to those bands and really got off on it."
Cue the beefy reggae rock of Ziggurats' opening cut, "Royalty". Next comes the chopping electric syncopations of "Sir, Your Fashion Has the Cold Heart of a Killer"; then the filthy bass intro, poppy double-handclaps and echo chamber effects of the first single, "I Thought About You". "U2 and the Police in particular I've come to really appreciate," Mat says. "Ostensibly they've got a three-piece musical section like us, and I like the way they derive power from that minimal instrumentation. I like their grooves and their power."
That said, the Beautiful Girls' penchant for sonic sunshine is also in full effect here, in the warm, organic reconstruction of UB40's "Bring Me Your Cup"; the gentle Latino shuffle of "Spanish Town", an evocative aural postcard complete with Hammond organ and swinging horns; and a warm-hearted homage to South African reggae master Johnny Cleg in the feelgood finale, "Dela".
There are shades of Midnight Oil's urgent red dirt rock in the didgeridoo drones and slashing guitars of "Under the Southern Sky", and "Generals" perhaps has more of the spirit of the late Joe Strummer than Mat's earlier acoustic influences, "In Love" and "She's Evil" further push the rock envelope.
"This is definitely a more rockin-kinda thing," Mat agrees, "and the main reason for that is the ability of the guys who played on it." Co-producer Ian Pritchett remains a constant in the expanding ranks of honorary Girls. On the road, the new rhythm section of Paulie B(bass) and Bruce Braybrooke (drums), is set to make good on the band's new palette. That's evolution.
"The first album we did in four hours and it took off," explains Mat. "The next one, I was listening to Johnny Cash and Nick Drake a lot, so we made a mellow acoustic record and that was the one that kind of stamped us. "But this is the first record I ever wrote where I actually had time to sit back and write the songs, to record them the way I wanted them to sound, and to present it the way I wanted it to be presented. Its way more realized than anything we've done before."
Australian music phenomenon The Beautiful Girls will soon be invading the United States for the second time in 2008 along with a brief visit to Canada. This time around The Be
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