| | | |  | The release of We're Already Gone and Water (a compilation), in the U.S. saw the beautiful girls morph and trim their touring party slightly. In a "back to their roots" move the band, who have worked with a series of different instrumentalists (including...
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| Interview | Access All Areas.net.au: So Matt, you’ve just released your latest record Ziggurats. How has the response been?
Mat McHugh (The Beautiful Girls): It’s been really good – surprisingly good actually, because it’s kind of different sounding so you’re just never sure how people are going to take it. At least critically it’s been pretty well received, we’ve been getting really good reviews and everyone who has bought it seems to for the most part, really like it. So it’s really exciting, it’s good.
Access All Areas.net.au: It’s really taking a new direction isn’t it? A kind of step away from the more acoustic material in the past…
Mat McHugh (The Beautiful Girls): It is different but I think that every album needs to be a bit different and I don’t consider it a complete about face. I think the signs were always there, I mean the one before, We’re Already Gone, was pointing towards it a little bit. You’ve always got to keep it different because there are ten different songs and if you just rehash what you’ve done before then everyone gets bored. We’d get bored because it’s just like playing the same stuff we’ve already played and that then transfers to the people who are listening who pick up on it and then they get bored – nobody wins.
Access All Areas.net.au: And I guess your live shows really come across as a lot ‘rockier’ than what your albums would suggest, anyway. I remember going to one of your shows last year and being quite surprised at how intense it was…
Mat McHugh (The Beautiful Girls): Yeah, that’s exactly right. I think that’s been part of the problem because you find a lot of people who haven’t seen the band and have that preconception where they think that’s just how it is. You hear the album and it seems pretty mellow and you just envisage that you’re just going to come and see this mellow band playing mellow songs and sit down and cross your legs on the ground [laughs]. It’s really never been like that since the very start almost, with The Beautiful Girls. It was about time that we did a record that actually made sense in that respect.
Access All Areas.net.au: The title of the new album, Ziggurats, is a bit unusual. What’s the meaning behind it?
Mat McHugh (The Beautiful Girls): Well, what a Ziggurat is; is like an ancient kind of temple that they used to build to glorify the heavens. It was seen as a half way point between the heavens and Earth. That sounded pretty interesting because that’s what I kind of consider music to be. You’re trying to aspire to reach the heavens but you never get there – it’s certainly above Earth but stuck at a half way point and I see the similarities between the two things.
Access All Areas.net.au: I understand you’ve recently undergone a few changes to the rhythm section of the band?
Mat McHugh (The Beautiful Girls): The drummer, Bruce, has been there for about a year and half so I mean he’s new for this record, but he’s not that new. Paulie’s been there since just the end of last year so he’s been up for six months as well. They’re new as far as touring goes – Bruce has done a couple of tours but it will be Paulie’s first tour with the band. So yeah, it’s sounding great, it’s sounding like a complete different band – in a good way.
Access All Areas.net.au: What is your international touring schedule looking like? Are you heading overseas anytime soon?
Mat McHugh (The Beautiful Girls): Actually on Monday. We got back from Japan yesterday. We just did Canada; we were back for about three days then went straight to Japan. We’re just back now until Monday and then we go to Europe and then we’re back the day before the Australian tour starts. And then two days after it finishes we head to the States – so yeah, it’s pretty busy.
Access All Areas.net.au: You’ve probably been asked this a hundred times – but what’s the story behind some of the band members being banned from entering America?
Mat McHugh (The Beautiful Girls): I don’t mind answering it because it’s good to bring attention to such a shit situation. Basically we all had Visas but the guys who got busted didn’t have – because they were new to the band – this special kind of performance Visa that you are supposed to have. So technically they weren’t allowed to go in and perform as work. It was just this tiny little administration error and then the Border guys just blew it out of control and ended up charging our tour manager with importing illegal aliens and ‘blah blah blah.’ They were going to throw him in jail and all kinds of shit so he got banned for ten years and the other guys got banned for a year. It was just really heavy – unnecessary and very heavy.
Access All Areas.net.au: And there was also a recent incident at the Whistler World Cup Festival in Canada…
Mat McHugh (The Beautiful Girls): Ah, yeah. It’s a touchy subject for people because they’re afraid of speaking out, especially nowadays. I said some things about the American government and how they should take a good look at themselves and whatever. Some people were really behind it and some people were really upset, like ‘How dare you criticize the government.” But I was completely just explaining my experiences first hand and describing what happened and my opinions on it. An important part of democracy is free speech and dissent, you know, I was exercising my right. It’s just a strange position where you’re in a democratic society and you’re not allowed to speak out against what you think is wrong being perpetuated by a government; and it’s just crazy shit. It was interesting, we had a lot of interesting debates after it because there were a lot of people who came up to me and patted me on the back and congratulated me for standing up for myself and ourselves. But a lot of people were just incredulous that I could have done it.
Mat McHugh (The Beautiful Girls): One thing I did notice was that nowadays a lot of musicians and artists are just really afraid to speak their mind because they’re worried that their career is just going to crumble down on them. So you don’t have as many politically outspoken people as maybe you did in the past because now the music industry is such a big industry and there’s a line of people behind you wanting to be music stars or whatever they want to be and if you say the wrong thing then you get pushed out of line. We don’t have a record label or any big influential ‘powers that be’ behind us so we’re kind of, as much as possible, in a position where we can actually say what we think - which is a pretty privileged position. I think it’s a good idea to take that privilege and use it to its best advantage.
Access All Areas.net.au: How hard is it being an independent band in Australia? Is it a lot of work?
Mat McHugh (The Beautiful Girls): For sure it is. The good side of it is that you do everything yourself and you have control over everything that you do. You can maintain a certain standard of ethics and a certain standard of how you present yourself. But on the other side of that page, is that fact that, you know, you do everything yourself [laughs]. You work your arse off basically and sometimes you spend all your money and sometimes the only thing that’s holding you in there is just faith. There’s a strong love for music and you just kind of put all your eggs in one basket. It’s scary and hard and crazy sometimes because there’s no one there to hold out a safety net if something goes wrong. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. I know the record companies are basically just in it for the bottom line and increasingly they just care less and less about their artists so it’s good to be surrounded by a team of people that actually care about it.
Access All Areas.net.au: What does the future hold in store for The Beautiful Girls?
Mat McHugh (The Beautiful Girls): I don’t really know. The band has probably been around as an entity for about five years so it’s been a question that’s been asked a few times and I still don’t really have an answer. You just try and get better at what you do; try and get better at playing music and get better at running the show; get better at putting on a better live show and get better at making records, writing songs and managing your time. Like anyone doing any kind of job, you just try and do everything better. I don’t have any grand plans or expectations about wanting to be the biggest band in the world. I just want to write the best music that I can write and all the stuff that happens around that are just side-effects and you can’t control whether they are good or they’re bad. If I make a record that I think is amazing but no one likes it or buys it and it just tanks – does that mean that it is a bad record? Conversely, you might make a shit one that you don’t like but a lot of people do. So I’m just trying to make myself happy with what I do.
Interview by Jarrad Seng |
| Biography | The release of We're Already Gone and Water (a compilation), in the U.S. saw the beautiful girls morph and trim their touring party slightly. In a "back to their roots" move the band, who have worked with a series of different instrumentalists (including harmonica players, a brass section and keyboardists), toured the U.S. as a three piece. They added a keyboard player for their home tours.
The ‘We're Already Gone album has enjoyed international success and raised the profile of the band considerably in the U.S. – and the response to this album there, both by the crowds and the press has been fantastic. Because of it the band have featured in ex games dvd’s (through Canada and the U.S.), full page articles and the albums (both WAG and Water), continue to sell well.
On their second attempt to get into the U.S. this year the band though, the band were stopped at the border and not allowed in. The subsequent ban will see them out of the US for a year – the band anticipate being able to re-enter the country in the summer of ‘07. The band accepted the ban though, and made the most of the time without touring commitments by coming back to aust and recording the next album.
This album, titled ziggurats, and to be released in early to mid ‘07, will further add to the beautiful girls reputation as musical shape shifters.
It is, perhaps fuelled by the border crossing controversy, a tighter and punchier sound album.
Taking the some of the elements of white reggae that the band flirted with on We’re Already Gone and combining them with an energy rush that moves away from roots and into a post punk style, nodding to influences from the clash and dexy’s midnight runners thru to the police.
The band emphasis evident on the last album is also prevalent in the new songs, although the rhythm section is sharper again than on that recording. And once again there are a series of collaborations. This time featuring keys, a brass section, a some stunning melodica.
Even though it has a mix of songs and styles (including a South African cover from the eighties), ziggurats is likely to be considered the bands first straight ahead album - the intensity of the performances giving it the bands strongest sense of purpose yet.
(‘06) ::
In ’06 the beautiful girls have once again circled the globe, taking their music to as many people as possible, selling out shows in the Netherlands, the U.K Canada and the U.S.
Their mid year trip across Europe (in july and august of this year) served to promote and support the release of We’re Already Gone in Germany, the Netherlands and the U.K. The band also toured thru Canada and the U.S (their seventh tour of the U.S. touring partners have included; Mason Jennings, Pepper –twice- Slightly Stoopid and Fishbone).
In the U.S. both We’re Already Gone and Water – a compilation featuring tracks from Morning Sun, good times (now no longer in production) and learn yourself – were released on cornerstone ras (home to sublime and slightly stoopid releases).
(‘07) ::
the band will be releasing its new album, to be titled ziggurats, in may of ‘07.
Ziggurats will be released in Australia and Japan simultaneously and soon after in the U.K., the US, South Africa and Europe.
There will be a world tour to support the release of the album, with the band already picking up festival dates in Japan in may.
releases ::
in ‘02 the band released Morning Sun, their mini-album. Periscopes was added to Triple J, the Australian national radio station. This and most of the other songs from Morning Sun, were added to a host of surf vids and dvd’s by surf filmmakers in Australia. The band began the touring. At this stage it was Australia wide but a pattern was set.
good times - ’03 - was released as a five track limited edition cd. Stock sold out in weeks and the art work and some of the songs appear on TBG’s Brazilian (The Beautiful Girls), and Japanese (Water), releases.
Learn Yourself, ’04, is a neat combination of roots, hip-hop, reggae, soul and blues. A mess of influences that formed celebration of life. That album (Learn Yourself), was the Beautiful Girls North American debut and on the back of it TBG went to the U.S.
We’re Already Gone ‘05, expands expectation:: in instrumentation, performance and songcraft. This album has a strong band emphasis and includes a stack of extra coloring. |
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