Interview & Article

A little while ago on a cold winter’s night, a few of the folks behind Small Werld sat on a dimly lit patch of grass with a boy who was lucky enough to spend his days doing what he loved and who just so happened to be g’damn amazing at it. Later on that same evening, we watched him play his songs to a backyard filled with no more than 150 fans, each of whom were enamoured by the captivating sounds they were hearing. Two years later we stood in the same city as part of a sold-out crowd at the Palace theatre, ready to see the aforementioned talent take to the stage as part of Matt Corby’s recent Australian tour. The onlooking cast of thousands lost their words, their breath and in many cases, their hearts to the show that was before them -- watching with an intensity that made it seem as if their ability to comprehend the importance of anything else in that moment, was gone. 

These past two years have seen Matt and his band reach heights that I’m sure still don’t seem like reality. With a much anticipated album en route, we’re confident this is level of success is merely a drop in an ocean much deeper than one could imagine. Despite possessing a fame that many will only dream of achieving, Matt speaks from his heart and remains one the most genuine artists we’ve had the pleasure of conversing with. We spoke of the bizarrely brilliant adventures he’s thus far encountered and the wonderfully wild moments that have ensued. Read on.

I understand you’ve been overseas for a while recording songs for your album, is that the case?

I’ve been in Los Angeles working with a guy out there who’s name is Mocky and we got some pretty good stuff done. Of course we missed the mark on a few things, but that’s pretty standard.. A lot of people I think do that, some are more afraid to admit it than others but yeah.

Do you think we can expect to hear it soon?

I guess the easiest way to answer that question is to say that you’ll hear it when you hear it. That’s maybe the shittiest answer ever but yeah, its not done. Well in my opinion, its not done and I feel like my opinion in the whole scenario should matter when it comes to making my own art... We’re going to continue to work on it through this year but there are obviously other things that I’m doing outside of recording so its likely to be a rather disjointed process. But I think it will help me gain perspective on what’s been done so I’ll know what to continue to do. So there is an album coming and then another one after that and so on and so forth. This is the first time I’ve done this though, so I want to try and do it the way I see as being right. And hopefully, do it well.

A short time ago you released Resolution, which is pretty spectacular... Was that one written recently? 

It was, as a part of the album recording. It was something that shone through a little brighter than everything else. I wrote it probably only around three and a half weeks before we went into the studio and it had never been performed before and we cut all these songs live, so it was pretty heavy for us to just go for that option. But it was better than the other way, putting everything to a fucking grid and having electronic instruments over-dubbed. For us there’s an organic sound that comes from just hitting things, that adds another more tangible level, which I think is much better than just making digital sounds. Which I guess is just my really long winded way of saying that we hit drums for real as I was singing and someone else was plucking strings... 

I feel like the track has a very hopeful sentiment, what does the song mean to you?

It does. The context in which it was written in was a crazy headspace that I was in. I had basically isolated myself from the world for a few days, just got into a weird kind of mind and decided that people are scary and constantly trying to consume something. It was freaking me out. I mean, I’ve never totally been that way inclined so I decided that not in some weird spiritual way, but via basic logic, that its probably better if you try to help instead of hinder. So the song was written when I came to the realisation that people are really all you’ve got. We’re all in a constant state of being or living at this point in time, but because time is linear and really just a way of understanding our impending doom, we should start to understand that people are it. Just don’t fuck with them man. You’re doing something which is either creating a positive or negative outcome, so that song was written because I realised that its better to love someone than to hate them. To live by that mantra is not an easy thing, its a decision you make and a means of how you see the world, a way of perceiving. So Resolution is my way of understanding that, at that point in time. Which I’m sure will change as time goes on.

We were at your Melbourne show recently and I’ve got to say, the room was packed. How does it feel to stand in front of thousands of people utterly enamoured by what you’re doing?

It feels strange. I mean, you’re putting yourself in front of a bunch of strangers in one of the most vulnerable forms, like I’m not up there naked, but you know its bearing ideas I’ve conjured out of wherever, I don’t know where ideas come from, but that’s a scary thing to do. I’ve done it for a long time but I think it can be a beautiful thing if you let it become one.  You see a lot of people that play music put on a show, which is cool, but there are some artists who do it and see it as a negative things because a) they’re not happy with the music they’re creating or are unhappy with the people that are liking it or b) their looking at it as a means to negativity instead of the opposite. I had a moment the night after the Melbourne show actually in Brisbane, where I just realised that its really cool, its my hour where I get to show people something which is fucking cool! And if you see it in its most simplistic form like that, it should be a scary thing, it shouldn’t make you feel any different as a human, it should just make you want to continue to do that in a good way. At the end of the day, people are going to go to the show, see it and probably go home to get on with what they’re doing with their lives. Trying not to adopt some sort of weird notion of myself as being bigger or better than anything else, but sharing what I have to share with people in the best way possible. So the frame of mind we come from is a good one, the band and I tour together and we’re all good friends. We love one another and play together for people, which is an incredible thing to be able to do. Music is another language, it doesn’t conform to anything that is clear. People who are only well versed in one dialect can like music from another. So you are doing something special when you’re on the stage, its a spiritual thing in whatever way you want to look at it. And hey, maybe I’m just talking a whole bunch of shit, but I guess that’s for people to decide. 

I imagine a lot has happened since we spoke last, what would you say has been your wildest moment over the last two years?

That’s what happened the day after my Melbourne show, in Brisbane. This is about to get heavy.. Basically, I don’t read reviews. I fucking hate it and think its the worst thing to do ever, to buy into your own hype because it doesn’t make you any different as a human being. I read one on that day because my manager said, “You should read this, its really good.” So I did get slightly enticed by the idea of reading something nice about myself and decided to read it. It was better than what I expected someone to think about what I do. Then my drummer said, “Well if you’ve read that one, you should read this one,” and he showed me another one, which was equally in the vein of weird admiration beyond what I should expect. So I casually got up, nonchalantly walked out of the room and just broke down. It was this crazy moment of just thinking, “What the fuck is going on?” like, what is this. What have I created for myself and what am I a part of. It started to overwhelm me and I started to hyperventilate, but then I came to a point where I felt that this thing, is an opportunity to make something good and not bad. At the end of the day its not about me or the way I feel about what I make, but I’m able to make music for my job and affect culture in this capacity, whatever the scale may be. It took me about 15 minutes of re-wiring myself and had this thing where I felt I should just play music and be happy about it. In the end, that’s all it is. Which probably sounds like a really obvious thought, but it hit me really hard and when you apply it to everything that is around you it makes some things really simple. I think people just need to de-complicate life because they’re stressing themselves and not really enjoying what is going on around them.

If you could go back to when we sat down with you at that Secret Garden show all those years ago and give yourself one piece of advice, what do you think that would be?

It would be, stop frowning you miserable cunt. Basically. 

And do you live by that now?

Well no, I have to tell myself that every single day. I think where you are is all a matter of perception. Where you are and how you feel is not only based on what’s going on around you but by the way you see it. Everyone, myself included, is trying to figure out what’s going on but I think to keep it simple, that would be my only thing. Life is going to take a course regardless so you might as well be okay about it rather than being a sad fucked up person.

“I’ll know I’ve made it when...”

Well, that’s fucked. I can’t answer that, its fucking crazy. I’ll never make it, ‘it’ is undefinable. So I guess I’ll make it when ‘it’ is definable.