Next month, The Beautiful Girls will release their first album since 2010. But the group haven’t been idle in that time, according to singer, songwriter and producer Mat McHugh.
Touring under the name 'Mat McHugh And The Seperatista Soundsystem', Mat says these past few years have been the same guys doing the same stuff. “We've been playing gigs and doing other stuff and putting out records, just not under The Beautiful Girls name. So, The Beautiful Girls is just a name that I use to release music under and I just decided that I didn't want to use that name for a while... So unfortunately I haven't been having a holiday in Mexico, I wish I had.”
With the latest TBG album, 'Dancehall Days', Mat originally intended it to be released under his own name, but once the music started coming together he decided it sounded more like a Beautiful Girls album. Mat describes 'Dancehall Days' as being the next step on from The Beautiful Girls' last record, 'Spooks'. “The last one, I tried to make the records by myself and often I tried to make it sound like a real band was playing it, ‘cause I felt like that was the perception.
“So now I've scrapped all those perceptions, and our line-up that we have live has a beats kind of soundsystem and horns and it's very influenced by early ‘80s dancehall and early hip hop and stuff. The album's a bit more coming from that place, from a bunch of songs that are really going to work with that line-up and that set-up.”
Mat puts an incredible amount of work into creating his music. He writes the music, sings, plays various instruments and produces the work, which he describes as being both “the best thing in the world, and the worst thing in the universe”.
“I can hear the songs in my head, how they should be. So I just need to get them out the way that they are without compromising them. But the worst part about that is that it’s a lot of work, it's pretty harrowing.”
'Dancehall Days' was written, recorded and produced in just three months. “By the end of it, it's like 'I want to go sit in a cave somewhere and not think about music'. But that's just the way it is, you just have to dive into it and get it done, and hopefully get it done good. I'm too much of a perfectionist and a control freak to do it any other way unfortunately.”
The Beautiful Girls have sold over a quarter of a million albums, so this next album has a lot to live up to, but Mat isn't worried. “I have the least ambition, probably, of any musician you'll ever interview. So I don't rally care if it gets in the charts.
"I mean, I guess it's good ‘cause it means people buy it ... To get Top 20 records is cool, but what matters is just ... having it mean something to people and then getting out there on the road and playing it and have people come and sing, and get into it and share the whole thing with us... There's plenty of people that get into those charts that I don't think anyone even goes to their shows.”
The band will embark on a national tour throughout October, including the Caloundra Music Festival. Mat believes playing live gigs is the most important part of the musical process. “I think music is just a kind of communication and sharing.
“A band can play at rehearsal and play their songs and it's one thing, and then they can go and play it in a room full of people and it's a completely different thing. That is all down to the fact that those people make that happen; it's a connection between a whole bunch of people at one time, that creates this magic. And that's what I think is so strong and powerful about music, is the ability to do that.”
Written by Darcy Stephens
‘Dancehall Days’ will be available from Friday 3rd October.
The Beautiful Girls Tour Dates
Sun 28th Sep - Sounds Of The Suburbs (Sydney)Wed 1st Oct - Dalrymple Hotel
Thu 2nd Oct - Magnums Hotel (Airlie Beach)
Fri 3rd Oct - Tanks Arts Centre (Cairns)
Sat 4th Oct - Caloundra Music Festival
Thu 16th Oct - Wollongong Uni Bar
Fri 17th Oct - The Metro (Sydney)
Sat 18th Oct - Cambridge Hotel (Sydney)
Thu 23rd Oct - Spirit Bar (Traralgon)
Fri 24th Oct - 170 Russell (Melbourne)
Sat 25th Oct - Barwon Heads Hotel
Fri 7th Nov - Rosemount Hotel (Perth)
Sat 8th Nov - Blues at Bridgetown
