At 5:30pm on a Wednesday, The Wombats frontman Matthew 'Murph' Murphy declares that he’s had “a really boring day”.
He’s been to the gym and “struggled ‘round the supermarket, trying to find stuff for this Martha Stewart recipe that [he’s] gonna absolutely f... up” later on; something called a pork fricassee. After that, he’ll probably play with his dogs.
“I’m a pretty useless cook, but now that I’ve had a baby, I’ve kind of got to sort myself out,” he says.
This portrait of his day stands in stark contrast to the indie-rock staples sketched out by Wombats song lyrics. Surely, a little more hedonistic indulgence would help the Brit mine his life for source material. Murph insists the opposite is true.
After 12 years in the spotlight, spending time away from the music industry stops it from souring for him. “I’ve always had a kind of double life,” he says.
“Like, I’ve been obsessed with golf as a sport since I was a little kid. But the me who’s putting on a polo shirt and going to the country club doesn’t feel like the same me that walks on stage.”
He shares the love of golf with Pixies guitarist Joey Santiago, who Matthew originally met on tour with Weezer. Last year, Joey popped by Murph’s studio after a round of golf, where the beginnings of his debut single as a solo artist (Love Fame Tragedy), 'My Cheating Heart', were laid down.
According to Murph, the recording process for the four tracks which comprise the Love, Fame, Tragedy EP 'I Don’t Want To Play The Victim, But I'm Really Good At It', was like playing “contact-list roulette”. “I’ve met all these cool people [over the years], I should be utilising their talents,” he says, adding that the star-studded guest list wards off any suggestion that the EP is a “moody solo project”.
'My Cheating Heart' also features vocals from model Maddi Jean Waterhouse, whose sister had previously worked on music with Murph. The song revisits the singer’s first days in LA, three and a half years ago, when he was “trying to carve out [his] own little path that didn’t involve… that kind of need for excess”.
“I was always this person that didn’t have any bass notes to them, or a concrete foundation,” he says. “I think I needed to build a more solid foundation underneath myself.”
The consequences of having shaky foundations are fleshed out on 'Brand New Brain', a highlight of the EP. The lyrics recount the morning after a particularly unruly Hollywood party: 'Did I push you to the limit? Did I go too hard? Did I throw a rock at your car?' “That song’s pretty much about waking up and trying to put your life back together,” Murph says.
He called on long-time friend Gus Unger-Hamilton, of alt-J, for a touch of understated, futuristic keys and vocals. “I absolutely adore alt-J,” Murph says. “I think they are an extremely creative, imaginative bunch of people.
“You know those cheesy phrases, like when Oprah comes out and says 'You’ve got to be yourself, because everyone else is taken?' Or whatever? I feel like they just came out of the gates, doing that from the second they started.”
Without the pressure to produce something to fit The Wombats, the guys had complete creative freedom in the studio. “The mentality was kind of 'drink this bottle of wine and do whatever the hell you want',” Murph says.
It’s clear the songwriter has tried to avoid overthinking the tracks on 'I Don’t Want To Play The Victim, But I’m Really Good At It'. Somewhat surprisingly, the “no bullsh.t” approach surfaces several moments of raw honesty that pack the same punch as Murph’s more meticulous work.
“I like being abstract, tongue in cheek, using turns of phrases in songs,” he says. “But at some point, you’ve got to get to the point.”
He’s at his most pointed on the bridge in 'Pills', when he sings: 'Why don’t you love me the way that I love you?'. “I think that particular lyric kind of explains the whole reason why I’ve been writing songs for the last 20 years,” Murph says. “I don’t know, maybe. We’d have to ask my shrink.”
'I Don’t Want To Play The Victim, But I'm Really Good At It' EP is released 27 September.
Love Fame Tragedy 2019 Tour Dates
Sun 6 Oct - Yours & Owls Festival (Wollongong)Tue 8 Oct - Oxford Art Factory (Sydney)
Wed 9 Oct - Howler (Melbourne) - sold out
Thu 10 Oct - The Zoo (Brisbane)
