The Beautiful Girls - Mat McHugh
Words: Jo Taylor
Four piece Sydney band The Beautiful Girls have achieved a lot in their 10 years of existence. With four albums, three EPs and numerous award nominations under their belt, lead singer/guitarist and founding member Mat McHugh knew it was time to step out from the comfort of working under the moniker The Beautiful Girls and take things to the next level. As part of a celebration and conclusion of an incredible 10 years, the band are heading on the road one last time.
Caught in the Mosh spoke with McHugh about the tour, the next chapter of his music career, creative inspiration and how his 16-month-old son is already mastering the harmonica.
You are halfway through your 26 date Australian tour celebrating 10 years. How is the tour going so far?
Yeah, it’s been going well. The first few shows were kind of a work in progress. We were trying to figure out how to make the setlist seem like it wasn’t too long. We started doing acoustic and then electric and it just felt like two and a half hours was a long time so we’ve been trying to make it so it flies by. It’s been fun though. The crowds have been great. There haven’t been any bad shows.
Well, that’s what you want from a tour!
(laughs) Yeah, it’s not always the way it pans out.
Did you ever think when you started playing as The Beautiful Girls that you would end up celebrating 10 years?
Nah. I didn’t have any thoughts either way. I never intended to even go out on tour at all, ever! I didn’t want to play music as a job. Um, and I think that kind of attitude is probably still pretty deeply ingrained. I don’t have a fear of not doing it. Some people, all they’ve ever wanted to be was a musician and go on tour. So then, all the choices they make are ensuring that doesn’t get taken from them and I just don’t care about that. I just do stuff that I think I’m interested in, for myself. I’m proud of and if some people don’t like it then I just kinda think, well, people don’t get it, but I like it.
That’s a great attitude to have...
Yeah, well it’s the only one that’s honest that you can sustain and look at yourself in the mirror at the end of the day. Otherwise, you’re just running in circles trying to participate in a popularity contest and I don’t know how you can control the outcomes of those things. You just gotta do what you do.
Caught in the Mosh spoke with McHugh about the tour, the next chapter of his music career, creative inspiration and how his 16-month-old son is already mastering the harmonica.
You are halfway through your 26 date Australian tour celebrating 10 years. How is the tour going so far?
Yeah, it’s been going well. The first few shows were kind of a work in progress. We were trying to figure out how to make the setlist seem like it wasn’t too long. We started doing acoustic and then electric and it just felt like two and a half hours was a long time so we’ve been trying to make it so it flies by. It’s been fun though. The crowds have been great. There haven’t been any bad shows.
Well, that’s what you want from a tour!
(laughs) Yeah, it’s not always the way it pans out.
Did you ever think when you started playing as The Beautiful Girls that you would end up celebrating 10 years?
Nah. I didn’t have any thoughts either way. I never intended to even go out on tour at all, ever! I didn’t want to play music as a job. Um, and I think that kind of attitude is probably still pretty deeply ingrained. I don’t have a fear of not doing it. Some people, all they’ve ever wanted to be was a musician and go on tour. So then, all the choices they make are ensuring that doesn’t get taken from them and I just don’t care about that. I just do stuff that I think I’m interested in, for myself. I’m proud of and if some people don’t like it then I just kinda think, well, people don’t get it, but I like it.
That’s a great attitude to have...
Yeah, well it’s the only one that’s honest that you can sustain and look at yourself in the mirror at the end of the day. Otherwise, you’re just running in circles trying to participate in a popularity contest and I don’t know how you can control the outcomes of those things. You just gotta do what you do.
So what was the career you wanted to follow?
I knew I’d always play music ‘cause I always have and I love it, but I imagined just doing it for fun. I originally wanted to be a surfer and I grew up surfing and going away on surfing competitions my whole childhood and teenage years. Then I just kinda got burnt out on competitions and I knew that dream wouldn’t really suit me. I don’t have a competitive nature. And then I studied design and art when I left school. I really wanted to do that. I just really like creativity - in surfing, in food or in music. Just things where you can kind of invent stuff out of thin air. I thought that would be a cool job. You could just sit around and listen to music and design stuff. That’s where my head was at. The Beautiful Girls started touring during my last year of study, so it was a bit of a juggle. And I never worked in that field. Yeah, there was a real point where I was like “should I go on tour or should I do this assignment?” It was really kinda tough and my teachers were really supportive and really gave me a lot of slack. As long as I did the work, they turned a bit of a blind eye to my lack of attendance. One day I’d still like do some more visual stuff. When that moment arises I’m sure I’ll do it.
You seem to have a newfound self-acceptance and strength. It must feel refreshing and liberating to now be stepping away from The Beautiful Girls moniker and working under your own name?
Yeah, it’s great. The exact way to put it is exactly the way you said it. There’s kinda people who approach it and their like “Is it scary that you’re changing this?” and it’s like “Nah, It’s not scary actually, it’s really great!” When I’ve done the solo touring, every time that I’ve stepped out on the stage, under my own name, I feel like it’s honest and so kind of challenging. And frightful, in a way. And feels like everything that I have done has led to this. This is how I should be presenting myself and I feel like this is the most honest way to get across the message and the ideas that I have. It feels like it takes it to the next level and there’s a lot of space for that to still go. I want to give respect to The Beautiful Girls moniker and tour and give it all I can on this tour but then I honestly feel like it will step up again once I start touring again under my own name.
I knew I’d always play music ‘cause I always have and I love it, but I imagined just doing it for fun. I originally wanted to be a surfer and I grew up surfing and going away on surfing competitions my whole childhood and teenage years. Then I just kinda got burnt out on competitions and I knew that dream wouldn’t really suit me. I don’t have a competitive nature. And then I studied design and art when I left school. I really wanted to do that. I just really like creativity - in surfing, in food or in music. Just things where you can kind of invent stuff out of thin air. I thought that would be a cool job. You could just sit around and listen to music and design stuff. That’s where my head was at. The Beautiful Girls started touring during my last year of study, so it was a bit of a juggle. And I never worked in that field. Yeah, there was a real point where I was like “should I go on tour or should I do this assignment?” It was really kinda tough and my teachers were really supportive and really gave me a lot of slack. As long as I did the work, they turned a bit of a blind eye to my lack of attendance. One day I’d still like do some more visual stuff. When that moment arises I’m sure I’ll do it.
You seem to have a newfound self-acceptance and strength. It must feel refreshing and liberating to now be stepping away from The Beautiful Girls moniker and working under your own name?
Yeah, it’s great. The exact way to put it is exactly the way you said it. There’s kinda people who approach it and their like “Is it scary that you’re changing this?” and it’s like “Nah, It’s not scary actually, it’s really great!” When I’ve done the solo touring, every time that I’ve stepped out on the stage, under my own name, I feel like it’s honest and so kind of challenging. And frightful, in a way. And feels like everything that I have done has led to this. This is how I should be presenting myself and I feel like this is the most honest way to get across the message and the ideas that I have. It feels like it takes it to the next level and there’s a lot of space for that to still go. I want to give respect to The Beautiful Girls moniker and tour and give it all I can on this tour but then I honestly feel like it will step up again once I start touring again under my own name.
I read that after releasing the free download album Love Come Save Me, you started receiving gifts etc from fans and you feel that this has been more rewarding that previous records. Did this give you a greater belief in your own direction?
Yeah, and I still get a lot of stuff from it. Like someone will take a photo and I’ll write back to them and say that I really love that photo and they’ll send me a higher resolution of it and say “here you go, you have it because we owe you because of this”. Those things aren’t the things that are rewarding, I actually find that amazing! And I think, what a cool thing to do back and forth between humans. The rewarding thing was watching music have its monetary value kind of shift away and just get passed around and shared. The most rewarding things were the stories that people were writing to me like “I shared this with so and so and blah blah” and all these amazing stories of how the music just spread and it was removed completely from marketing and money. And I thought, this is the best thing that I’ve experienced in music, the actual feeling of enjoying music for its own sake and giving it to someone. And the joy you get from giving something just gets multiplied. The joy and happiness in sharing is one of the greatest things you can have, I think.
Did the birth of your son Kingston play a role?
Yeah, absolutely. It would be remise of me to not say that. That has been one of the hugest factors. I think there’s kind of two sides to it. One of them being, when you have a kid, the time factor. For everything else, you just want to strip away all the nonsense and all the needless energy. You just want to do what you do, in the most effective, direct way you can. Musically, I just don’t want to bother writing a song that doesn’t mean anything at all to me, or even just a line in a song. Because what you leave behind, your legacy to your kids, it’s something I’ve never really thought about before. That goes hand in hand with writing and playing stuff that you can be really proud of and that your family can be proud of. I don’t really mind what people think of it, as long as I’m happy with it. But that changes when you have a son and a family, you want them to be proud of it and not be made for commerce. My dad died when I was young and my mum worked hard and I was kinda left to my own devices. I didn’t really have a sense of “This is your name, son. Be proud of it”. No-one ever told me that so I want to have that for my son and let him know “You be proud of who you are and be proud to do stuff under your own name”. It’s all part of it.
He played harmonica on triple j the day before his first birthday, which must have been a proud moment for you.
(laughs) Yeah, and he’s like 16 months old now and he’s just ridiculous! He actually plays stuff that I would not be able to play on the harmonica and he’s got his little foot stomps happening.
Yeah, and I still get a lot of stuff from it. Like someone will take a photo and I’ll write back to them and say that I really love that photo and they’ll send me a higher resolution of it and say “here you go, you have it because we owe you because of this”. Those things aren’t the things that are rewarding, I actually find that amazing! And I think, what a cool thing to do back and forth between humans. The rewarding thing was watching music have its monetary value kind of shift away and just get passed around and shared. The most rewarding things were the stories that people were writing to me like “I shared this with so and so and blah blah” and all these amazing stories of how the music just spread and it was removed completely from marketing and money. And I thought, this is the best thing that I’ve experienced in music, the actual feeling of enjoying music for its own sake and giving it to someone. And the joy you get from giving something just gets multiplied. The joy and happiness in sharing is one of the greatest things you can have, I think.
Did the birth of your son Kingston play a role?
Yeah, absolutely. It would be remise of me to not say that. That has been one of the hugest factors. I think there’s kind of two sides to it. One of them being, when you have a kid, the time factor. For everything else, you just want to strip away all the nonsense and all the needless energy. You just want to do what you do, in the most effective, direct way you can. Musically, I just don’t want to bother writing a song that doesn’t mean anything at all to me, or even just a line in a song. Because what you leave behind, your legacy to your kids, it’s something I’ve never really thought about before. That goes hand in hand with writing and playing stuff that you can be really proud of and that your family can be proud of. I don’t really mind what people think of it, as long as I’m happy with it. But that changes when you have a son and a family, you want them to be proud of it and not be made for commerce. My dad died when I was young and my mum worked hard and I was kinda left to my own devices. I didn’t really have a sense of “This is your name, son. Be proud of it”. No-one ever told me that so I want to have that for my son and let him know “You be proud of who you are and be proud to do stuff under your own name”. It’s all part of it.
He played harmonica on triple j the day before his first birthday, which must have been a proud moment for you.
(laughs) Yeah, and he’s like 16 months old now and he’s just ridiculous! He actually plays stuff that I would not be able to play on the harmonica and he’s got his little foot stomps happening.
I’m assuming music has been a part of his life from day one. What music does he groove along to?
Umm... He likes a lot of... I guess you’d expect it, but a lot of mellow music and reggae music. When he was in utereo, I’d play and sing songs to my partner’s stomach and a lot of Dylan and Reggae and Dub stuff, like really cruisey kind of stuff all the time. All the time! It is like his education. We didn’t really watch any TV. We’d sit and play music right to where he was at a pretty gentle volume. The kid’s already got it in his system. He kinda beat boxes and got his own little rhythm thing happening. From when he was a single-celled organism he was just surrounded by music, so it’s natural for him. In my house growing up, and in our house now, music is a natural thing. I never want to have one of those houses where it’s embarrassing to sing or to dance or to express yourself. I want to encourage that as a natural thing. Just do your thing, however it sounds. It’s your thing.
Who have been some of the musicians/bands/people that have inspired you along your path, musically?
A lot of different kinds of inspiration. There’s artistic inspiration and human inspiration. I guess musically, I’m a huge fan of Bob Dylan and just the fact that he’s fearless. He changes and does this thing. Seems to not care about pandering, he answers to no-one but himself and to music. I really like that. Along those lines I’m a fan of Pablo Picasso. A huge fan of his work, maybe not as a human. He’s a bit of a rat-bag (laughs) but fearless in changing what he did. He had a long and amazing career filled with left turns all the time but always coming from the right place. That’s inspirational. There’s a bunch of people like that, they just have an art as human beings and their art reflects it. Their art may be painting or cooking or whatever. But I think life should come first and the art should be reflective of that. When art becomes a vehicle to put money in the bank then I think it just becomes void of any importance. All my inspiration has come from that place. You know, Joe Strummer... There’s a list of inspirations. A long list.
Someone that can contribute their art without compromising their integrity...
Yeah! I think the responsibility of a creative person is to forge ahead and see what they can find and then come back and get everyone. Show them what they found, as opposed to conjuring up something that they think people will like. They need to genuinely go and find something and illuminate people’s consciousness. I think the greats in any creative field, that’s what they do. As much as I do in music, I find huge inspiration in architecture or the passion for cooking an amazing meal. People can just do amazing things. The spirit of creativity is what is inspiring.
Umm... He likes a lot of... I guess you’d expect it, but a lot of mellow music and reggae music. When he was in utereo, I’d play and sing songs to my partner’s stomach and a lot of Dylan and Reggae and Dub stuff, like really cruisey kind of stuff all the time. All the time! It is like his education. We didn’t really watch any TV. We’d sit and play music right to where he was at a pretty gentle volume. The kid’s already got it in his system. He kinda beat boxes and got his own little rhythm thing happening. From when he was a single-celled organism he was just surrounded by music, so it’s natural for him. In my house growing up, and in our house now, music is a natural thing. I never want to have one of those houses where it’s embarrassing to sing or to dance or to express yourself. I want to encourage that as a natural thing. Just do your thing, however it sounds. It’s your thing.
Who have been some of the musicians/bands/people that have inspired you along your path, musically?
A lot of different kinds of inspiration. There’s artistic inspiration and human inspiration. I guess musically, I’m a huge fan of Bob Dylan and just the fact that he’s fearless. He changes and does this thing. Seems to not care about pandering, he answers to no-one but himself and to music. I really like that. Along those lines I’m a fan of Pablo Picasso. A huge fan of his work, maybe not as a human. He’s a bit of a rat-bag (laughs) but fearless in changing what he did. He had a long and amazing career filled with left turns all the time but always coming from the right place. That’s inspirational. There’s a bunch of people like that, they just have an art as human beings and their art reflects it. Their art may be painting or cooking or whatever. But I think life should come first and the art should be reflective of that. When art becomes a vehicle to put money in the bank then I think it just becomes void of any importance. All my inspiration has come from that place. You know, Joe Strummer... There’s a list of inspirations. A long list.
Someone that can contribute their art without compromising their integrity...
Yeah! I think the responsibility of a creative person is to forge ahead and see what they can find and then come back and get everyone. Show them what they found, as opposed to conjuring up something that they think people will like. They need to genuinely go and find something and illuminate people’s consciousness. I think the greats in any creative field, that’s what they do. As much as I do in music, I find huge inspiration in architecture or the passion for cooking an amazing meal. People can just do amazing things. The spirit of creativity is what is inspiring.
Someone once said “write what you would want to perform over and over”. With that in mind, which song do you love to perform the most?
Some songs depend on the place and the time; they change. I think the ones that are the simplest ones. The hardest thing in life is to do something interesting that’s really simple. My favourite song is La Mar, in that it doesn’t change. It’s the same chords the whole way through. I worked really hard on it when I was writing the song, but I don’t remember writing it at the same time. It’s ten years on and its one of those ones that… It never had a film clip, was never a single, but everywhere we went around the world, people got it. And I’m not sick of playing it one bit. You’d think that playing a song that has the same 4 chords over and over might get repetitive but it doesn’t. And that’s what I look for every time I write a song. Where’s the skeleton in this thing, where’s the structure that’s going to go round the side of aesthetics and get to the heart of it. I feel there’s a couple on the new record too, but time kind of strengthens those things.
I think that comes through. When you finished the gig last night with La Mar, I noticed the crowd emotionally connecting and losing themselves in the song.
Yeah! That’s part of the thing with simplicity too. It leaves it open somewhat for interpretation and then people can paint their own colours into it. That’s what its about. That’s what music is about! It’s not about how clever someone can be and showing that off. I think it’s about connecting everyone. Being a huge fan of someone like Bob Dylan, he can get on stage and strum an acoustic by himself and just slay you! I don’t think it needs to be some huge orchestral movement to make that happen. It can happen in a simple way too.
Sometimes, it’s not until you’re saying goodbye to something that you are truly able to reflect on the affect it had on your life. Have you found this with your time as The Beautiful Girls?
Yeah... I mean, I tend not to be that reflective. I think the past is the past. I don’t have a huge affection for a name. I’ve worked so ridiculously hard over the past decade. I never, for a second, stopped thinking about these songs and the music and everything. The music and the art of writing songs and actually giving a shit and doing it independently, is more important than what it was called. That’s not going to change. I think the music and sharing it and doing what we’ve done has given me so much in my life, in my relationships with my friends and family etc. But I just refuse to believe that it should stop just because you change the name of one thing to another thing. I actually think it’s going to go to the next level. I’m blessed to have had the experiences that I’ve had and extremely thankful. As far as being attached to the name, I’m not really attached.
So what is your next challenge?
I guess the challenge now is letting people know that this is how it is now and that the music is still being made with the same amount of passion behind it that it always has. Maybe even more so, ‘cause I have a point to prove. And I guess the challenge is getting out there and proving that point. Elevate the level from where it is to where it can be. And that’s forever the challenge, that’ll be the challenge until the day I can no longer do it. I feel like I’m a novice, an apprentice, and I think there is still so far to go. You know, how good it can be. That is the driving force.
Don't miss your last chance to catch the Beautiful Girls on their final tour. Tickets are on sale now...
Sat 1st Sept - Bateau Bay, the Entrance Leagues Club - tickets from Oztix
Thu 6th Sept - Launceston, Hotel New York - tickets from Oztix
Fri 7th Sept - Devonport, Spurs - tickets from Oztix
Sat 8th Sept - Hobart, Wrest Point - tickets from Wrest Point
Thu 13th Sept - Newcastle, Bar on the Hill - tickets from Oztix
Fri 14th Sept - Hastings, Port Panthers - tickets from Oztix
Sat 15th Sept - Coffs Harbour, Plantation Hotel - tickets from Oztix
Thu 27th Sept - Byron Bay, The Great Northern Hotel - tickets from Oztix
Fri 28th Sept - Coolangatta, Coolangatta Hotel - tickets from the Coolangatta Hotel
Sat 29th Sept - Byron Bay, The Great Northern Hotel - tickets from Oztix
Fri 5th Oct - Sydney, The Metro - tickets from the Metro
Sat 6th Oct - Wollongong, Anita's Theatre - tickets from Oztix
Fri 12th Oct - Mona Vale, Mona Vale Hotel - tickets from Moshtix
Sat 13th Oct - Mona Vale, Mona Vale Hotel - tickets from Moshtix
Some songs depend on the place and the time; they change. I think the ones that are the simplest ones. The hardest thing in life is to do something interesting that’s really simple. My favourite song is La Mar, in that it doesn’t change. It’s the same chords the whole way through. I worked really hard on it when I was writing the song, but I don’t remember writing it at the same time. It’s ten years on and its one of those ones that… It never had a film clip, was never a single, but everywhere we went around the world, people got it. And I’m not sick of playing it one bit. You’d think that playing a song that has the same 4 chords over and over might get repetitive but it doesn’t. And that’s what I look for every time I write a song. Where’s the skeleton in this thing, where’s the structure that’s going to go round the side of aesthetics and get to the heart of it. I feel there’s a couple on the new record too, but time kind of strengthens those things.
I think that comes through. When you finished the gig last night with La Mar, I noticed the crowd emotionally connecting and losing themselves in the song.
Yeah! That’s part of the thing with simplicity too. It leaves it open somewhat for interpretation and then people can paint their own colours into it. That’s what its about. That’s what music is about! It’s not about how clever someone can be and showing that off. I think it’s about connecting everyone. Being a huge fan of someone like Bob Dylan, he can get on stage and strum an acoustic by himself and just slay you! I don’t think it needs to be some huge orchestral movement to make that happen. It can happen in a simple way too.
Sometimes, it’s not until you’re saying goodbye to something that you are truly able to reflect on the affect it had on your life. Have you found this with your time as The Beautiful Girls?
Yeah... I mean, I tend not to be that reflective. I think the past is the past. I don’t have a huge affection for a name. I’ve worked so ridiculously hard over the past decade. I never, for a second, stopped thinking about these songs and the music and everything. The music and the art of writing songs and actually giving a shit and doing it independently, is more important than what it was called. That’s not going to change. I think the music and sharing it and doing what we’ve done has given me so much in my life, in my relationships with my friends and family etc. But I just refuse to believe that it should stop just because you change the name of one thing to another thing. I actually think it’s going to go to the next level. I’m blessed to have had the experiences that I’ve had and extremely thankful. As far as being attached to the name, I’m not really attached.
So what is your next challenge?
I guess the challenge now is letting people know that this is how it is now and that the music is still being made with the same amount of passion behind it that it always has. Maybe even more so, ‘cause I have a point to prove. And I guess the challenge is getting out there and proving that point. Elevate the level from where it is to where it can be. And that’s forever the challenge, that’ll be the challenge until the day I can no longer do it. I feel like I’m a novice, an apprentice, and I think there is still so far to go. You know, how good it can be. That is the driving force.
Don't miss your last chance to catch the Beautiful Girls on their final tour. Tickets are on sale now...
Sat 1st Sept - Bateau Bay, the Entrance Leagues Club - tickets from Oztix
Thu 6th Sept - Launceston, Hotel New York - tickets from Oztix
Fri 7th Sept - Devonport, Spurs - tickets from Oztix
Sat 8th Sept - Hobart, Wrest Point - tickets from Wrest Point
Thu 13th Sept - Newcastle, Bar on the Hill - tickets from Oztix
Fri 14th Sept - Hastings, Port Panthers - tickets from Oztix
Sat 15th Sept - Coffs Harbour, Plantation Hotel - tickets from Oztix
Thu 27th Sept - Byron Bay, The Great Northern Hotel - tickets from Oztix
Fri 28th Sept - Coolangatta, Coolangatta Hotel - tickets from the Coolangatta Hotel
Sat 29th Sept - Byron Bay, The Great Northern Hotel - tickets from Oztix
Fri 5th Oct - Sydney, The Metro - tickets from the Metro
Sat 6th Oct - Wollongong, Anita's Theatre - tickets from Oztix
Fri 12th Oct - Mona Vale, Mona Vale Hotel - tickets from Moshtix
Sat 13th Oct - Mona Vale, Mona Vale Hotel - tickets from Moshtix
