The wrap-up of The Beautiful Girls after an amazing decade

  For the last 10 years The Beautiful Girls has taken you around the world on tour a massive 12 times and now the journey is concluding with an Australian Tour that is being hailed as an ‘immense celebration’ of your contributions to music. How do you feel now that it’s drawing to an end? I don’t feel much different. Probably because the only thing I see as ‘drawing to an end’ is using the name ‘Beautiful Girls’ as a pseudonym for releasing my music. I will still tour, make albums and have good relationships with all the people that I do now. I view it as celebration of making it through 10 years alive, all of us, and secondly of being able to make music my main thing for that long. Well, behind, family and surfing and sleeping and eating. How has the Australian music scene evolved over the last ten years? It’s a lot more diverse. 10 years ago it was pretty much dominated by guitar based music. Rock music. Now there is hip hop, electro, roots and whatever else. It’s cool. It’s more interesting that way. Your music has such a profound point of difference to it. What and who have been influential in shaping you into the artist you are today? My upbringing, my culture and my friends have probably all played the biggest part. I grew up listening to hip hop, punk rock and reggae and wanted to mash them all together in the brain of somebody who grew up by the beach in Sydney. When you were starting out you must have played at some pretty dodgy venues. Which gig springs to mind as being the best of the worst? Ha, we still do play dodgy venues. We played one in Devenport, Tasmania last week where for the last third of the show there was a 7 foot tall guy at the front with a ‘Jesus Loves You’ t-shirt on, screaming out ‘This sucks, play something by The Beatles’. Fuck that guy. Any hilarious shenanigans that the band got up to whilst on tour that you’d like to share with us now that it’s drawing to an end? Um, no. None that I’m prepared to share. While on the John Butler Tour, you’ve said that it caused you to undergo a process of devolution. Was this paramount to your decision to focus on your solo career? It certainly was a large catalyst. I’d always intended to retire the TBG name at some stage and start using my own name. The opportunity to do the JBT American tour came up and it was too good to refuse. I feel like to put myself out there as a ‘solo artist’ I had to pay some dues and play shows with nobody else on stage as a buffer. The show on that tour proved to me that you can get large ideas across in a simple way. Sometimes it’s even the most effective way. I’ve since gone on to support Chris Cornell and Sublime w/Rome so I feel like my dues are starting to get paid. Your solo album ‘Love Come Save Me’ is a gift from you to your fans, what are you hoping your fans will take away from it? Just the idea that the monetary value that’s put on something doesn’t necessarily equate to it’s worth. It’s quite a bizarre idea that all albums are worth a nominal amount of imaginary numbers written on pieces of paper. Taking away all that lets you focus on how music makes you feel with it being force fed to you. Also, you get the best feeling in the World which is sharing and giving. If you can pass something that you love onto someone and turn them onto it, it’s a great feeling. Giving it away was the best thing I’ve done in my musical career. You love the albums of Johnny Cash and Nick Drake because you feel as though they reveal what the artists believe to be inherent truths, what inherent truths do you reveal in ‘Love Come Save Me’? I’m not sure the album reveals it but the thought is that all of us are the same. Black, white, yellow, purple, brown, gay, straight, large or small. We’re all just running around bumping into each other on this planet, trying to figure out the meaning behind it all. After much contemplation the only thing I’ve discovered that gives the experience any value is love. Certainly not hate, or envy, or greed, or money. The love for something, anything, offers the gateway to peace, transcendence and eventually enlightenment. If we focus on that we become less distracted and more accepting and tolerant of others behaviours. If everyone had that agenda then hateful actions could no longer survive. No fuel. As this is the last time The Beautiful Girls will be playing on the Gold Coast, what can your fans expect? A bunch of music that spans a decade. Acoustic, electric, dub, punk, hip hop, reggae, blues. What is on the horizon for you? What should we be keeping an eye out for? More of the same, just under the name ‘Mat. McHugh’. I will be playing some big festivals over the summer with a new lineup called ‘The Seperatista Soundsystem’. It feels like the beginning and I’m as excited for music as I’ve ever been. CHECK THEM OUT ON TOUR Friday 28th September – Coolangatta Hotel         QLD www.thecoolyhotel.com.au Cnr Warner Street & Marine Parade, COOLANGATTA Tickets $40 +bf from www.oztix.com.au Doors open 8pm Saturday 29th September – The Great Northern Hotel NSW www.thenorthern.com.au 35 – 43 Jonson Street, BYRON BAY Tickets $40 + bf from the venue 02 6685 6454 & www.thenorthern.oztix.com.au Doors open 8pm Friday 5th October – The Metro NSW www.metrotheatre.com.au 624 George St, SYDNEY Tickets $40 +bf from venue & www.ticketek.com.au Doors open 8pm *LICENCED ALL AGE SHOW* Saturday 6th October – Anita’s NSW 264-270 Lawrence Hargrave Drive, Thirroul, WOLLONGONG Tickets $35 + bf from www.oztix.com Doors open 8pm *LICENCED ALL AGE SHOW* Friday 12th October – Mona Vale Hotel        NSW www.monavalehotel.com.au 2 Park Street, MONA VALE Tickets via www.moshtix.com Doors open 8pm Saturday 13th October – Mona Vale Hotel   NSW www.monavalehotel.com.au 2 Park Street, MONA VALE Tickets via www.moshtix.com Doors open 8pm www.myspace.com/thebeautifulgirls www.matmchughmusic.com www.thebeautifulgirls.com www.facebook.com/matmchughmusic : www.facebook.com/thebeautifulgirls www.youtube.com/musicbyTBG www.twitter.com/TBGmusic]]>