Within the first two minutes of my interview with THE BEAUTIFUL GIRLS frontman Mat McHugh I realise I've got some fast thinking to do. Because I'm not really talking to a musician who's interested in promoting an upcoming album or an appearance at Victoria's first Blueprint Festival; I'm talking to someone who wants to talk music, of any kind, preferably other people's. Over the course of our 20 minutes together I count mention of 17 artists. The interview I thought would be pretty straightforward has taken an unexpected turn, but then, the Beautiful Girls have never been stock standard.
From the minute they hit the scene in 2002 it's been clear that things were to be done in a way that they wanted. "When we started we kind of thought, let's be like B.B King or Willie Nelson and just hit the road," McHugh says. "We never wanted to look for a big label or get on MTV." And indeed the last seven years have been primarily dedicated to traversing the globe, several times over. But when McHugh had a motorbike accident and was sent home to rest, the band saw a drastic change in the way things were done. "It's really easy to write on the road, there's inspiration at your fingertips. The upcoming album is so different partly because of the way it ended up being written. I made a routine for myself every day and kind of just holed myself up the way other guys like Nick Cave had."
With extra time and a natural curiosity, McHugh began listening to more and more music from genres he'd never really thought much about; something which is reflected in the upcoming album. "A lot of that really early punk music has that same kind of feel to it that early jazz does," he muses. "I like hearing a record and it sounding like they had no choice. When it's just the truth being put to music, it's good. As soon as it becomes a movement it becomes about money and punk was a victim to that just like jazz was."
For someone so softly spoken on stage, I'm taken aback by how concise his thoughts on the matter are when confronted with the reality that it could happen to them. "If it came down to compromising music for something I didn't believe in, I'd rather go and bake bread than build a brand and create a product," McHugh feels. "Whether it's through fame or notoriety I'll be making music until my last breath because I feel like it's given me something and I've got a debt to repay. That's what it's about for me. To be honest, I can't see myself doing anything else for the rest of my life." And who knows, if the music library continues to extend, perhaps the next release could even hold some hip hop or Wagner reworked.
The Beautiful Girls are part of a stellar lineup of bands playing at the Blueprint Festival in Ararat, VIC over the weekend of Friday September 18 to Monday September 21. For ticket info, check out www.blueprintfestival.com.
