Entertainment

Aussie star Matt Corby heads to Belfast and Dublin as he tours his long-awaited debut album Telluric

Matt Corby has been a big name in his native Australia since he was 16. Now, two years after he scrapped his LA-recorded major-label debut album, the 25-year-old is touring his official debut Telluric. He talks to Brian Campbell

 Matt Corby plays Belfast on Saturday April 2
 Matt Corby plays Belfast on Saturday April 2  Matt Corby plays Belfast on Saturday April 2

YOU could label the songs on Matt Corby’s debut album Telluric gospel-soul, psych-blues or 70s jams, but Corby would say it’s the music that came naturally to him.

Telluric means ‘relating to the earth’, so the 25-year-old Australian certainly went back to his roots to make the album. Perhaps the title of one of the tracks – Good To Be Alone – tells you a bit about Corby’s approach to recording after he had signed a deal with major label Atlantic Records and wrote and produced a full album two years ago in Los Angeles.

He decided he didn’t like the finished product and scrapped the whole thing, before taking his time to work on Telluric in a cottage in rural New South Wales.

As quoted in the press release that accompanied the new album, he said, “I had recorded an album that I didn’t like. It took me a year and a half to clear my head of everything that happened, accept my failures, reboot and have the balls to do it again”.

With acclaimed new songs such as Monday, Sooth Lady Wine and Knife Edge, it seems that Corby did well to take his time in getting the new album together.

“With the LA album, I just stood back and thought, ‘This isn’t what I need or what I want to put my name to.’ I think everyone else saw that I wasn’t into it,” he says.

“The whole starting again thing was awesome; it’s the best thing I could have done. Just one song on Telluric – Good To Be Alone – was written in that first period. I’m just glad that the album is finally out, because I finished it six months ago and you have to play this crazy waiting game.”

Irish fans of Corby don’t have to wait too long to get to see him live; he’s in Belfast tomorrow and in Dublin on Sunday, before embarking on tours of Australia and the US.

“I love Ireland. I love the humour, because you guys are really good at taking the p**s out of yourselves in a way that’s so disarming and lovely to everyone else. Australians kind of do that too, but not as well.

“I’ve played about five or six times in Ireland and I’ve had a few nights out with some hilarious people – and I drank poitin as well.”

He says he and his five-piece band have been enjoying the tour so far.

“At the start we were just finding our feet, because we have a lot of new songs to play so we have to see how far we can push them all. It’s been fun. The only one we haven’t played from the record live yet is We Can Be Friends. People are starting to really get into Sooth Lady Wine and it’s fun to play live.

“We also have a little tip of the hat to [US funk/soul/R&B singer] Charles Bradley just after the first song, when I sing the No Time For Dreaming chorus and The World (Is Going Up in Flames). He’s like one of the coolest dudes in the world.”

Corby is also a big fan of Neil Young.

“He’s had his hand in some of the greatest songs known to man and he’s also a good moral compass as well. He’s always standing up for indigenous rights in Australia; he’s what musicians should aspireto be.”

The singer-songwriter is refreshingly open about the music industry, which he’s been involved in since finishing runner-up on Australian Idol aged 16. For instance, he says winning Aria Music Awards was “pretty strange”.

“Like what is a music award, really? The Aria Awards would be the main Australian awards but not the most credible. Most of those award nights – not just in Australia – are just a marketing ploy for major labels to sell more records.”

For him, playing live is what it’s all about.

“We try to make every show as good if not better than the last. You have to keep telling yourself that everyone’s there for the first time. You just think ‘I’ve got to give these people a good time and make them feel something’.”

Matt Corby plays The Limelight in Belfast tomorrow from 7pm (early show), with support from Laura Ann Brady. For tickets (£15), see limelightbelfast.com. He also plays the Olympia in Dublin on Sunday. Telluric is out now.