For Matt Corby, life can be described as a terrifying magic.
An experience full of ups and downs and short events that make people who they are.
While preparing to bring his own Scary magic visit to Perth next month, Corby spoke to Today about his latest album and the life events that made it happen.
Written in a time of life filled with personal loss and grief, Corby says it was a combination of experiences with fatherhood, friendship, death and isolation that brought 13 songs to life.
“My partner’s mother, who was very close to us, was very ill with pancreatic cancer, and she ended up passing away not long after the diagnosis, and it was a very difficult time for everyone,” he said.
“I think, there is this kind of reflection through the record, of your own life, and what it is to enjoy this short time we have on earth.”
Corby says the title of the album Scary magic it was a funny metaphor for life.
“Life is precious because it is short and finite,” he said.
“It’s like we’re all destined for tragedy, but because of that, this experience we get to be able to see and feel, and love and all those things, that’s what (makes life worth living).”
With more than 15 years of songwriting and instrumental knowledge up his sleeve, Corby says the evolution of the music scene has allowed him to continue to test his musical boundaries.
“Music is like a free-for-all now. I remember growing up, and events were clearly defined,” he said.
“(Either) you were into emo, you were into indie, you were into metal, or you were goth … and you were stuck in your lane. Music has changed so much now, where kids are like, ‘Oh no, I like jazz, and I like pop, and I like orchestral music, and I like metal’, and then there’s a mesh of all those things.
“There’s a lot of variation between all these genres now, and we’re getting interesting hybrids of genres across a range of music, so it’s really cool.
“It’s a good time to contribute to that spectrum.”
But don’t expect him to be listening to the latest hits on the radio.
“I think I don’t like listening to modern music, mostly because I don’t really want to imitate it,” he said with a laugh.
“Because I know if I hear something really interesting, it’s going to stick there, and what goes in has to come out somehow. So, I guess I try to be careful about what I feed my ears.”
Corby last played in Perth three years ago, but says it’s a place that holds many fond memories for him.
“I’ve been to Perth a lot, one of my best mates lives there now, and I’ve got family there too, and the band Great Gables, they’re all Perth boys, and it’s always nice to catch up with them when I’m in town,” he said.
Although he doesn’t plan to hit the waves this tour, he does intend to hit the golf balls.
“I haven’t skied in about six months, which is weird because I grew up skiing, but I’m middle-aged now, so I’m into golf,” he said.
“I think I’ll take my clubs because there’s a little bit of time every day before pitching, so (I could) sit down and go to a restaurant and eat, or … walk around, and hit little balls on little holes.”
Despite this being his fourth album, Corby says he’s still nervous playing it to a crowd for the first time.
“It’s a bit of a shock to go into it kind of blindly with songs you’ve never played … I think it actually gets harder when you go in and out of the album cycle,” he said.
“When you’re young, before you make your first two records, you probably play these songs a couple of times and workshop them when you sing them in front of people.
“It might take you two or three years before you even cut the songs in the studio, but at this point I’m like, all the songs start in the studio, and the first time you play it’s like, oh, okay, here’s a couple of thousand people, let’s see how this goes,”
Corby says he plans to choose songs from the spectrum of his image but he promises fans that one song will be in it.
“There are definitely a few on this record that I’m really looking forward to playing. We’ve been rehearsing with Big Ideasit sounds great, and it’s a lot of fun to play. Also, I feel like Know-It All has taken on a new life,” he said.
“We’re going to throw in a couple of old ones that we haven’t played in a while. I think we’re going to do this song A fugitivewhich we have not played for many years,” he said.
“Every time I’ve done a show in the last seven or eight years, there’s always like three or four people who are like ‘Play Runaway!’ so I think we’ll keep it straight in the set.”
A surprising element on the album can be heard in the song Maggie where Corby uses a magpie record in the introduction.
While writing songs with his friends, Corby heard the call of a wolf and immediately jumped to the piano to play alongside him.
“I was playing a song on my right hand, being like, what songs would work with it … then on the last song that I played, magpie bloody sang with me,” he said.
“We all looked at each other (in shock) … and then when we heard it again, we were all like, that’s the intro to the song, that’s great.”
As for the future, Corby says he plans to bring a smaller version of his show to regional cities across the country.
“I feel like everyone just hits the big cities, and you know there’s a lot of places in Australia that you can go and play music, and I think people would be really happy if you went there, and especially now because everything is so expensive,” he said.
“It’s hard for people to go see a show, and I really appreciate anyone who comes out to these concerts because I know it’s hard times for everyone, and … art in general seems to be the first thing that happens when times are hard.
“So it might be good to organize a show at the end of the year and go and hit it as a small community group and see what happens.”
Corby performs in Perth on June 4 at the Riverside Theatre.
