This Is Matt Corby’s Moment
We haven’t heard from award-winning, multi-instrumentalist muso Matt Corby in five years. A lot’s happened over that time: he’s embraced fatherhood, he lost his home to floods and he launched a record label. Now at the age of 32, he’s back performing and releasing his third studio album, Everything’s Fine. Chatting with The Note the day before the record drops, Corby opens up on the joys of having a young son in the recording studio and the art of letting go...
Image by Billy Zammit
Matt, tomorrow is when Everything’s Fine goes out into the world! How are you feeling?
Tomorrow is the big day! I’m pretty good. Life can be a total bitch sometimes, but it’s good to get this record out. We finished recording these songs almost a year ago!
Where’s your head at before an album release?
I get a little nervous – you know, it’s scary. But it’s been so long that you kind of forget the initial feelings and attachments that you had with the songs. I do remember that when we finished [the album], I was really proud of it. I’d like to not care as much as I do, but there are definitely nerves about how it’ll be received.
Everything’s Fine is your first studio album in five years. You made the record under some pretty unique circumstances – your house was impacted by the 2022 Northern Rivers floods and you had to relocate your family into your Rainbow Valley studio...
That was tricky. [The house] got absolutely decimated by the big floods. We’re still not back there. [But] it was a funny time – normally when I make [an album], I don’t have my four-year-old screaming the door down! I’d get these half-hour windows when he was happy chilling with mum, and I’d go like, ‘Alright! Let’s play bass on this song...’. It was very touch-and-go the whole time, which was fun. It helped me to not overthink the process.
Did having to balance family life and your creativity feed into the making of Everything’s Fine?
I think it helped in a strange way. I kept operating on pure instinct and feel. If the beat, the baseline and the elements of the music felt good, then there was nothing else to think about. You just work with what you’ve got. It was special to have my son walking in and out. I could see him getting impatient at the door. I’d be doing vocals and getting upset at myself because I’m not quite nailing the thing I want to do, and he’s just like, ‘Daddy, when are you done? Why are you singing the same thing over and over again?’
Apparently, this was your most collaborative album ever. Tell us about that.
I worked with [songwriter] Nat Dunn, [co-producer] Chris Collins and [long-time collaborator] Alex Henriksson. Nat is a genius songwriter, and Chris and Alex were both amazing. It was a departure from how I’ve approached the last couple of albums – I had lots of things to prove, maybe to myself or to other people, I don’t really know. But with this one, it was like, that feels good, don’t touch it.
Collaborating was a real privilege – especially with Nat. She was so gracious with her time. Nat was the song police. I ran everything by her: song concepts, textural symmetry and depth of meaning. She’s such an incredible lyricist. With Chris, we speak a different language together.
They’re the perfect sounding board, and they bring so much musically – I was so happy to let them in. Maybe I’ve matured enough to not think that every idea I have is better than [everyone else’s] in the room. Which is good!
Do you think all the craziness impacted the sound of the album? Sonically, Everything’s Fine departs from your usual music with cool R&B notes and a vintage funk...
There were times when I felt lots of pressure from lots of angles. But whenever we hit something that felt good, it just went away. It was like this really nice moment of relief we would get every couple of days when we’d stumble across a great feeling in a song. My influences are always changing, music’s always changing. I feel like I’m self-conscious enough to be, like, ‘Who the fuck wants to hear from me? Who cares what I have to say?’ I think it’s a good place to come from. It made me simplify what I was trying to do, especially lyrically.
‘Letting go’ and ‘appreciating life’ are two themes interwoven through Everything’s Fine. How does it feel as an artist to arrive at a place where you can creatively let go?
It feels weird. It feels like nothing – which is kind of what it should feel like. I think at times, especially when you’re younger and you have people around you rubbing their hands together going ‘We’re gonna make money off this kid!’, you get bigged up and live in this false sense of reality. But you’re just making music for someone to enjoy in the car – that’s all it is. It’s nice to boil it down to that point.
That’s sort of how you take life after you have kids. You look at things differently and you appreciate all these small things you would never even consider. I think that’s permeated through the way I think, feel and operate as a songwriter.
You’re going on tour in Australia for the first time in four years. Are you ready to be back on the road?
I mean, it’s two years, right? We don’t count those other two years [of COVID]!
But yeah, fully. I’m really looking forward to it. We did a quick run of shows in Europe a few weeks ago, and I was dreading going. I was so comfortable here, working out of the studio and being close to family. But as soon as I got on stage and started playing songs, I remembered how much I love it. I have this appreciation for it because it’s been stripped away from us for the last couple of years.
I had some really emotional moments – I’m even getting emotional thinking about it now – because I feel like, ever since I can remember, I’ve sung for people. I think I toured so much in my 20s I’d grown to resent it. [But performing again recently] had the exact opposite effect on me.
How do you think Aussie crowds will receive the album?
No idea. Hopefully well. I’m excited to play the songs! A few of the new ones we were playing in Europe felt great. Our first show was in Sweden, and I was like, ‘Sorry, we’re going to play some new songs, this might be a bit boring...’ When we finished, someone in the crowd shouted, ‘That’s an absolute banger!’. So that was good!
We’ve run out of time, but I’ll leave you with a challenge. Can you sum up Everything’s Fine in one sentence?
Oh my god, don’t ask me that! Hopefully, it’s one of those records you can live your life to. That would be my goal for it.
See Matt Corby performing at Hindley Street Music Hall this June 3.
