Nineteen years after stepping away from TV live performances, Matt Corby surprised everyone, including himself, when he agreed to play ABC’s New Year’s Eve celebrations.
The singer-songwriter had avoided such situations ever since competing as a 16-year-old on Australian Idol.
“I swore to myself I would never put myself in that position again,” Corby wrote in a social post after the fact. “I couldn’t really handle the negativity and ridicule.”
So, why do it?
“I like the ABC,” he chuckles. “When I got the call about it, everyone was just expecting a ‘No’ from me.
“Something in my brain was like, you know what? Just have a go and try to stay calm through it. I’m glad I did.“
We are too.
In addition to his own soulful original material, Corby shone covering INXS’s Never Tear Us Apart and Olivia Dean’s Man I Need — both Hottest 100 toppers in the past year.
“It felt great on the night and afterwards I was really proud of myself,” Corby reflects.
“You get to make peace with your younger self. It’s freed me up mentally to be able to do it again, potentially. Or not be so afraid of putting myself out there.”
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As a multi-ARIA-winning, platinum-selling artist with a reputation for enchanting shows, you’d think Corby would be comfortable as an established, respected solo artist.
However, getting his start in a realty TV contest is something he’s described as a “big f***ing mistake.”
After coming runner-up to 2007 Australian Idol winner Natalie Gauci, Corby knocked back a major label contract, his displeasure with performing for validation prompting a retreat from the spotlight.
“I was like, I’m just going to stay quiet and go about my business.”
Casting a spell
Overcoming his “past trauma” arrives with the release of Tragic Magic, Corby’s new album and fourth consecutive top 10 appearance in the ARIA Album Charts.
It’s another showcase for his show-stopping voice, but also exhibits his considerable skills as a producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.
“Singing for me is steeped in emotion because I’ve always been a singer since I was young, and that’s what I’m known for,” he notes.
“For me, arranging and getting to just be a player without the pressure of lyrics, melody and the performative nature of being a vocalist? It’s really appealing.”
Corby toyed initially with releasing an instrumental record, compiled from material made while working with other artists. His expansive credits include Budjerah, Tash Sultana, The Dregss, Kita Alexander and more.
“If I’m waiting on a session to start, I’m always in the studio early and think, ‘I’m just going to make a little beat today.’ In about half an hour, there’s bass and drums or a groove.”
An instrumental project is “still coming”, he enthuses, but Tragic Magic is no consolation prize.
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Corby’s pipes dazzle on the slow-burning War To Love, while the smooth Long and Short hovers somewhere between Marvin Gaye and Bon Iver.
Burn It Down, co-written with fellow vocal powerhouse Meg Mac, struts along an athletic bassline and stabbing disco strings. Maggie took an impromptu recording of magpie’s birdsong and spins it into cinematic, psych-dipped pop.
As he’s done since 2018’s acclaimed Rainbow Valley, Corby played nearly all the instruments on the album but was less concerned with exhibiting technical chops.
“I dropped a lot of the pretence, needing to show myself I’m a good player,” he admits. “I tried to do that way too much in the last couple records, and it ends up feeling worse.
“I felt comfortable in the level at which I’m playing instruments, that I felt I had less to prove to myself, which is good.”
It’s the sound of an artist content to trust their intuition, as well as an inner circle of collaborators. Namely, close friends like producers Chris Collins and songwriter Nat Dunn.
Their mission statement was simple. “We just wanted it to feel good, instead of being too concerned about what our perception of what other people want,” Corby says.
The process was “freeing … to say, ‘What do I actually like? Can I make something that I really enjoy above anything else?'”
Grief and growth
Corby’s musical philosophy is that the first instinct is often the best.
“When I’m writing a song, we’re always the closest to how it should feel at the very beginning,” he explains.
Case in point: Know It All, capturing a demo of a spontaneous piano ballad, with no re-recording to diminish that initial outpouring.
“I listen back and I hear that day, and the feeling is preserved.”
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Blossoming from raw keys into a Radiohead-shaped elegy of haunting, sliding strings, Know It All reckons with the loss of Corby’s stepmother, who died of pancreatic cancer at age 68.
“It was really paying homage to those moments … She brought a lot of laughter, fun and light into so many people’s lives. And that was kind of the magic of being in that grieving period where we were honouring her as a human.
“You analyse that person’s life: what they’ve done, who they’ve brought together, what they’ve created around them. The effects they’ve had that echo through the generations.”
It inspired the bittersweet album title, Tragic Magic.
“It’s sort of funny: life is always going to end in tragedy. But there’s moments along the way where we get to think and feel and experience good and bad. That’s the magical part.“
Corby’s kaleidoscopic, confessional songs span grief to gratitude, and how being a husband and father of two rewired his existence.
Is It Healthy disguises uncertainty beneath brass and a sunny, psychedelic varnish, while Locked In is a grooving, vintage soul devotional. “If I didn’t have you, I would die,” Corby sings.
The slinky, twinkling Sad Eyes is addressed to Corby’s sensitive son, Hugh, hoping he’s equipped him with the necessary tools when the time comes that he inevitably leaves the nest.
“When you are in need/ I’ll be where you left me / It’s okay to forget me,” goes the chorus.
It’s the kind of song Corby is making, first and foremost, for himself, but it’s also a deeply personal sentiment made universally relatable.
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From Brother to family man
Tragic Magic shows Corby’s growth since transitioning from “singing karaoke” on television to creating art on his terms.
This November marks 15 years since Corby’s breakout moment: the dramatic, indie-folk anthem Brother.
It was written “almost out of spite,” Corby reveals. “My manager at the time said ‘can you just write an upbeat song? Please?!’ I was like, ‘I’ll give you a f***ing upbeat song!’
“Just to prove, ‘I can do that. I just don’t want to, you know?’ Then the song blew up, which was hilarious.“
Brother reached the pointy end of the charts, won the 2012 APRA Song of the Year and, more recently, charted in triple j’s Hottest 100 of Australian Songs.
To this day, people will still stop and sing the song’s hook at Corby. “That bloody ‘oooh-eh oh’ noise. Oh my god, leave me alone!
“But I love what that song has done for my career. And I think it’s a special song for people and that’s great. That’s part of the job.
“I can’t hate on it or roll me eyes. It’s just part of my story and, without it, potentially we wouldn’t be sitting her having his conversation.“
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What would the 19-year-old Matt Corby think of what the adult behind Tragic Magic is doing now?
“We’re gonna get teary,” he jokes. “I think young Matty would be pretty happy.
“I can barely remember that time in my life — pre-having kids. It was fight or flight for me … just blindly doing things.
“But I’d be proud of the way I’ve handled my career. I don’t do a lot of social media or reveal a lot about my everyday life, which I think more people should do.”
Not playing the algorithm game “has its good and bad sides”, but having outgrown seeking external validation, Corby finds fulfilment in his creative freedom and not public approval.
“I’ve just really tried to stick to my craft. In all facets of the creative side of the job, I think I’ve really dove into headfirst and try my best to be as good as I can be.”
Tragic Magic is out now. Matt Corby is currently on tour. He plays Melbourne on June 9 and 10, then Newcastle (June 12), Sydney (June 13), and Brisbane (June 14).
