Matt Corby has built a reputation as one of Australia's most beloved singer-songwriters, known for his moody, anthemic tracks. However, with his recently released fourth album, Tragic Magic, the musician has delivered his most personal work to date.
While his 2023 album Everything's Fine explored the trauma and survival of the COVID-19 pandemic and the devastating floods that ruined his coastal town, Tragic Magic delves into far more intimate family tragedies.
"It was made through this sort of mourning period," Corby tells PLAY during a Zoom interview. "My partner's mum really tragically passed away quite quickly from pancreatic cancer. And she was pretty young. It's awful losing your parents when you're young. We were all going through a lot, and a lot of the songs on the record were cathartic exercises creatively."
During this period, a close friend of Corby lost their baby. One of the heavier tracks on the album, Long And Short, centres around these losses. "The song was based around those two moments and thinking that whatever is left of their beingness, some soul that moves beyond the body, you are wishing them well on that journey. It's a painful yet really positive spin on death," Corby says.
Unique Album Cover Art
This brings us to the conversation about the unique album cover, which is an artwork by Sydney-born, New York-based artist Miriam David. Corby says he has always been "really bad" when it comes to nailing anything visual. While he was on the phone with his manager discussing creative options for the cover, he just happened to look up at one of David's paintings that had been hanging in his home in northern New South Wales, a rural property named Rainbow Valley, for several years.
"I was on the phone, I'm just staring at that painting that is the album cover now, and I was like, 'I'm just gonna send you something. This is a really good reference of something I would like'. And then I sent a snapshot of it hanging on the wall. And then I was like, 'why can't we just hit this artist up and see if they'll let us use this image? License it to us'. And we got in contact with her, and Miriam's been amazing."
"The theme of the record ties in so well with that image. This angel flying over someone sleeping, and they're crying. And you can interpret that in so many different ways. And we saw that as my partner's mum watching over her as she was on her journey. So it was all very too coincidental for all of that to be going on, all at once."
Album Tour and Perth Return
Corby kicked off his album tour at Groovin The Moo festival in Lismore last Saturday and will continue travelling around Australia in June. Next month's stop will see Corby return to Perth for the first time in three years. The singer says he would love to spend more time in the west, calling it a "really beautiful place" but laments it is "just so far away".
"I have a lot of friends in WA," he says. "I've always had an affiliation with WA. It's a really beautiful place. It's a funny city, because Perth, as a city, feels kind of like a ghost town half the time, and then it's kind of really busy the other half the time."
With a young family at home, Corby says he tries to now limit his time on the road. His partner Zoe and their two young sons used to travel with him, but now "they're kind of over it, they're just like, 'you go, I'll see you in two weeks'".
"We keep it pretty short and sweet. The longest run I've ever done away from the kids and my partner was seven weeks, which was an eternity," he says. "It gets really hard at that point, you really feel like you're missing life being away that long. And I'm just not at a point where we're probably making enough money to have the family tour with us."
Family Influence on the Album
His family features heavily on the album, with the song Stained about Corby and Zoe navigating a relationship together, and Sad Eyes about being a dad. Tragic Magic doesn't sit solely in heaviness. Alongside the grief were songs inspired by the most surprising of sounds, like a magpie's melody and the sound of a winning poker machine.
In the song Maggie, the chirpy bird sings the intro tune that Corby recorded while having breakfast and rocking out in his studio with co-writer and co-producer Chris Collins and co-writer Nat Dunn. "It was this really beautiful little collaboration moment between nature and all of us, and then we totally ripped it off," he laughs. "And we're not going to pay it any publishing, sucked-in Magpie," he laughs but quickly changes tack: "Nah, we should donate some of the proceeds from the song to a bird conservation."
Production Work and Future Plans
Corby is also a busy producer, with some of the most exciting Aussie artists and bands working today making music in his home studio, such as Budjerah, Meg Mac, Great Gable, The Rions and Tash Sultana. Corby describes the Aussie music industry as "really lovely". "Most people feel like family, which is really nice."
After his Aussie tour wraps up, Corby plans to get back into the studio keen to explore "lots of ideas" for the next record and projects for other artists. Who knows what other bird species fans will hear next?
Matt Corby will perform at the Riverside Theatre on June 4, supported by Gretta Ray.
