La Mar The Ocean - Musique

In The Year 2002 When Artists Like Moby The Chemical Brothers And Eminem Were Topping The Australian Charts With Big Beats And Even Bigger Production An Aussie Songwriter – Oblivious To It All - Recorded A Low Key Acoustic Ep That Was Meant For Little More Than The Solidification Of His Band’s Own Sound. Morning Sun Was Simply About Things That Were Real – Real For Lads Who’d Lived Their Lives On Sydney’s Northern Beaches – Surfing Playing Music And Thinking A Lot About Girls. Triple J Latched Onto The Simple Poetry Of Morning Sun It’s Naïve Innocence Providing A Refreshing Breeze In The Musical Climate Of The Time And The Subsequent Success Of Its First Track ‘Periscopes’ Set A Tone That Would Buoy The Beautiful Girls Through More Than A Decade. One Year Later The Beautiful Girls Would Release Their First Long Player Learn Yourself Adding Thatched Walls Onto The Beachside Foundation That Had Already Been Laid By Morning Sun. Learn Yourself Cemented That Sense Of Pure Joy That Can Only Be Found In The Simple Things – Friends Being Together Lighting Bonfires And Singing Of Loves Discoveries It’s Pains And It’s Pleasures. Learn Yourself Would Contribute Two Songs To Triple J’s Hottest 100 Of 2003 And It Would Be The Beginning Of A Life Filled With Strewn Packets Of Guitar Strings Hotel Keys And Flight Stubs That Would Map A Ten-Year Zig-Zag Across As Many Continents As It Would Come To Zig-Zag Genres. We’re Already Gone Released In 2005 Was The First Real Zig In That Zag As The Band’s Singer/songwriter Mat. McHugh Started Gravitating Toward Electricity And Exploring The World That He Would Come To Connect With So Deeply The World Of Reggae. Mat. Left The Band’s Acoustic Set-Up Behind Choosing Instead To Plug In Their Guitars And Add Keys To The Line-Up Also. With A Darker Heavier Sound Than Times Past The Beautiful Girls Was Growing Up Leaving The Simple World Of The Northern Beaches Behind As Their Presence Overseas Started To Outweigh Their Time On The Sands Of Home. With Another Two Tracks Making Their Way Into Triple J’s Hottest 100 An ARIA Nomination For Best Blues & Roots Album And A J Award Nomination This Validation Of The Musical Maturing Would Further Propel Mat. Down A Road Of Musical As Well As Self Exploration. It Was At This Point That The Band’s Original Bass Player Clay MacDonald And Drummer Mitch Connelly Would Depart The Band And The New Conduit’s For Mat’s Songs - Paulie B And Bruce Braybrooke - Would Take Their Place Within The Beautiful Girls. Simultaneously What Had Not Long Before Been A Grassroots Live Following In The US Had Escalated To Bushfire Proportions And It Was There That The Bands Third Full-Length Ziggurats Began To Take Shape…strangely In The Aftermath Of A Fortuitous Disaster. In September '06 Several Members Of The Beautiful Girls Camp Were Deported From The US At The Beginning Of What Was To Be A Long And Prosperous Tour. As Often Happens Amidst The Ashes Of A Desecrated Plan – In This Case From The Window Of A Fleapit Hotel In Hollywood - Mat Found Himself Contemplating A Fresh Musical Future. It Was Time To Explore The Big Guns Of Stadium Sound To Step Into An Arena A World Away From The Acoustic Beachside Strums That Had Endeared The Band To Hundreds Of Thousands Worldwide. It Was A Risk But One Mat. Felt It Was Time To Take. "On This Record I Was Really Determined To Say What I Wanted To Say " He Says. "I Wanted To Make The Guitar Really Wiry Make The Music Angular And Tough And A Bit Darker. I Wanted The Rockier Songs To Sound Tougher And The Pretty Ones To Sound Prettier. It Was Time To Make The Record I Wanted To Make." Bands Like The Police Midnight Oil U2 And UB40 Would Provide The Undercurrent For Ziggurats ¬– The Most Layered Produced Plugged In Wall-Of-Sound Record That The Beautiful Girls Would Make To Date. "The First Album We Did In Four Hours And It Took Off " Explains Mat. "The Next One I Was Listening To Johnny Cash And Nick Drake A Lot So We Made A Mellow Acoustic Record And That Was The One That Kind Of Stamped Us. But This Is The First Record I Ever Wrote Where I Actually Had Time To Sit Back And Write The Songs To Record Them The Way I Wanted Them To Sound And To Present It The Way I Wanted It To Be.” After The Huge Success Of Ziggurats And The Completion Of The Mammoth International Touring Schedule That Followed The Beautiful Girls Went Underground. After 8 Years Solid On The Road With The Band The Blackbird Tapped On Mat. McHugh’s Window Then It Tapped On His Ribs A Motorcycle Accident That Broke His Bones And Punctured His Lung. And While He Lay Their Still Alone In A Cheap LA Hotel Room That Blackbird Laid The Songs For His First Solo Album Seperatista Across His Chest. With Much Time For Reflection Exploring What Life Was Like Out From Underneath The Protective Title That Had Given Him His Life As A Troubadour Mat. Remained A Virtual Recluse Digging Deep For New Sound And Meaning In His Home Studio On Sydney's Northern Beaches – Looking For A Way To Combine His New Found Solitude With The Band He Would Always Love. Mat Started Sampling Drums And Piecing Together Rhythms Under Melodies Of His Own Bass Guitars And Keys Turning A Seemingly Cold And Isolating Process Into Rich Production Where Stylistic Thread Ran Deep. In 2010 In The Downstairs Cave Of His Home On The Northern Beaches Of Sydney Mat. Would Put The Final Flourishes On What Would Become The Brand New Beautiful Girls Album – 3 Years Since The Last – Entitled Spooks. The Unusual Songwriting Process Pushed Further Forward. Spaced-Out Effects And Pulsing Synth’s Skittering Drums And Dark Blue Horns Brash Toasting Cops-And-Rude-Boys Narrative Offbeat Keys And Dub Undertow Stared Out From Countless Tracks On A Computer Screen Placed There By The Singular Hand Of Mat. To Be Learned Later By The Band When It Was Time To Play Them Live. ‘Spooks’ Became A World Of It’s Own. Debuting In The Top Twenty On The Australia Aria Chart Number 1 On The AIR Independent Charts And At Number 6 On The USA Billboard Reggae Chart. The Success Of The New Dancehall Sound And The Strangely Solitary Way In Which It Was Made Expanded The Borders Of The Beautiful Girls Giving Mat. License To Create In Any Way He Saw Fit. In 2012 When Mat. Recorded His Latest Album Love Come Save Me He Wasn’t Sure Which Way To Go. All The Elements That Had Once Been Separate Had Over The Past Decade Merged Into One. He Is The Beautiful Girls The Beautiful Girls Are Mat. And As He Pondered Back And Forth Under Just What Banner To Release These Songs Thoughts Of The Hundreds Of Thousand Of Albums Bought And Cherished The Hundreds Of Thousands Of Faces From Thousands Of Gigs Over Many A Year And The 75 000 Facebook Buddies Floated To The Front Of His Mind. The Decision Was Clear The Album Would Be Released Under His Most Honest Of Monikers His Own Name And It Would Be A Gift. Free. No Catch. No Bullshit. To Everyone Who Had Made The Journey Possible Had Loved The Beautiful Girls Had Supported Him Solo And To Everyone Who Would Like To Join Him From Here On In. 10 Years This Year Since That Original Bunch Of Ragged Surfer Boys First Saw Those Rays Of Sunlight Reveal The Ocean Of Possibilities That Lay Ahead And Whilst The Sound Has Evolved And Boys Have Become Men The Beautiful Girls Remain On The Australian Landscape Right Where They Should - At Dawn The Sand Underfoot Shifting With The Tides Forever Changing Colours As Their Own Sun Continues To Rise And Set And Rise Again. The Beautiful Girls Are… Mat. McHugh – Singer & Guitarist
Bruce Braybrooke – Drums & Percussion
Paul Bromley – Bass & Vocals read less