What’s the story behind the name?
“Where we grew up, anybody that played in a band played heavy music – either punk or hardcore or metal or whatever,” explains frontman Mat McHugh. “I wanted to pick a name that was the exact opposite of all that macho posturing and the associated tough-guy band names. And a beautiful girl was just about the sweetest, most appropriate opposite I could think of”.
The motivations …
Sometime around 2001, the singer/song writer spent a year living abroad, including a six month stay in New York. He loved it. And at the time he was pretty sure the city held his future. The Beautiful Girls weren’t a reality at the time, in fact, they weren’t even an idea. McHugh was driven by a case of short term musical tunnel – vision. “I was fanatical, in that all I would listen to was old pre war blues guys – no bands at all,” he remembers. “The original idea was to go back to Australia and record some demos with a rhythm section then go back to New York.” Of course, things don’t always go as we plan. But then, that’s a big part of the “beauty” inherent in this band. Those attempts at demos ended up birthing the group that exists today; a group that found themselves achieving almost instant success, and drawing favorable comparisons to the likes of Ben Harper, Jack Johnson and Nick Drake.
On music…
In all of the Beautiful Girls’ music there is an awareness. This consciousness acknowledges the power of music and all the elements involved. “I love hip-hop for its lyrics and groove.” explains McHugh. “I love blues for its desperation and soul, I love dub for its bass lines. I pretty much listen to a crazy range of music and it all seems natural and beautiful to me. Music has saved my life in a lot of ways. It’s too important to me to take lightly…”
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