{"id":47,"date":"2011-03-28T22:14:25","date_gmt":"2011-03-29T04:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cornerstoneras.com\/?page_id=47"},"modified":"2011-03-28T22:14:25","modified_gmt":"2011-03-29T04:14:25","slug":"the-beautiful-girls","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.cornerstoneras.com\/beautifulgirls\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beautiful Girls"},"content":{"rendered":"

What’s the story behind the name?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“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”.<\/p>\n

The motivations \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>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.<\/p>\n

On music…<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>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\u2026”<\/p>\n

LINKS<\/strong><\/p>\n