Matt Corby
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia | Established. Jan 01, 2009 | MAJOR
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Our main man Matt Corby finally graced the stage at a touch after 9:30pm;.... We’re then lead down a path of storytelling courtesy of Corby’s delicate songwriting which contrasts against his emotive and powerful performance. "Made Of Stone" is eerily like an aural dreamscape of guitars and keys and throbbing bass. His enormous hit "Resolution" causes the crowd to erupt, as it features fairly early into the set. With almost every single one of his bandmates grabbing a drum stick to bash on the additional drums that were wheeled out, the booming echoing off the walls. Annoyingly though, from my seat, the first dozen rows of people on the floor, every second person was holding up their phones or digital cameras filming the song and creating a twinkling little sea of backlit technology. Honestly people, put the damn thing down and actually live in the moment and enjoy it.
One of the things that surprised me the most with this show was how grandiose and enormous Corby’s voice is. There’s primal, animalistic wailing and guttural noises coming out of this young bearded man onstage and it fills up every single corner of the venue. It’s actually quite different to what we are treated to on his recorded EP’s, which seem more like a tiny glimpse into the ostentatious sounds we’re being delivered tonight. "Brother" is another heart-stopping song that gets the audience singing and clapping along, but the surprise was when he switches things up and plays "A Love That Keeps Me Waiting" in solo acoustic mode and there’s a few brief moments where you could potentially hear a whisper in that big room.
Just before the encore, we’re treated to an intriguing soul/funk/blues number "Trick of the Light", where Corby cracks out a beatbox jam session using a loop pedal and it’s electrifying. Over the course of the last few years, Corby’s star has been burning strongly, and with more sold out performances under his belt it’s only set to get even brighter. I’d never had the privilege of seeing Jeff Buckley perform live, but I’ve seen recordings of him and Corby’s performance is strikingly similar, it’s a little disarming, but it’s nice to have somebody in this generation bringing achingly beautiful, emotive and enigmatic live music to the masses. - AU Review
Bluesfest enjoyed a very strong second day yesterday, with international soul singer Joss Stone, guitar maestro Buddy Guy and indie crooner Matt Corby among the highlights.
Corby especially impressed The Music's reviewer Cameron Warner, who noted that very big things are on the cards for the local singer-songwriter if he continues along his current path.
"The ARIA award winning Resolution brought down the house as did closer Brother and Corby seems about one or two albums off being an international superstar of Jeff Buckley proportions," Warner observed. - The Music
Seeing Matt Corby live is an experience. The set was a mix of atmospheric, almost religious moments of stillness, then bellowing sing-a-longs and folksy headbanging. Chatting to triple j backstage before the show, Matt mentioned that he rarely looks at the audience whilst playing live, but had recently taken a moment at Glastonbury to absorb the experience. He seemed to take a few of those tonight too. Dude’s a singular performer coming into his own. - triple j
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Still working on that hot first release.
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Bio
Sydney's Matt Corby grew up steeped in gospel; his passion for music fed first by renditions of ‘His Eye is on the Sparrow’ and later by a love for Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Along the way his talents were shaped by experiences both mundane and quite remarkable: touring with a church band, a stint working in Subway, music scholarships, support slots and talent shows; until by his late teens he found himself burned out, bewildered and unsure just where to take his music next.
It took a trip to London, shortly after his 18th birthday, to begin his path back to creative contentment. Playing low-key shows and falling in love with music again, it was there that he would meet with label Communion (home to the likes of Ben Howard, Marcus Foster and The Staves) and find himself encouraged to learn the craft of songwriting, to understand the marriage between the force of his voice and the words it carries.
A year later, Matt released his hauntingly beautiful EP ‘Transition To Colour’ recorded with Ian Grimble (The Libertines, Seasick Steve). 2011 saw him playing shows in London and showcasing at SXSW in Austin, Texas before returning to Australia to play a string of intimate “Secret Garden” shows in fans’ backyards. He also joined UK band Elbow as the main support on their national tour of Splendour sideshows.
The ‘Into The Flame’ EP, recorded with producer Tim Carr (Ernest Ellis, Jonathan Boulet) was released in 2011 and featured Brother, which was nominated for APRA Song of the Year, reached number 3 on triple j’s hottest 100 and scored Matt 3 ARIA award nominations, with Brother winning the ARIA for Song of the Year for 2012.
Matt's single 'Resolution' was released in June last year, is now certified three times platinum and was awarded Song of the Year at the 2013 ARIA awards. The Resolution EP, released worldwide last July, scored top ten iTunes charts in UK, Sweden and New Zealand as well as well at home here in Australia (#2). Matt recorded Resolution with producers Charlie Andrew (Alt-J), Mocky (Feist, Peaches) and his live band.
Last year saw Matt touring constantly including shows in the UK and Europe as well as playing Glastonbury, Splendour In The Grass and Latitude Festival. Matt and the band completed a national tour of Australia and New Zealand playing sold out shows on ‘The Resolution Tour.’Matt is currently working on his debut album to be released early 2015 through Atlantic / Universal.
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