Beautiful way to keep things simple

AFTER years of experimentation, The Beautiful Girls’ frontman Matt McHugh says he has “found his way home” with a stripped-back live show, as Hobart fans will find out next week.

The Australian band found fame early in their career as a roots group with hits such as Periscope and I thought about you.

Currently a three-piece, with long-time bass player Paulie B and Xavier Rudd’s drummer Bobby Alu, The Beautiful Girls are nearing the end of their Beautiful World Australian tour.

The band had expanded to a six-piece for tours of recent electronic releases.

McHugh said he played with a stripped-down version of the band for a 15th anniversary national tour in 2017, and has enjoyed playing that way since.

“It was good to get away from all of that restless experimentation and get back to playing music, concentrating on keeping it simple and getting the point across in a simple way,’’ he said.

“All the early stuff works well with the three-piece because that’s how it was recorded. All the more experimental stuff we just tweak it and do versions that we can do with three people.” The Beautiful Girls’ most recent albums,

Spooks (2010) and Dancehall Days (2014), explored early 1980s electronic dance-hall music while retaining roots, funk and reggae elements.

McHugh said his experimentation with electronic music was inspired by a desire to create original music, but was also a reaction to pressure he felt to stay the same.

“I know what a pain in the arse I would have been for a lot of fans because I was just trying to do the exact opposite of what everyone wanted and expected,’’ he said.

“If you make an album that catches people’s hearts at a certain time, they snatch at you and they’re like, ‘Well, that’s you now, as far as I’m concerned, that’s you’.

“As a creative person, that’s too confining for my comfort.”

McHugh said he was extremely grateful to the fans who stuck by the band and “appreciated the journey”. He said the band’s latest single, Beautiful

World, was about “loving the world through hard times”.

The Beautiful Girls will perform at the Grenada Tavern, Berriedale, from 8pm next Thursday (January 24).

“It’s all the songs that you would know from The Beautiful Girls back in the original style,’’ McHugh said.

“The crowds have been really loving it, so I guess I found my way back home somehow and it works, but with more power under the hood.”

Go to www.oztix.com.au for tickets and more information.