Australian musician Matt Corby has opened up about his dislocated vocal fold, his love for Nina Simone, and a chaotic gig that still haunts his dreams, in a wide-ranging interview ahead of his Tragic Magic tour of Australia, which runs from 3 June.
Vocal Fold Dislocation
Corby revealed that his vocal fold remains dislocated years after the initial injury. "One side of the two muscles that move your vocal folds is just like [clicks tongue and gestures to the side]. I felt it click in my throat!" he said. Despite the injury, he continued singing for a year before seeing a specialist. "The first one said, 'Your vocal fold is dislocated – we rarely see this. How are you singing?' I said, 'I don't know, it seems kind of fine to me!' When I warm up, it starts to go back into place."
Musical Influences
When asked about his favourite soul singer, Corby struggled to choose one. "It's like a multi-way tie. Curtis Mayfield, Charles Bradley, D'Angelo, Sharon Jones and Nina Simone. I mean, how can you beat Nina? And her as a player and in the time that she was doing it and what she was saying – so much power."
Track Listing Obsession
Corby admitted that track listings are very important to him. "I don't put my favourite song in the same spot each time but I have things I put around the favourite song – I try to find ways to frame it before and after songs that are important. The track listing for this album [Tragic Magic] was hard. I went a little crazy." He noted that his favourite song often ends up as track five or seven.
Animal Collaboration
Discussing the intro to his song Maggie, which features a magpie singing along with his piano, Corby expressed interest in collaborating with a kookaburra. "It's got a cool polyrhythmic thing going on. It's always on a tempo. That's saved for my beats album." He recounted the serendipitous recording of Maggie: "The magpie was singing and I hadn't heard that melody from a magpie before so I went to the piano and found the notes on my right hand. On the stroke of the last chord, the magpie sang at the same time as I played."
Funeral Song and Secret Talent
When asked what song he would like played at his funeral, Corby joked, "Another One Bites the Dust?" He also revealed a secret talent: learning trivial skills quickly. "Someone was playing with a Rubik's Cube in front of me a few months ago and I immediately wanted to learn how to do that. Once you learn the rules, it doesn't take too long." He also confessed his love for playing bass: "I would give up my whole singing career if someone would just pay me to go and play bass."
Memorable Fan Interaction
Corby recalled a memorable interaction with fans in Melbourne. "When we finished eating, we went to pay and found out that these two people who had already left had paid for all six of us. They left a message to say they really like what I did! Never even took credit for it. They just paid and left. A pretty baller move."
Strange Jobs and Barista Days
Reflecting on past jobs, Corby listed working at a skate rink, Subway, General Pants, and a deep-fried seafood shop, where he once stuck his hand into 400-degree oil. He loved working at a coffee shop: "It's like the opposite to music – you do all this stuff and then you put the music out and there's nothing. When you make someone a coffee, they enjoy it in front of you!"
Chaotic Gig
Corby described a nightmare gig at the Forum where the monitors desk died 30 seconds into the second song. "We had to stop the show and explain to the room what was happening while they tried to fix it." After an acoustic interlude and crowd banter, a technician managed to repatch the entire desk in 10 minutes. "We got back on stage, the whole crowd was so warm and beautiful, and the set felt so good after that. But I still have bad dreams about it."
Matt Corby's Tragic Magic Australian tour runs 3-14 June. He will also perform a free show as part of Vivid Sydney at Tumbalong Park on 13 June.
