MATT CORBY MATT CORBY

Five years since the release of his last album, Matt Corby is back with Everything’s Fine, an honest and reflective response to modern life, underpinned with a hint of hopeful optimism. We caught up with the Australian singer-songwriter, fresh off the back of a run of European shows, to hear about the production process, the trials of being a record-from-home dad and to find out what lies ahead in 2023…

WORDS & INTERVIEW EVIE FRIAR

Photography Billy Zammit

EF London played a significant part in the early days of your career with it being where you met the team from the record label Communion. Does it feel like a homecoming to come back and play here?

MC It does, yeah. I got to know those guys just as the label was starting; it was actually a music night originally. I was like 19 and I recorded an EP with Kev Jones, Ian and Chris who's playing drums for me at the moment. That was where the relationship started.

So yeah, this run of European shows have been great. It’s been a while since it’s been so nice and tight. Family vibes. It’s been really special actually.

EF You have your own record label now, Rainbow Valley Records. How have you found the process of setting up a label and have the Communion team given you any tips?

MC To be honest, we were hoping to work in conjunction with them. I think it got a bit too sticky with us using Warner as our parent company in Australia and New Zealand, and then not internationally. It's been a bit tricky to work out, so sadly that hasn't come to fruition. But as a team they're always so open and helpful. I've got a really great team of people in Oz too. It’s a funny game. There are no certainties in the music industry. But it’s really enjoyable as much as it is stressful.

EF Starting the label seemed to come from a place of wanting to nurture new talent. Did you have a mentor during the early days of your career and do you find yourself stepping into that role now?

MC It's funny, I used to think I didn’t [have a mentor], but when I actually thought about it, I was like, “No I did, I just didn't listen to them,” (laughs). In hindsight, I've had a few great ones. Kev Jones who runs Communion; he’s been a big mentor of mine, actually. He's taken out a lot of time throughout the years to help me with things. Dominic Salole, whose artist name is Mocky, he’s been a massive mentor too, especially musically. He taught me so much stuff in regards to production and how to be a great instrumentalist. He’s a fucking genius.

I'm glad to pass that information on and pay it forward. I'm coming up to 15 years in the music industry which makes me feel really old. I’m here when people need me and I'm super passionate about the music because I have a big hand in it and a lot of it's recorded at my house. I’ve really loved it actually, and I continue to love it.

EF So, how does it feel to be releasing a new album after five years?

MC I think I'm actually really excited. I used to get really horrified before things would come out. I'd be like, “Oh, what have I done? This isn't good enough.” But I think I've learned a lot in the last few years, especially doing a lot of the production stuff and writing. I really trust the process and I’ve been feeling really empowered to keep it simple. It's been a great change of pace for me. I'm really proud of the record. I think, given the circumstances that I was in at the time, we did as good as we possibly could. There were three other people that were rotating in and out of the studio; Alex Hendrickson, Nat Dunn and Chris Collins. All great writers and all great producers in their own right. It felt like such a great collaborative effort.

EF When you say 'the circumstances', are you referring to the 2022 Eastern Australian floods and having to uproot yourself and move to the studio?

MC Yeah, that was pretty challenging. The day we were supposed to start recording the album was the day the flood hit. Our house was destroyed, as were 4000 other people's houses. It probably was a really good motivator for me, to be honest, because I was kind of cruising. I was happy doing the production stuff. I was ready to make a record, which was funny. And then life was like, “How about an extra fucking bomb for you!” It definitely complicated the recording process. My four year old was screaming down the door every half an hour which, if you're a parent you would know, is insanely stressful at the best of times.

EF It seems like you’ve got a lot on your shoulders with the the record label and also having a family now. Does that sense of responsibility affect the creative process or how you write songs?

MC No, I think it's the opposite. [Having children] breaks your heart every day so it’s like I’ve been opened up to this whole new world of feeling things and observations of people. I think it's really motivating too; having kids kicks you into gear. I think before I spent most of my time just fucking faffing about. When you have a kid you’re like, “It’s got to come now and I’ve got to work hard.” Nothing comes easy and I want to be able to support my family with what I do. To do that with music is no little feat so it can be stressful at times but I wouldn’t change it for the world.

EF You new album, Everything’s Fine, is due out in March. The title of the album almost feels a little ironic or sarcastic. Is this the intention or is it a more sincere declaration that things really are ok?

MC It’s kind of half and half. It's definitely so ironic because like, look around you, everything's so not [fine]. But on whatever philosophical level you want to look at it, I guess it is as well. Like we're still here in this experience; we have the choice of making it fine or not fine or better or worse or whatever. I think the older you get, you realise that that's the qualifying factor. It’s all about how you perceive things and how you react to that perception. It’s very easy to be overwhelmed in this day and age with most parts of life. It is more up to the individual to process that and not let it destroy them.

EF The album artwork is really cool. How much are you involved in those areas of the work, directing what everything should look like etc.?

MC With this one, probably more so than ever. We had this brilliant graphic designer and illustrator, Niqui Toldi. She had to deal with a lot of annoying stuff from me and Jez, who’s the creative director for the label. The full spread of the vinyl is really cool. I imagined something very, very close to what she's created. For her to get that close with weird expectations of another person, you know, she's a proper genius. I was just like, “More irony!” (laughs) She did so well conceiving all the small details of what's truly going on, as if you’re reading between the lines of all these little interactions between these cartoons.

EF It's so nice with vinyl to have that tactile experience and have something detailed to look at while you listen. Are you a big collector of vinyl yourself?

MC Yeah, I've had to stop actually because I have a problem. There are so many records I don’t know, and I’ll find myself going, “Oh that looks cool,” and it’s £30 and I’ll be like, “I’ll get 10 of them!” My partner is like, “How much was all this!?”

Actually, the stylus has gone on both my vinyl players at home and my son has scratched up a bunch of [my records]. My partner keeps moving them around the house and she put them down when my son was about two and a half and I came home one day and they were all over the floor. He was putting his weight on them and pushing himself around. It was devastating. Some brilliant ones too. I tried to play them and I just cried, they were all completely ruined.

EF Do you have a most prized record that’s still intact?

MC Yeah, I have an OG pressing of George Harrison's All Things Shall Pass. I also have a really rare Miles Davis live record. It’s so sick. I have a lot of vinyl, but those two are the ones no one’s allowed to touch. I played the Miles Davis one once and put it straight back and just sealed it all up again (laughs).

EF (laughs) I imagine they're on a very high shelf now.

MC Oh yeah, they’re so high up it’s crazy.

EF You're heading to the States and Canada soon. Do you find that you can expect a different audience reaction to what you’d get in Oz or Europe?

MC It's different everywhere, yeah. It's really funny observing it. Oz is weird, there’s a lot of baggage for me there. Everyone’s seen everything I’ve been through from Idol onwards. Whereas in other places, you only catch people's attention if you’ve done something of quality that they resonate with. I played in Stockholm the other day and, while speaking to people after the show, I really felt the deep connection that some people have with what I do. Last time I went to America, I felt really similar.

EF What's beyond the US and North American tour? Anything exciting coming up in 2023?

MC I'll be back over here in September. I’m going to do some big shows. I think I’m going to play the Hammersmith Apollo. That will be sick. We'll be here for maybe a month and then I might make another record. I’ve started writing and I’m really happy with some of the music, so I want to strike while the iron is hot. I think I’ve really figured out my process now.

Everything's Fine is out on 24th March.

@mattcorby mattcorbymusic.com

Becky Okell and Huw Thomas have never done things the easy way. It was on their first date that the idea for Paynter was conceptualised – a new way of clothing creation that would eliminate gross waste and work against fast fashion. So, as their relationship blossomed, so did their business venture. Now, three and a half years later, Paynter’s exclusive jacket drops are changing the game. For an issue focuising on avant-garde approaches, it only seemed right to grab a brew and find out more from Becky and Huw.

BB Can you explain a little bit about the idea behind Paynter Jacket Co? Why were jackets, in particular, something that you wanted to focus on?

PJ We make jackets, four times a year, in limited edition batches that are made to order.

It all began as a bit of an experiment. We wanted to see if we could take our business model in the complete opposite direction and make it work. We wanted a business that eliminated the gross volumes of waste by which the fashion industry has come to be defined. We’re the opposite of an impulse buy. Of the 100 billion or so items of clothing that are churned out globally each year, a fifth might never see the light of day.

In contrast, we sell one style of jacket, once a quarter, to a few hundred people at a time, knowing the exact size and colour each customer wants before we start making. Doing things this way means it becomes as much about people as it is about jackets.

BB It’s not just yourselves, is it? You work with a number of people across the world to produce these products; can you talk a little bit about those individuals?

PJ There are so many more people involved, from our factories and fabric mills, to pattern cutters, illustrators, photographers, models and illustrators, to freelancers who help us on our website, to pack and send jackets, and to manage the back-end of the business too.

Being an independent business, we’ve always wanted to keep the runnings of the business as light and nimble as possible so that we can focus on selling the best quality we can for prices as fair as possible. It’s always a balance between remaining agile while working hard to afford the best talent we can.

BB Would you say that the sense of community in the production of the jackets is an important part of it?

PJ If there are two things we get really geeky about, it’s the product and the people - aka our customers, and the whole customer experience. Even though we sell online, we do meet a lot of the people we make for, whether it’s through lengthy discussions about sizing and details, oneto-one Zoom calls, at a coffee shop for a try-on, or at one of our ‘Paynter at the Pub’ meetups in London or Brooklyn.

BB At the heart of it, I wonder if you agree, a broad sense of community is integral to sustainability as it’s about understanding how your actions are affecting others in the world?

PJ Yes, I’d definitely agree. Clothing means so much more when it represents stories, people, memories. I think our customers can tell that by the time their jacket arrives with them, it’s already been on quite a journey, and so there’s a respect for clothing and a need to take care of it that is unusual in our industry. Often our customers tell us about major life events that have happened while they’ve been wearing our jackets, and how they plan to pass them on to future generations, or friends and family. I think the community side of things is integral to sustainability and prompting us all to buy less – and care more for what we already have.

BB Can you talk about the process of crafting these items, from designing them, sourcing fabric, making them, distributing them?

PJ To design a jacket that we’re happy with can take up to 12-18 months. It takes so long, because we like to wear-test every iteration of our jackets (different fabrics, construction, details etc.) to make sure they fit well, perform well and wear-in as we’d like them to. Taking a lot of time to get the design right is always very important, so that our jackets last. We’re in no rush to put out a product that isn’t ready.

The fabrics we use come from prestigious mills from Japan, Italy, France, and Portugal. Each mill has their own specialty making a particular fabric, and that’s what we work with them to make. We then work with small family run factories in Northern Portugal who specialise in each of the styles that we make. Making a batch of jackets then takes around 6-10 weeks, and once finished, every jacket is numbered by hand and sent out to customers across the world.

BB One of the unique things is how you release the jackets, can you expand on that?

PJ Our batch system is built in direct response to those problems, and has worked in largely the same way since Paynter first launched in 2019. Rather than guess demand and overproduce, we order only the exact metres of fabric we’ll need to make each batch, and only start making in the factory after selling out, so when we start production, each one already has a customer’s name against it.

While making, we take our customers behind the scenes via weekly updates from the factory, showing videos of their jackets being made. Instead of encouraging people to buy a new collection or collaboration every week, we make four batches of jackets a year, plus the occasional design experiment too. A batch of jackets for us, is one style at a time.

By the time our jackets arrive with their new owners, they tend to have a deep connection to that piece of clothing. And ultimately that’s what we’re all about, bringing meaning back to clothing.

BB How does it make you feel to see people engaging with and buying your products?

PJ Our customers wear and wear our jackets, rather than saving them for best, and we often hear how they’ve quickly become wardrobe staples which is everything we hope for. We love to hear about the personal stories of what our jackets get up to once they’re out in the world. It’s a real privilege to still be in communication with customers from every batch. There have been jackets worn to propose and get married in, during important interviews, and on stage for TED talks. One jacket is even responsible for a couple meeting and now living together, as the couple met via exchanging a jacket and meeting through our waitlist!

Aside from hearing about those stories via email or in our DMs on Instagram, the best thing is seeing them out and about in real-life, and saying hello and thanking customers if we can pluck up the courage to have a chat! @paynterjacket