Matt Corby

I'm thinking I shall try to do more music posts.

I listen to a lot of Australian music, and often I know nothing about the singer and/or band.

I'm not going to embed videos, because that's been a pain to my formatting. And I don't imagine it's too hard to click on the link...if someone's interested in seeing the video.

I'll also try not to make these posts as long as I did in the past. Tim says it's better to have shorter posts. I agree with him.

So, today I'm going to look at Matt Corby.  I have eleven of his songs on my Aussie Spotify list. I think some I added recently, because they don't seem very familiar to me.

See, I'm horribly anal when it comes to Spotify. I make lists; then I listen to the lists in order. I go through all my lists and then start back at the beginning. So, right now I'm on my Aussie list. Before that I was listening to my Walking Dead list. After I listen to the Aussie list, I'll move down to a list called Dallas Drive. I think I made that one for one of those rare times we had Spotify Premium and could listen to music in the car.

Forget this being a short post. I'm rambling already.

Let me get back to Matt Corby. The song of his that first got my attention was "Light Home". It's beautiful in a very haunting way. I did actually Google this song in the past. From what I remember reading, it was played on some Australian TV show. Maybe Home and Away?

I'm going to reconsult Lord Wiki about this.

Well, Lord Wiki doesn't say much about that particular song. Maybe I read it somewhere else?

No, it was Lord Wiki. I just went and Googled Matt Corby, "Light Home", and Home and Away. That brought me back to Lord Wiki. I just did a bad job skimming before.

But yeah. The song was in a 2011 episode.

While skimming, though, I did learn a few things.

Matt Corby was thought to be part of the Hillsong religious group. Lord Wiki says this isn't actually true.  I followed the link he provides, however, and it took me to an article that says Corby WAS part of Hillsong.

Apparently there was some controversy. Matt Corby was on American Idol, and some believed he came from Hillsong, and that Hillsong had some influence on the show's voting.

I'm looking at various websites, trying to find answers. This one says, Corby is from the Assemblies of God Pentecostal Church. And they say that church is affiliated with Hillsong.

I'm sitting here Googling to try to verify whether the above fact is true or not. That's how these posts end up taking up so much time and space.

I can't easily find any verification.

I'll just leave it at, Matt Corby is/was maybe part of a controversial Christian group.

I didn't expect that.

I'm wondering if there's Christianity in his lyrics.

I haven't paid much attention to the lyrics.

I will admit to having some prejudices about evangelical Christianity. For example, I immediately start to wonder if Matt Corby is anti-gay.

Well, this article gives me some reassurance. It says a pastor from the Hillsong Church has spoken in favor of being more welcoming towards gay folks.  The message is kind of in the spirit of if-you-can't-beat-them-join-them. Or in this case, let them join you.

Anyway...back to Matt Corby.

Here's his official website.

In the news section, there's a photo of him sitting on a chair playing guitar. There's a table in front him of him. Is that an ashtray?  And there' a chessboard. Heath Ledger played a lot of chess. I learned that from my recent reading adventure.

On this page, you can listen to his songs. As you listen, you see comments of various people flash by.

Examples: He's got a legit voice. love this song SO much.  Just Wonderful Good Onya.

Oh! There's a song called "Evangelist".  Maybe it will have clues to this religious thing. In the beginning of the song, his voice is very low...a bit like Nick Cave.

I'm looking at the lyrics.

This line interests me.

It seems that your restrained by devout belief that ruins your life
I won't listen to you, won't you blow right past my door?

It could be he's over the church and is talking about his past self. Or he could be referring to someone he knows who's still part of the Church.

My feeling, though, is that maybe he's imagining how listeners and fans perceive him when learning of  his religious background.

Here's his Twitter page. On both the Twitter page and the website, Corby is talked about in third person. So it looks like someone else is taking care of the social media aspect of his career.

Here's an article/interview.  Corby talks about how some people like what you do and some people hate it.  He says he pays more attention to the negative. I often do the same thing. I can't say I get a ton of hatred, just a lot of disinterest. And that can dampen my spirit a bit.  So sometimes it's helpful to make myself remember times in which my work has been appreciated.

Okay. Corby is talking about his Australian Idol days.  It seems he got quite famous for awhile.  And some un-fans weren't that nice.

Things got better for Corby when he played in London, because there his Australian idol reputation didn't cling to him as much.

It seems Australian Idol wasn't a positive experience for Corby. I tend to think those types of shows are rarely good for anyone. In rare cases, it launches lasting careers. I think in most cases, they launch very short-lived careers. And they probably destroy the hopes, dreams, and self-esteem of many young singers.

This is getting long. I'm going to quit in a few minutes. Before I go, I want to listen to some cover versions of "Lighthome".  I like doing that.

Here's HooperBenMusic.  He sings in a garden with purple flowers. I'm wondering about his accent. English doesn't seem to be his first language.  He does a fairly good job with the singing, but I have a hard time enjoying it, because he kind of reminds me of the guy who spent too many weeks living with us.

Now I've begun to watch a video by JnDMusic2012. He doesn't look like our old housemate. But he does look like someone...or a combination of people actually. I see a little bit of Heath Ledger, a lot of Neil Patrick Harris, and maybe a bit of Leonardo DiCaprio.

He has a Game Of Thrones poster. I guess he's a fan.

Well, I'm going to go play some Minecraft and listen to more Aussie music.



Read my online novel: The Dead are Online