The AU Review caught up with 2007 Australian Idol runner up turned folk inspired singer/songwriter Matt Corby. The 21 year old has spent the last few years touring internationally, playing his 'secret garden' shows to intimate groups of fans and has just released his latest EP Into The Flame.

Hi Matt. Happy birthday for the other day by the way!

Oh thank you.

How did you spend it?

I was on a plane from Perth.

Oh that’s not too exciting

It wasn’t the best, but I’ve had worse.

So you’ve been touring around the country with your secret garden shows, have you enjoyed playing those?

Yeah, they’ve been amazing. We’ve basically just finished but we’ve got South Australia in December. It’s been incredible and we’ve met so many cool people. It’s been a bit wild but very eye opening for me- a great insight into the culture.

How many of those shows did you do?

We did 26 in 32 days pretty much, so it was a lot.

So you’ve got your latest single “Brother” out, are you able to tell me what those lyrics are inspired by?

It’s kind of one of those songs. It’s really personal which is why there’s a bit of ambiguity. I might just plead the fifth on that one.

You relocated to London for a while, did that experience influence your music at all?

Yeah one hundred percent, it changed my view on everything. It made me write songs that are less manipulated by trend or by any sort of form or cool. The guys I was working with over there they just basically said, ‘Fuck what’s going on now, just write a good song’, you know? I’d never kind of looked at it that way. I always tried to fit things in or make a song that had some sort of context with what was going on in that commercial scene which is a kind of naff way to do things. I was steered in a different direction pretty quickly.

Do you have any plans to release an album yet?

Next year is the plan. I want to make another EP and then a full length record in the middle of next year.

How come you’re choosing to release EPs over albums?

I think I’m fine with releasing small bodies of work. I’m not completely ready to make that sort of definitive statement of a first record; to me it’s really important. To some others they’ll just churn out albums and albums but I’d rather just release things slowly. Until people totally understand what I’m trying to do it’s better just to give them small doses of music. So that’s kind of the main reason.

In the past you’ve been limited by your age in terms of playing overseas, are you going to do that now?

Yeah I can’t wait to go over there and just have a beer, so that’s exciting. Hopefully I’ll be travelling over to San Francisco next year as well as London again. But I’m excited about being able to play gigs in America for the first time. I played SXSW [in Austin, Texas] but that doesn’t really count.

How come it doesn’t count? Because it’s a festival?

Because it’s a massive, massive festival. You sort of fly under the radar if you’re not anyone important, really.

Did you have much of a crowd at that festival?

Surprisingly I did actually, it was pretty good. I think that was just because of Communion [Corby’s record label, co-founded by Mumford and Sons’ Ben Lovett] and the whole English scene that Americans seem so perplexed by.

I don’t want to dwell on the issue too much but I’m curious if you still get recognised from Australian Idol.

Ah…every now and then. I look completely different from when I was sixteen. You normally just get people like ‘You look like someone I know’ and I say ‘Oh well I probably am’. I don’t know. Not so much, it’s pretty low key now.

Well I guess it was 4 years ago and you’ve changed your identity a lot since then.

Well you don’t really have an identity on the show. Basically it’s just a whole bunch of editing manipulated to make you seem like a certain character that isn’t really true to who you are. Whatever.

So I put the word out that I was speaking with you and people had a few questions to ask, if that’s okay. One fan asked wanted to know if you get annoyed by the same people coming to your gigs continuously?

No I think it’s amazing. It’s a compliment more than anything the fact that they want to come back and see me play again. Instead of walking away and going shit I’m never going to watch him again. It’s not weird at all. I’ve become really good friends with a lot of people I see all the time at shows; they’re all lovely people. It makes it easier for me to talk to them because there’s some sort of familiarity there with me and them. So yeah I like it, it’s good.

Another fan wanted to know, in “Untitled” have you seen the girl who wrote the letter to you since writing the song?

Yes, I have.

And how was that experience, was it awkward?

She didn’t know, I don’t even think…I don’t even think she listens to my music. It’s still kind of flying under the radar in that sense.

What were you listening to while making the EP?

I was listening to a shit load of Otis Redding and Dusty Springfield. I’m always listening to Buddy Guy. Around the time I was recording the album I was listening to that new James Blake record with him and the piano, “Enough Thunder”. It’s like an EP and I was listening to that a lot; that was fucking incredible. That was really good for me to hear something that raw and go okay cool I can see what’s going on here. Oh, Marlena Shaw, she’s another one, she’s amazing.

So do those artists influence your work?

I think to an extent they do, I think. I would love to get them to translate more into what I do, at the moment it’s sort of early days. It’s all kind of like that old gospel, before Motown became commercialised back in the ‘60s. It’s just music with a lot of soul and a lot of heart. It’s very dramatic and I really like that, it’s really amazing.

Have you had any luck securing a support spot for Fleet Foxes yet?

No but I have had luck in securing a support spot for Feist, which I’m even more excited about.

That’s amazing, congratulations!

[At the time of this interview] she’s only got one sideshow aside from Laneway and she asked me to play; so good.

You’ve got a few shows coming up in Sydney and Melbourne. Are you going to add anything new to your set or any covers?

Probably not covers. But we’ll probably be trying out a few new songs I’m writing for the next record now so I’d love to see how they’d go in front of a nice warm Melbourne crowd especially. Sydney not so much, they can be a bit weird sometimes. Yeah so they’ll probably be a few new ones to try out.

Are you going to be steering clear of covers of the rest of your life?

No not at all. I just haven’t found something decent that I want to play. Not saying that there aren’t songs that aren’t amazing out there. I just sort of stick with what I’m doing at the moment and maybe introduce a cover or two in a little while.

How long have you been working on the new EP Into The Flame for?

Well the thing is, it came together in about a week. The songs were all sort of written here and there. “Untitled” has been written for a year. “Brother” was written a week before we recorded. So as far as writing process it’s been completely sporadic. Songs kind of popped up and then went away and then I decided on four that I wanted to put on a record. We bashed it out in a week and it got mixed and mastered in a couple of days and now it’s ready to be released.

Does this EP not have so much of a theme?

Yeah not like the last one. There’s not really a common thread or common lyrical idea. Sonically there’s nothing really in context with anything else. It’s just four songs that are sort of a representation of what I’ve just been through in the last year.

Thanks so much for speaking with me, good luck promoting the new EP.