As soon as he stepped onto the stage, before he’d even made it to the mic, Matt Corby’s fans started their usual clapping and cheering and—most interesting of all—screaming song requests.
As they fought to be heard over one another, all Matt did was smile slightly, peer into the mic, then murmur, “yeah,” before beginning his first set. It would seem that the musician was, quite literally, at a loss for words. But he had plenty of songs to make up for it.
Australian singer Matt Corby started his singing career with what he thought was a one-up: Australian Idol. He finished as the runner up in 2007, but soon admitted that auditioning for the show was the worst mistake of his life. As it would turn out, the majority of the Australian population discredited artists who made their fame based on the TV show itself and not on the backs of their own talent, making it hard for Corby to dissociate himself from his teenage Idol years. He succeeded. On June 13, 2016, Matt Corby played at the 9:30 Club for the first time, a popular music venue located in Washington, D.C. It was clear to his audience that he had thoroughly broken away from his pop-culture roots and moved on to something deeper. Matt Corby had soul.
The expected audience for such an artist was an older group, looking to relive the old glory of “good” music. Corby’s live band and passion-filled performance is a far cry from pop-culture’s usual stars, and therefore it was a shock to see people of all walks of life filing into the venue. Floor-length kimonos swayed, salt-and-pepper twisted locks whipped, high man buns stayed locked in place as the entire building moved to the beat of the music. It was clear it didn’t take an old spirit to recognize the magic in Corby’s voice; he had a sound everyone wanted to listen to.
It is one distinguishable feature that sets Matt Corby’s particular brand of music apart from the rest of the music from the modern world: his soul. When belting out poignant lines from his most beloved songs, Matt’s spine would bow backwards, his contorted face looked to the sky, his left hand grabbing the flesh of his right arm, as if it took great effort to keep hold of his physical form while he released his soul through music. He did this time and again in each of his songs, and it was a wonder how he didn’t erase every inch of his soul in the process, so intent he seemed in his effort to share it with his fans. Matt was old school not for his inclination toward real instruments and songs that spoke of more than ten-day love and its subsequent breakup. His sound is old because it is rich, full of a vibrancy that has been missing from mainstream music for far too long.
What Matt lacked in conversational skills, he made up for infinitely in his quality of music. He may not, admittedly, be very good at “small talk,” but he is well versed in the discourses of the soul, and through this ability he is able to form a connection with his listeners that runs far deeper than any shallow pleasantries ever could.