The Beautiful Girls

The Beautiful Girls recent plans to tour across the US were cut short when the band was denied access across the border. This resulted in The Beautiful Girls having to cancel the remainder of their shows. “Basically we were trying to get into America and pretend we weren’t actually playing any gigs because we didn’t have all our documentation quite ready” drummer Bruce Braveral explains. “They caught us out and interrogated us for about 9 hours. They didn’t let us in, so effectively that was the end of the tour” “I have to say they were pretty nice” Braveral continues. “They gave us pizza and drinks of water and they let us go to the toilet which was pretty cool! It was sort of amusing after a while- and kinda cool to get into that position with American authorities and feel what its like to be a fugitive”.

The Beautiful Girls are known around the world as one of Australia’s most prominent and unique acts. Forming The Beautiful Girls in 2002, band members Mat McHugh (lead vocals), Clay McDonald (bass) and original drummer Mitch O’Connely broke all the rules of playing traditional blues, reggae, folk and rock and begun to create their own unique style of tunes. Five years later and having just finished a brand new album, The Beautiful Girls have attained a mountain of fans across the globe, and a new drummer Bruce Braveral to accompany the band along their journey. “I’ve played with Mat in quite a few bands over the years” Braveral explains. “I was with Mat and Clay in the band proceeding The Beautiful Girls, which was a heavy stoner rock kind of band. Sort of Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age style.”

After spending his days in New York, listening to old school blues and acquiring quite a taste for the US, front man McHugh returned to Australia to record a demo Morning Sun, with fellow band mates McDonald and O’Connely.  McHugh’s initial plans after recording Morning Sun was to head back to San Diego to surf.  In the meantime, Morning Sun had been handed across to radio, where it rapidly developed a large response from fans. In an era where the only music around generally consisted of rock, The Beautiful Girls were a contrasting style of music that quickly became popular amongst music fans.  It seemed as though the only logical option after the reaction from radio airplay was for the band to tour.

This begun a series of sold out shows for The Beautiful Girls all across Australia. The band have now toured around the world, playing to fans throughout the US, Canada and Japan. “Basically people are the same all over the world, when they come to see a show there’s something uniting them because they like our music”.
 
“Everyone is really friendly, fun and helpful. If you need a hand carrying drums they’re always keen!” Just having completed their brand new record, The Beautiful Girls are looking forward to spending some time at home before releasing the album. “We just finished the last little bit if icing on the cake!” an enthusiastic Braveral exclaims.
It’s gonna go away to LA and get mixed next week, but its not going to come out till around May”.“It still sounds like The Beautiful Girls” he continues. “It’s still got Mat singing out front and it’s still got the reggae element.  There are a couple of acoustic tracks but over all I’d say that it rocks more. Yet another direction change!” 

The band recently returned home to Australian soil to perform in front of audiences across the country over the New Year period, and to also have themselves a well deserved break. “We tend to relax when we get back to Australia” says Braveral. “Often you don’t really get to relax- especially when you’re overseas. We have a pretty hectic schedule and not that many days off so relaxing is pretty rare. Maybe after sound check we have a couple of hours just to have a walk around the street- drink a beer, play pool. Once in a while we’ll get a day off and we might visit a national park or go to the sea”. “You can’t really complain because I’m playing music, getting paid for it, seeing the world and meeting lots of people. Isn’t to say it’s not hard sometimes!”

 The Beautiful Girls are now getting prepared to play a set at the Chill Island Festival, held at Churchill Island, Phillip Island. “Do yourself a favour and watch Blue King Brown over and over again- they are amazing!” Braveral advises. “Phillip Island is really nice; it’s a great location for a festival.”