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On the day Matt Corby was meant to start recording his new album, he and his family were rescued by a neighbour. 

 “We woke up in the morning and there were cows swimming past our balcony. It was a pretty nerve-wracking day. My partner was six months pregnant!” the ARIA award-winner recalls. 

Their home had been engulfed by the flood waters that raged through Queensland and NSW in early 2022. After nervously watching his heavily pregnant partner and young son be whisked away in a small inflatable dinghy, Corby got to work ferrying provisions to stranded locals and digging rotting mud out from beneath his home. 

Within a week of these life-altering events he entered the studio and wrote ‘Problems’. 

Despite its ominous origins, ‘Problems’ is a sun-drenched slice of r&b-leaning pop. Slow-burning synth bubbles beneath Corby’s unmistakable vocals as he watches the world around him: “Don't be so complacent/When you're passing out the fruit from the vine/You take advantage of those who can't reach up that high”, he observes over gummy rhythm and steamy keys that recall the spacious, hypnotic grooves of 90s neo-soul.  

Recorded at his Rainbow Valley Studios with Chris Collins (Gang of Youths), Corby says ‘Problems’ is not a reflection of his personal challenges at that moment, but rather a broader observation of society.  

“It’s about how funny humans are creating our own problems and issues that we then have to solve. Or creating problems so difficult we then can’t solve,” he says. “And how people talk so much shit and don't do anything – how we’re setting ourselves up for failure. People want to point the finger but nobody wants to carry anything themselves.” 

While Corby says ‘Problems’ is a slightly cynical take on the human condition, it also offers hope and instruction for the way forward. There is light at the end of the tunnel: “When you build imagination/you're shifting the frame.” 

‘Problems’ was the jumping off point for Corby’s new LP, on which he took a much more stripped-back approach to songwriting. “It's really simple. With this whole album I tried to keep the elements as few as possible, which is something I'm not very good at. Space is an instrument that I failed to use for a lot of years.” 

Problems is the first single from Matt Corby’s third album due in 2023. It follows on from 2020’s stand-alone singles, ‘I Never Say A Word’ and ‘Vitamin’, and 2016’s J Award-winning Rainbow Valley. Since the release of that record, Corby has been busy running his own label and fine-tuning his skills as a producer, working with artists including Tash Sultana, Genesis Owusu and Budjerah.