Today, LA-based Matthew “Murph” Murphy – guitarist and lead singer of platinum-selling indie heroes The Wombats – releases Wherever I Go, I Want To Leave, the debut album from his collaborative solo project Love Fame Tragedy, out now via Good Soldier Songs/AWAL. The album sees Murph bring together a who’s who of collaborators from across the world of indie, rock and pop for this seventeen track collection of introspective indie bangers and heavy-hearted pop singalongs.
New single, “Everything Affects Me Now,” is also released today. Featuring Pixies’ Joey Santiago, The Killers’ Mark Stoermer and former Kanye West, Mac Miller and Frank Ocean drummer Matt Chamberlain, it’s an upbeat and reflective account of wrestling with the milestones of adult life. The song comes accompanied by a fittingly restless animated video from previous collaborator Jamie Mac.
Speaking about the track, Murph explains: “It’s my attempt to have a bit of a Don Henley ‘Boys of Summer’ moment. It’s about coming to terms with life in your 30’s, realizing that there are a lot of responsibilities suddenly and perhaps that life is not as plain and simple as you thought it would be from the rose-tinted glasses of a 20 something.”
Recorded between Los Angeles, London and Sydney, Wherever I Go, I Want To Leave sees Murph call on a remarkable list of friends and collaborators. Pixies’ Joey Santiago, The Killers’ Mark Stoermer, Bastille’s Dan Smith, Eleanor Fletcher of Crystal Fighters, Joji Malani (Gang of Youths), alt-J’s Gus Unger-Hamilton, Kanye West, Frank Ocean and Mac Miller drummer Matt Chamberlain, Art vs. Science’s Dan Williams, Lauren Aquilina, Jack River and Maddi-Jean Waterhouse are all featured.
To name a concept bordering on the surreal, Murph found inspiration in high art: Pablo Picasso’s revered Love Fame Tragedy exhibition at the Tate Modern. His previous two EPs I Don’t Want To Play The Victim, But I’m Really Good At It (September 2019) and Five Songs To Briefly Fill The Void (March 2020) garnered widespread support from the likes of Zane Lowe, Annie Mac, NME, The Times, CLASH, Metro, Jack Saunders, Radio X and more, racking up over 13 million global streams in the process.
Having flown unhindered into the world since its announcement a year ago, Love Fame Tragedy is Murph at his most personal and creatively receptive, making Wherever I Go, I Want To Leave a gloriously uninhibited collection of synth-pop confessionals where hedonism, responsibility, anxiety and the fragility of love all collide.
