One has toured with Taylor Swift, has 12 x Golden Guitars and 11 x CMC awards to his name; the other is a 5 x Golden Guitar nominee and has played bass with some of Australia’s most revered acts. Combined they share over 50 million streams and today, Adam Brand and Matt Cornell join forces to deliver the rousing new single, ‘Our Church’.
Since departing the Baby Animals over a decade ago for a gig with Adam Brand, Matt Cornell has walked the path of country music. The pair quickly became thick as thieves. When a global pandemic threatened to demolish that path, their comradery gave them resilience.
“Before ‘Our Church’ was a song, it was our weekly catch up with a couple of my close brothers during covid,” recalls Brand. Both being ‘foodies’ who frequently share their culinary skills with social media fans, it was only natural to host the catch ups at cafés all over QLDs Gold Coast.
“We found it was helping us deal with the mental anguish of our industry being on its knees, the work & money we had lost. In particular, I was really struggling,” adds Cornell. “But I found solace in my mates, in our little catch up every week. I’m not a religious man, but I decided to call it Church.”
The song had its origins at a song writing hub in Brisbane – Song Culture. “On the final day, the last writing session was with Gavin Carfoot, Linc Phelps, Brook Chivell & Jake Whittaker. We discussed writing a song about mates, mates who are very close, kinda like a brotherhood” says Cornell. “That’s when I proceeded to tell the boys about Church.”
Cornell sent the acoustic demo to Adam Brand the very next day, whose immediate response was “let’s record this song, let’s do a duet.” Brand also later contributed some powerful lyrics to the song’s back half. “If you go to war, I go to war, brothers & sisters we’re in this together.”
You can feel the emotion in ‘Our Church’ from the very first line sung by Cornell. His voice, brimming with raw emotion, gallops atop a slowly building bed of guitar and synth; soon to explode into the song’s anthemic chorus. Produced by Jared Adlam, both music and lyrics blend together eloquently.
After drag racer Sam Fenech recently lost his life on the track, the boys’ song became a fitting tribute. “Adam’s great friend Wade Aunger, after hearing ‘Our Church,’ thought it would be a very moving tribute” shares Cornell. The video honouring the late racer, using ‘Our Church’ as its soundtrack, featured on several motorsport social media pages and received over 100k views.
The single’s official music video, shot and directed by Golden Guitar winner Jay Seeney, is a heart-warming tribute to the true-life story. The video starts out with Cornell making a plea to Brand, saying “he’s struggling,” that’s when Brand springs into action and rally’s the troops, and all the boys rush to Cornell’s aid to get around him. The song’s fellow writers and attendees of Song Culture were invited to record vocals on the track, which also made for some fun cameos in the video.
Adam Brand and Matt Cornell are not just guys who play in a band together. They’re not just mates. They’re brothers. They’re also both powerhouse performers in their own right, with their recent shows on the Tamworth Country Music Festival Toyota Park main stage proving a hit with thousands of festivalgoers.
This much needed collaboration is about more than music. This is about shining a light on mental health. This is about comradery and hope. This is their church.