The Wombats’ Matthew ‘Murph’ Murphy has duetted with Suki Waterhouse’s sister Maddi Waterhouse on his debut solo single ‘My Cheating Heart’.
The ‘Moving to New York’ hitmaker has unveiled his new project Love Fame Tragedy, which will feature guest appearances on tracks from Maddi, Pixies star Joey Santiago and Alt-J’s Gus Unger-Hamilton.
Murph has described his new side piece as his "Gorillaz" (Blur’s Damon’s Albarn’s cartoon band) moment.
He said: "Yeah, it’s somewhere between Gorillaz and a solo project.
"I wanna keep collaborating and getting people on board, and if they’re around in the same vicinity and we can make it happen, that would be awesome."
The indie musician revealed that he and Joey bonded over "excess in the past" and "golf and food and coffee" when The Wombats and Pixies toured with Weezer in 2017.
The 34-year-old singer recalled to NME.com: "We got on when we were doing the Pixies and Weezer tour.
"We had breakfast in Oklahoma one day and really got on.
"We had quite a few things in common, one of those being our relationship with excess in the past, and golf and food and coffee, all this s***.
"All of the Pixies band and crew were awesome but out of the whole tour he was the one true friend I made, I think."
The pair previously met at a festival a few years prior to the tour and hit it off immediately.
Murph says that his bandmates have no issue in his solo project and have been really supportive.
He said: "They’re pretty positive. They’ve done their own stuff and I’m sure they knew it was coming and they’ve both been really supportive. I don’t think they’re running marathons holding a Love Fame Tragedy torch but they’re supportive of it."
The Liverpool band have a huge fan in fellow Liverpudlian Sir Paul McCartney, who even offered to produce their album back in 2008.
The Beatles legend said at the time: "I don’t do much production now, but it might be very tempting.
"I’m not sure they would want me."
Murph, who had music lessons with the ‘Let It Be’ hitmaker, would love to get Macca on a song for Love Fame Tragedy.
He said: "That would be really good. For now it’s play the cards close to the chest with people you actually know well and obviously if things go well, start throwing it out to whoever.
"I don’t really care what people think of me so I’ll ask whoever, whether they tell me to f*** off or not."
The Wombats’ Murph releases solo single with Maddi Waterhouse
