Ex-Olympian
Ex-Olympian is a dream funk solo/collaboration project from Liam McGorry. You may recognise Liam from Australian bands Saskwatch and Dorsal Fins. “Afterlife” is Ex-Olympian’s debut album released today! (16th of October). Make sure to check it out now.
Liam McGorry, You are a very talented musician, playing in some of Australia's biggest funk/soul bands over the past decade “Saskwatch” and “Dorsal Fins”. Could you share the story behind how Ex-Olympian got started? Was this side project in your mind while these other bands were still active? It must be a big change going from playing in bands with six-plus members to being the sole member, are you noticing a difference?
I've always wanted to try and stretch myself more musically, always playing music and playing in bands, continuously writing. Over the past 10 years, playing in the bands “Saskwatch” and “Dorsal Fins”, they both ended up finishing around a similar time. It seemed like the perfect time to challenge myself musically, I wanted to write more, get more involved in the studio side of things and really test my ability. I had a few song ideas kicking around when I was in those bands, but I reworked them a lot and I've been writing a lot of new music along the way.
At the moment, it doesn't feel too different, without being able to play live, it still has that similar feeling. Originally when I started Ex-Olympian it was a big scary project, I'd never done anything like this before, going out on my own, I wasn't too sure how to feel. You see musicians starting side projects or solo projects all the time and they make a big deal about it being all about them, that's not really how I wanted to operate Ex-Olympian.
Coming from the bigger membered bands, you learn how to write music and improve your writing skills by collaborating and bouncing ideas off multiple artists in the room. I loved that way of writing a song and feeling out an idea, most of the time someone will come up with an idea and it takes the song in a completely different direction, a direction you might not have ever thought of if you worked on it by yourself.
"Afterlife" is your debut album coming out on the 16th of October, you released your first single "Voices In My Head" back in July and you’ve since released a few more singles off the album. How was writing this album? Was there a focus on collaboration and getting more artists involved in the songwriting? Nkechi Anele (vocalist from former band “Saskwatch”) features on the single "Lilac Youth", how was it working with her again?
The idea of making a full-length record sometimes comes with the pressure that every song has to be down instantly, record it and get it out straight away. "Afterlife" is far from that case, it's taken 2-3 years to put this all together. Each song has a different version, a different arrangement to them, most have multiple rerecordings in different studios, I allowed myself the time not to rush anything and push each song seeing where they would go. I wanted to get out of my comfort zone, I’d never sung on anything before, so that was a great challenge, my first single “Voices In My Head” is the first time you hear my vocals on a song.
Writing “Afterlife”, I'd come up with an idea for a song, reach out to a friend and invite them over to play the saxophone or whatever instrument on the song. For me having that collaboration feel is what I enjoy most about making music, having that relationship, connection and experience between a few friends/musicians just makes the songs better. It's hard to explain exactly what happens when you are working out a song and everyone is throwing out all these different ideas, it eventually evolves into something amazing, those relationships are something I'll never forget and is the main reason why I love making music. I don't define Ex-Olympian as a solo project, I think it's kind of blurred between solo and a collaboration project.
Working with Nkechi again was a really grounding experience for this project. I’ve worked with her for 10+ years in “Saskwatch”, we were always writing and working on songs together. For "Lilac Youth", it was similar to back in the day. I had an idea for this song, I brought it to Nkechi and she is one of the best at reworking some of the lines and takes the vocal melody in a different direction. We have talked about it a little, but being able to bring in friends to work on this album was big for me.
Are you looking forward to playing live shows in the future? Will you have a set lineup supporting you on stage or will you have different friends joining you each night?
Playing shows in the future is something I'm really looking forward to, it's exciting! At the minute I’m not too sure what the live lineup is going to look like, but we played a show late last year supporting our friend's band Surprise Chef. That show we had - drums, bass, viola, my friend Julia on vocals and I played the keys and trumpet. Live shows a still a little while away from happening in Victoria, so I’m not too sure how the Ex-Olympian lineup will look when the time comes.
What do you have planned for the rest of the year? How will you be celebrating the release of "Afterlife"?
Celebrating haha good question, it's a bit of an anticlimax really. It's just going to be great having the record out in the world, making this album has been such a big part of my life over the past couple of years and to be able to finally share it with everyone is going to be amazing. It's a bonus to have the vinyl pressed and ready to go, one less thing I have to worry about, sometimes you have to keep chasing it up and make sure it will be ready in time for the release.
I'm also very lucky to have been able to keep my job throughout everything that’s been going on this year. I'm very grateful that I've still able to teach and give lessons. Music is something that brings everyone together and it’s a shame that we can't go out and enjoy live music and be around that community we all love.
Follow Ex-Olympian on Facebook, Instagram and Spotify.
Stream “Afterlife” now on Spotify, Apple Music and Bandcamp.