Oliver Downes On Utilising Family Connections To Elevate His Songs

He's a classically trained pianist and cellist, but Oliver Downes confesses, "I don't think of myself as a singer". After agreeing that there are way too many singers out there who sound exactly the same, Downes admits he does like the way his voice sounds. "I think I've got a lot I can still explore vocally and that's gonna be a fun, ongoing project for me."

Sitting across the table inside an airy Fitzroy cafe taking occasional sips from his coffee, Downes has a very calm, measured way of speaking. He moved to Melbourne from the Blue Mountains about 18 months ago now and his latest album comes to you thanks to a very successful Pozible campaign. "I think I exceeded my target by a bit over $1500," he enthuses.

"Continuing to explore different musical combinations is a good way of breathing new life into songs that I'm otherwise sick of."

Given that Ultraviolet is his debut album, Downes points out, "Some of these songs are five years old". "Continuing to explore different musical combinations is a good way of breathing new life into songs that I'm otherwise sick of," he suggests. As such, Downes utilised The String Contingent (which comprises his double bassist sister Holly and violinist brother-in-law Chris Stone as well as guitarist Graham McLeod) plus Stone's metal drummer brother Robin to help create Ultraviolet. "Musically this is so much more interesting than I could've done on my own and I'm really grateful for that," he praises.

"They have very different backgrounds, The String Contingent," he continues, "like, folk and classical and jazz and bluegrass, and this strange melange of different styles. And they brought all that to my stuff, and just started to bring out all these different kind of details and ideas that I would never have thought of."

Aligning schedules proved "impossible", so Downes recorded Ultraviolet in several stages and geographical locations. "Me and Harvey [O'Sullivan, engineer] and Rob spent the weekend in Sydney recording drums," Downes tells, commending the drummer who "made up his parts just with piano demos, in isolation, in a caravan". His parts were recorded "basically in one take". "The man's a machine!" Downes extols.

For The String Contingent's contributions, Downes "went up to Holly and Chris' place". "I saw their place, they have a strawbale house... an hour and a half outside of Canberra," he tells. After spending a week up there "making up parts", another week was spent recording at Ginger Studios in Richmond with Jimi Wyatt, "which was a really fun process".

When asked whether he'd work with this same ensemble again, Downes ponders, "I think next time, and I am thinking about next time [laughs] - this is all me playing a Yamaha Grand, but I'd really like to do a synthier album." Gary Numan's Cars fittingly plays over the cafe's sound system. "With saxophone," he adds. Now that Ultraviolet is out, Downes reveals, "I'm very keen to write some more things at the moment." 

Contemplating the art of songwriting, Downes offers, "I think the best songs leave large chunks of whatever the situation or imagery is up to the listener's imagination."