Dorsal Fins was originally born as a studio-only project by Liam McGorry Melbourne’s go-to trumpeter and the songwriter of one of our finest soul collectives, Saskwatch. Having transformed now into a both recorded and live act, Dorsal Fins includes a collection of admired collaborators such as Jarrad Brown (Eagle And The Worm), Ella Thompson (Axolotl/ The Bamboos), Olaf Scott, and Will Morrissey (Saskwatch).
The group are set to release their debut EP Gripless this Thursday the 3rd of April on 12” vinyl, Liam gave us a track by track run down on the EP ahead of its release.
Nothing Left To Hide
Dorsal Fins started I guess as a just some sort of thing to play with some of my best friends and musical idols in Melbourne, where I could new music without any sort of restraints with some of these legends. We recorded both ‘Nothing Left To Hide’ and ‘Fell’ in a day at Bakehouse Fitzroy with our mate Cal.
Nothing Left To Hide was written with Jarrad, I guess my initial idea was to have a song that sort of emphasised a bit of anger. Rob’s Guitar is pretty brutal in this, nice one Robbo. The amazing part about this song for me is that we tracked all the band parts, and Jarrad ran home (literally 3 blocks away) for an hour while we tracked Fell, and in that time rewrote half the lyrics and did all his vocal take over the top. I love all the different backing vocal ideas. We just left it as is. He’s a genius.
Fell
“Fell is the first song I ever co-wrote with someone. Ella wrote the lyrics based on Alice in Wonderland and I think it really matches the mood of the instrumental. I wanted to just make the groove pretty hypnotic and winding between different instrumentation ideas. I love the way Sam’s Drums, Richard’s Bass and Rob’s Guitar hold it together with this weird ostinato thing and the colour on the top from Olaf and Joe make it sound really ominous. Ella’s voice is just incredible throughout, particularly in the ‘golden afternoon’ section.”
Nothing Left To Hide (King Gizzard Remix)
“When we finished our songs and we were talking about how to put it out, the thing I loved about this whole band was the sense of working with different people in new ways to get new results. In continuing that idea, I thought we should get each track remixed for a 12” release. When thinking about who to work with, it wasn’t very long before thinking of the King Gizzard crew.
Probably one of the best / most loved / most prolific bands ever, they just get better and better. Stu and Joe graciously accepted the challenge of their first remix and the result is actually incredible. I really think they got the mood of the song and flipped it into such a frustrating, glitched take on in. I just love the doom-western outro section…so good.”
Fell (Martin King Remix)
“I’ve always been a bit fan of Marty’s work, from the Harpoons, to Oscar + Martin and now his own solo work (check out Fitness Vol. 1). He is, like King Gizzard, very prolific. After his awesome remix for Saskwatch, I had to ask him again. Simplifying the song to it’s absolute core, at the same time he make an equal parts beautiful and brutal piece of music. The pitch-shifted vocal is really unique and he’s done something really incredible, that matches the ethereal mood of the original.”
Dorsal Fins ‘Gripless’ EP Launch
Thursday April 3rd – Shebeen Bandroom, Melbourne
with guests Jacky Winter, and DJs Martin King and Stu Mackenzie
