Premiere: Dive into Tim Ayre's debut EP with a track-by-track walkthrough

Over the last decade, Perth ex-pat Tim Ayre has shined within our electronic scene through a multitude of ways. At the starting end of this decade, he was paving his away as one-half Tim & Jean: the long-loved and long-missed duo who back then were quickly becoming triple j - and festival - darlings through their summery electro-pop. He's released a few tracks here-and-there in the time since Tim & Jean's disembandment, but at the beginning of this year he officially launched the self-titled Tim Ayre project with its introductory offering LAXX - a tropical-pop number that encapsulated his craft in making summery electronica brought forward into 2019.

Today, however, we welcome Tim Ayre's next chapter - his debut, self-titled EP. Arriving today via esteemed electronic label Kitsunè Musique, the five-track release is a stellar introduction to the musician and his many forms as someone taking control of his sound, veering between different textures within the indie-electronica umbrella as he unites his signature charm with different energies. At times, the EP moves into sizzling tropical-pop perfect for the incoming summer (LAXX), while elsewhere, he throws a nod back to the old-school funk days (Find You); gentle grooves and bass rhythms being thrown into the mix.

For Tim Ayre, it represents the introduction to himself as a fully fleshed-out solo musician and his accompanying vision in a strong, well-rounded release that highlights his across-the-board brilliance. There's evidence that he can smash-out-the-park what he does best (that bright, indie-electro charm has been visible since the old Tim & Jean days), yet also moments that feel like his bright future mapped out. The journey isn't over yet, in other words, as he has plenty of avenues to explore with his future work.

Dive into the EP below, and with its official release today, you can also do so with a track-by-track walkthrough from Tim Ayre himself, who details the EP's creation one song at a time. Catch him launch it at Sydney's Freda's Bar on November 21st.

LAXX

I started with the music arrangement first before I put any lyrics to it. I had this picture in my head how I wanted it to be this dreamy ambient sounding song so I spent a lot of time down at the beach, listening to old records from The Beach Boys and The Mamas and The Papas. It really inspired me.

I created a basic demo on Ableton with the arrangement and vocals. I took the session to my mate Tij who had a studio in his backyard. The first thing we did was play all the parts live and re-record all the midi sounding stuff. I used plenty of synths and keyboards like the Juno 60, Mellotron, Solina, Farfisa, Wurlitzer 200a, Prophet 5 etc. I couldn’t re-create a lot of the instrumentation in the breakdown/bridge so we kept most of what was in my early demo. We sent it off to the wizard George Nicholas (Seekae) to mix it. When he sent the first mix back, I straight away knew that the song was finished.

Not Like It Should Be

The original idea for the song actually came from binge-watching every episode of Mad Men on Netflix. I literally got the opening tune ingrained so deep in my head that I started thinking it was a song I was coming up with at work or when I was doing normal things (not watching Netflix). So It inspired me to sit at the piano and come with the bass line for NLISB.

I got my mate Robb White over to help record the piano and lay some drums and we made the demo literally in a night. I kinda wanted to jam out the ending with the piano almost like this jazz lounge vibe then slowly bring the pitch down on the tape machine to end it.

Nothing

Nothing started as one idea which was the chorus melody and lyrics with a different arrangement. I took the idea I had to Dylan Ollivierre (The Money War) and he suggested combining two different ideas to make one song and added the guitar hook. Straight away gave me a good feeling.

Based on a lot of the music I write, I can't help but make cheese ball pop music and I really love it. Nothing is my pop release which I’m proud of.

Barcelona

This song came from watching Barcelona FC by myself, I was thinking I wanna make a song for FIFA 20. So I started with a kazoo and worked backward’s. I kept layering so many instruments to get this hectic sound.. I think The Flaming Lips helped inspire that. This is my favourite track on the EP.

Find You

I was listening to a lot of Sly and The Family Stone and Curtis Mayfield at the time of writing Find You. I went to Dylan with a basic idea and we fleshed out the song in a day. I wanted to give this funky feeling like you wanna move but also still have that dreaming tape feel. Lots of mellotron and Juno on this track.

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