An Interview with Sydney’s Thomas Gray & Liam Ebbs

We chat with Thomas Gray and Liam Ebbs about their raw new record, their process, and what makes their brand of electronic music feel so special.

Composed with a meditative, elegant poise, Thomas Gray and Liam Ebbs’ sophomore record Recollection of Everything Beautiful on Analogue Attic touches on a carefully selected medley of styles and influences; from the warped, lilting sounds of traditional Japanese Wagakki to the melancholic warmth of jazz-infused horns. The quality of the EP is bolstered by rich, atmospheric soundscapes and thoughtful, fleeting vocal samples. All 6 tracks stand as examples of ambient and electronic music at its most affecting.

Perhaps more significantly is the natural, effortless grace that threads each of the tracks together that stands as Gray and Ebbs’ most impressive accomplishment. There is a clarity and efficiency present in Recollection of Everything Beautiful that is rarely associated with ambient music, which naturally veers towards the sprawling and abstract. The EP feels lean and purposeful, yet it is still able to create and retain a wealth of emotion and atmosphere without ever sounding ponderous or overworked.  

Conceived and cultivated over an 18-month period, Gray and Ebbs allow their music the luxury of an often-overlooked attribute: time. “The writing process was extremely long for a record of its length – over a year,” they tell us during a candid conversation. Each track has been given space to breathe and something to say. Every sound, from the echoing of bells to the glittering of synths, sounds necessary. The year and a half span taken to create the EP gave the two musicians an opportunity to grow and change, and it is perhaps this personal upheaval that lends Recollection of Everything Beautiful its unique duality. It is an EP that is in constant, controlled transition; a wide ranging but tightly wound journey of emotional catharsis. “It is a humble submission to the fluctuations of life and the joy that may emerge from such a submission,” they tell us.

Photo by Jackson Grant

First of all, congratulations on the new record, it’s incredible. What was the process of making the album like and when did you finish it?

The writing process was extremely long for a record of its length – over a year. The tracks went through different iterations, many of which were completely abandoned. 

Recollection of Everything Beautiful is your second release on Analogue Attic. How did your relationship with the label come about and what makes it work so well? 

Sean and Alex from Analogue Attic approached us after hearing our solo records on Blackwattle Records. We share an intimate relationship; they are our friends and mentors. Between playing frequent Melbourne shows, Australian festivals, a string of European tour dates, and all the meandering either side of the performances, we have spent a lot of quality time together. It is a closer relationship than most artists/label owners share, which is why it works so well – it does not feel manufactured. 

Your first record on Analogue Attic was inspired by a trip to Barrington Tops. The journey on Recollection feels even more personal. Was your approach to making the record different? What distinguishes it from 3 Days, 2 Nights? 

The greatest conceptual difference is this – Recollection of Everything Beautiful is not tied to place. It is a reflection on the natural undulation of ones’ prolonged affective states, and the way in which the ‘fall’ from ‘positive’ states lay central to our ability to recognise them in the first place. 

We commenced writing the record amidst quite a happy time; a combination of new relationships, personal growth and musical success gave rise to a kind of eudaemonic state; joy flowed freely and our capacity to perceive beauty was plentiful. 

We wrote a records’ worth of material and toured it in Europe for a month, only to get home and delete the whole thing. The writing process went on for another year – a very long time for a record of its length. Over that year, our blissful state of being inevitably wilted, and we were forced to reflect on what that might mean. Because the record was written over such a long time, the music is imbued with these contemplations; it is a humble submission to the fluctuations of life and the joy that may emerge from such a submission. 

Recollection definitely feels like it’s encompassing even more influences than anything you’ve released before. Could you speak a little about some of the musical influences behind the album? 

In terms of artists, It is hard to say who has definitely influenced us and who hasn’t. Regardless, here is a brief list of people we have been listening to: Chassol, Fennesz, Arthur Russell, Benjamin Brunn, Billie Eilish, Bjork, Matthew Halsall, Bon Iver, Penguin Café Orchestra, Morphine. 

Theory Therapy · Theory Therapy 05: Thomas Gray

Can you talk us through how you produced one of the tracks from the record? Including any favourite software or hardware you used when creating the song? 

‘To an End (Part I)’

From the tracks’ initial inception, we knew we wanted it to have quite an organic, almost pseudo-orchestral, sonic palette. Structurally speaking, we approached the track as one large crescendo. With these two things as our starting point, we mapped out a basic structure and then began recording lots of instruments over the top, often recording multiple takes of the same instrument to create a really dense texture. With around 90 tracks in the project, we had to do a lot of precise EQing to make sure everything had its own space. 

To make the sonics sound ever more organic, we tried to substitute as many electronic sounds as we could, replacing them with recordings of our voices mimicking them. For instance, all of the hi hats and shakers are recordings of us making white noise hissing sounds with our mouths, then using gates and delays to get the rhythm we wanted; you end up with a sound that isn’t particularly recognisable as a ‘voice’, but it has a subtle intimacy to it that helps give the song more character. 

The electronic twinkles and bleeps that run through the whole track are coming from the ‘O-coast’. Other metallic electronic flourishes that enter in the peak of the track are coming from a modular synth, running mutable instruments’ Rings resonator playing a chord running through MI Clouds to add some space. 

Finally, a potentially difficult question to answer right now, but what are your plans for the rest of the year? 

We obviously cannot play any shows at the moment, nor may we plan too much for the future: our only plan is to write more music. We have 3 records coming up on Bedroom Suck Records, Blackwattle Records and Anjuna Deep respectively, all of which still need to be finished. It is likely these three records will take us to the end of the year. 

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Recollection of Everything Beautiful is out now on Analogue Attic - buy here.