Despite the lack of touring, the last 12 months have been a productive period for indie band Gorilla Orchestra, solidifying their sound while earning industry recognition.
The Melbourne four-piece – comprised of James Hall (vocals/ guitar), Grant Hardisty (keys), Brent Morrison (bass) and Nick Hardy (drums) – were last year selected as a finalist by Tones And I in her song competition 'That One Song', which has also propelled other creative relationships for the group.The song that caught Tones' attention was Gorilla Orchestra's third single release ever, 'I Think It's the Way She Moves'.
Now a year later since they've released anything new, Gorilla Orchestra have dropped the energetic, expansive art rock number 'Sake Of Love', which could easily be found in the back catalogue of City Calm Down, Youth Group, or Eskimo Joe.
Although still confined to their homes, the future looks bright for a band quickly finding their own rhythm as James and Nick explain.
The band's last 12 months since we last chatted; what's been the goss?
It has been a while! Honestly, the last 12 months has been such a roller coaster for the band. We have been trying to find this balance of writing and recording new music, playing shows and surviving the 100 lockdowns we have had since 2020.
The band's new song is 'Sake Of Love'; tell us more (is this part of a larger collection of songs the group plans to release)?
The process for 'Sake Of Love' was very much a slow, progressive type of writing.
Our drummer Nick came into a practice in early 2020 with the skeleton of the song and the chorus lyrics. From here, we all added our parts piece by piece in the studio and it naturally progressed from a simple idea into one of our favourites. We may or may not be releasing a larger collection of songs for your all very soon.
Tones And I selected your song 'I Think It's The Way She Moves' as a finalist in her competition 'That One Song'; that must've been an energetic buzz to receive such recognition?
It was such a shock to us. We had entered her competition as more of a 'well, what's the worst that could happen' kind of mentality.
When she gave us the call that she had selected our song out of thousands of submissions, we were honestly in disbelief. I think Tones doesn't get enough credit as an advocate for local music in Australia. We got some amazing advice from her about the industry and to basically trust your gut along the way.
Have any doors opened as a result of being a That One Song finalist and getting to meet Tones And I?
We got to network with some incredible musicians and artists around Australia who we still keep in touch with to this day. Tones was generous enough to give our band a grant to support us in the future and that has really helped us with our upcoming releases.
The track also was a finalist on the 2020 Global Songwriting Competition; obviously more validation for the direction of the band, right?
Of course! This songwriting competition has had past Aussie winners like Goyte and Tones and I, and we managed to get selected as a semi-finalist, which was an incredible validation of the hard work we put into our songwriting and arrangement.
The different musical backgrounds each member comes from; how does this diversity help shape the creative focus of the band?
Our band is really unique in the sense that we have all had such different musical journeys leading to Gorilla Orchestra.
Brent played bass around the indie rock scene, Nick came from a fusion, funk, jazz and blues background and Grant/ James have both been writing indie pop for most of their music career.
Having this diversity in the band makes each writing session unique as most of the time we are not locked into a specific direction and we let our own music influences blend together.
The songwriting makeup of the band. . . who contributes what? Does anyone get a final say if you're at loggerheads over a particular topic/ subject matter?
We all have pretty equal say on all of our music. Typically James and Nick will throw lyric ideas at the group in practice and each member will flow into the song and have their own input.
Brent does all of our audio engineering from the demo stage to the final product and Grant has a fantastic eye and ear for arrangement in our music (our own in house producer in a way!).
Like all bands, sometimes you just can't agree on a particular decision made. If we struggle to settle on a decision, it will generally get shipped off to our Executive Engineer Phil Threlfall for the final word.
Minus the touring, travel aspect of being in band, how has the past 18 months shaped the group?
I think we have really grown as a group together. We have had a few changes in members over the last two years but I feel we have finally settled and found a direction we are happy with.
I think the last 18 months has taught us resilience and to always be open-minded to opportunities that come our way.
That said, you must be fangin' to get back out on the road when restrictions allow it?
You bet! As soon as these restrictions are done, we will be playing a heap of Melbourne shows and getting back out there. Interstate shows are also in discussion for the band.
It's footy finals time; who's winning the AFL granny this year?
Our keys player Grant is a diehard Bulldogs supporter and of course that means we must jump on the Doggies train these finals.
Does the group have a collective favourite famous gorilla of all-time?
Rest in peace Harambe – the OG gorilla taken too soon.
Something you've learnt during COVID or a task you now do routinely that will stick with you for the rest of your life?
I think the biggest thing we have taken from the two years of COVID is to be flexible, think outside the box and make the most of our time all together. In the flesh together; not on Zoom!
Despite being in hard lockdowns for most of 2020, we managed to record new music without being in the same room and even filmed a music video completely over Zoom. Honestly, I think we are ready for anything that comes our way in the future.
Which fictional character best describes your bands personality?
Our band is high energy when we play live shows, but behind the scenes we are just four normal blokes who love a beer and talking trash with each other.
You know that scene from the movie Anchorman where they are all singing 'Afternoon Delight' in their news room – that's us in practice.
Last show you binge-watched?
We have all watched so many shows over the past six lockdowns! I know James is a huge Marvel fan and finished eight hours of 'Loki' in one day. I feel most of us spend way too much time streaming other bands live gigs instead of actually watching shows on Netflix.
