About the Artist

Liam Downey is a primarily digital composer experienced in the production of electronic Experimental/Pop music, as well as with sound recording/engineering, singing, keys, and live performance. He has a solid background in the use of various DAWs as both production and recording mediums, having studied sound production under, and now sharing a studio with, Lee Buddle at Crank Recording. Liam has experience with not just live singing, but also the use of electronic music hardware, often incorporating his ASM Hydrasynth and Akai MPC One into performances. He uses custom lighting and self-animated visuals to accompany his solo musical works.

 

Liam's varied compositional practice covers themes of technological overstimulation, transhumanism, connection, queerness, and online existence; specialised production techniques are used to sit between binaries such as that of virtuality/reality, masculinity/femininity, and digital/ acoustic sound sources. The resulting aesthetic of much of his work is that of intersectional tension, quarrying the line drawn between various opposing concepts.

 

An avid collaborator, Liam has worked with a wide range of fellow creatives, including dancers, visual artists, and other musicians. He has performed as part of various perth-based musical groups, offering backing vocals and synth; partaken in experimental Cello-Synthesizer improvised pieces as part of Audible Edge; produced music for dance pieces by Fern Eva Mines, Allain Gumapon, and the Dreams of a Lonely Planet collective, as well as directed dancers for parts of his own musical performances, as well as a myriad of other multidisciplinary creative collaborations. Liam works as part of Phase Music Studios in Northbridge, Perth, where he records and produces for a range of musicians, animators, and dancers in the Crank Recording building. He is also a member of the ambient music group Blue Shadows, along with Julia Wallace, Lyndon Blue, Jake Webb, and Miranda Murray-Yong.

 

Much of his skills were developed through the completion of a Bachelor of Composition and music Technology at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. Here, Liam studied under notable musicians and researchers such as Michael Terren, Lindsay Vickery, Stuart James, and the aforementioned Lee Buddle. Liam has plans to engage in further tertiary studies, with his sights set on a Master of Arts in the near future.