Sydney, Australia is a fertile stomping ground for trap music and wildly talented producers, providing homestead to bright up & comers such as Liam Irvine, more affectionately known to his fans as Thorns. While Irvine doesn’t possess the most extensive library of tracks since his debut on SoundCloud a year ago, each track further divulges the innovation and dexterity he brings to the table with his industrial trap style.
An absolutely spicy remix of Vince Staples ‘Yeah Right’ first beckoned my eye to the young Aussie, while more recent releases ‘Warfare’ and ‘Fear’ have only furthered my interest in the Thorns project.
We had the opportunity to catch up with Irvine to discuss his vision for the future of Thorns and learn about the creative inspiration behind his latest single release ‘Back’ with fellow Australian producer Luceo.
Have a listen to the latest floor mopper from the duo while you learn more about the vision behind the Thorns project below!
Tell me a little bit more about your background in music, do you have any formal training with instruments or production?
Honestly not a lot hahahaha. I’ve always loved any and all music from a young age and from time to time I’d pick up the guitar, even forming a band in the young years of high school. The production side of things originated from years of DJ’ing high school house parties which then turned into clubs and then looking to take that next step further into writing music. After getting my hands on a copy of FL Studio my learning was really just based on countless YouTube tutorials and tips off of friends and fellow collaborators.
With a little under a year under your belt so far, how has the Thorns project remained true to your original vision, and in which was has it developed in a new direction?
The original direction I wanted ‘Thorns’ to take was to find the balance between creating a unique sound that defines itself from everything else, while also retaining its heavy-hitting energy for a wide audience environment. The project is always evolving, and I can’t wait to show everyone what I’ve got in store over this coming year.
Did you and Luceo know each other before working on ‘Back’, or did the collaboration furnish the beginning of the relationship?
No, we didn’t hahaha, I’m based from around the Sydney area while Jakob (Luceo) is based down in Canberra. Hoping to catch his next Sydney show at Candy’s Apartment with Blanke on the 22nd of December. I first caught Jakob from his flip of a nostalgic classic; the Halo: Combat Evolved Theme. Since then I’ve been following his releases and thought the idea of our two sounds together would be something really unique.
While you both maintain innovative sound design, your styles can be viewed as vastly contrary to one another. Did your sounds flow together seamlessly, or did it take some diligence to find the right combination?
I felt like it would be a challenge at first considering our styles were vastly different. However, to my surprise, it really only took a few bounced sessions before we got the main idea nailed down. At the end of the day, I was very keen to see where that challenge could take us, and I’m so pleased with the result.
From a production standpoint, what makes this track particularly special or unique to you?
As with most releases you always feel like your latest is the best, and this track is no exception. A lot of the time for me personally it takes a long-awaited process of trial and error until I’m ultimately happy with the desired result. For this track, everything fell into place within a matter of hours without that feeling of self-doubt of “should I change this” or “does this composition fit what I’m going for here”. That’s what made this special and unique to me. I honestly haven’t been more excited for a release than this one. I hope everyone enjoys it as much as we did creating it <3
