The "Magic" behind Olympic Ayres
From thirty-second bedroom demos of 'noise' to a 100% live-instrumentation EP
The Australian duo Olympic Ayres made waves across the 2010s’ indie music scene: three, unique, three-song ‘episodes,’ a full-length, “no computers” EP, and a spot on the Ultimate FIFA Soundtrack to boot [thanks to 2013’s Magic].
Just five years prior, Nathan Misfud would’ve never imagined it.
“We aren't trained musicians, you know? We didn’t know how to read or write music or anything like that. It was just us experimenting.”
A musical journey that saw a transition away from bedroom-ridden, “shooting the sh*t” novices, Olympic Ayres quickly found themselves thrust into an upper echelon of nostalgia-inducing sonics with giants such as Empire of the Sun, MGMT, and Foals.
The kicker? The inspiration for their name came from the latter’s debut album.
Trying to carve their own niche in the indie music scene, the group centered the inspiration of their music around live performances, as they began playing gigs regularly following the release of their second ‘episode’ in 2012. “Playing live really shaped our sound in terms of what direction we're heading into,” Misfud said.
I had the opportunity to speak with Nathan, discussing everything from disco breaks, to Daft Punk, Tim Cahill, the “old, sh*tty” Purple Sneakers nightclub, tacos, and most importantly—ask him when we’re getting more new music…
Ethan: I want to take it back to before the duo began. How’d you get your start in music?
Nathan Misfud: It was through meeting Kam. I never really thought about making music until I met him, and we thought about making it. 2006 was when we first met, and we probably didn’t start talking about music until like ‘09, ‘10. I never really wrote anything before that.
We just went from there—really had no idea what we were doing. I got my first laptop, which helped, getting GarageBand and writing demos on that. And yeah, we went from there. Technology's really played a big part in us being able to make music. Without it, [it] would have been quite difficult, because we’re not trained musicians. We never went to music lessons or anything like that. So yeah, that's where it all started.
As you said, you initially didn't have a lot of experience in the music realm. How did you guys go about forming the sound of music that you wanted to create? Was there a specific genre or sound that you were looking to tap into?
Not really, that was a struggle at the start. There was no specific genre that we we're looking to tap into, and that made it challenging for us to find our sound and our direction. We'd like so many different types of music, [so] we just really didn't know where we were going to fit in. When you listen to our early stuff, it's quite all over the place in terms of the sound and how it developed into our latest stuff.
I guess that's what makes it hard when you're into so many different styles of music. When you're trying to find your own, what do you do? But for us, it was just about using the instruments that we had around us. Really just experimenting and trying to find our voice through writing lots of different types of music.
While you were dancing around all those genres, were there any big influences early on in the sound creation process that steered you one way or another?
As we got towards Episode III and Leisureplex, we were big into new disco stuff. The DFA sound, LCD Soundsystem, Holy Ghost and things like that. On the Australian front, Flight Facilities were coming up, and another act called Panama. A bunch of that new disco sound, Aeroplane as well. That was hugely influential, when we got to our Leisureplex EP.
We wanted to do everything live and in the studio—live drumming, bass, guitar, and make it really danceable. I guess that was our biggest influence. We just were very, I guess, unsure of where we were going to fit in, really took from everywhere early on.
You started releasing music in 2011, but you two first had the idea all the way back in 2006. What was the process like leading up to that first song (Black & Blue) you guys put on streaming platforms?
The process for us was writing as many demos as we could. Thinking back to that era, I remember going over to Kam’s house with a very minimal setup, spending hours trying to write something and coming up with nothing.
But that whole process really, really helped us get to those three songs [Black & Blue, Daylight, and Casa Del]. Those were really the first three songs that we wrote, that were complete. Before that, it was 30 second demos of just noise. We put [those songs] out because they were the only three songs that we had.
It was just us in our bedrooms writing music on a laptop. We mixed it ourselves. We had no idea what we're doing. We sent it off for mastering and then we literally just put it out. Then from there, somehow it got played on the radio, on Triple J, which is quite a big deal for a lot of Australian musicians. We put it up on Unearthed. Then we got picked up by a publisher. We just kept releasing music every year for the next five years.
How’d you guys land on the name Olympic Ayres?
We got pretty lucky with the name, there weren't any others that we were tossing around, we came about it pretty quick. There was a song called Olympic Airways by Foals.
Nice. Another FIFA soundtrack artist!
Yeah! Another FIFA artist. I think it was off the first album (it indeed was, their 2008 debut Antidotes), I was a big Foals fan at the time and I pitched it to Kam, “What about Olympic Airways as the name?” He was like oh, let's just change it to Ayres, like Roy Ayres, instead of airways. That was it, it was really simple.
Small world. Crazy that you got the idea from another artist known for a FIFA hit.
[laughs] We’re all linked.
As you grew bigger as an artist, was there a part of you that missed the grassroots-ish environment of the beginning, shooting the sh*t with Kam, making those 30-second demos in your bedrooms?
I really liked getting into the studio and working with producers, so for me, no. After we released Episode I, we got to work with Dann Hume on Episode II and fly down to Melbourne and work in his studio. Then, Episode III, we got to work with John Paul Fung, another Australian producer and work in another studio here in Sydney.
My preference is working with producers, because I think they really helped shape our sound and brought out the best in us. I remember taking our demo [of Magic] to the studio with JP, and we thought it was good. Then, it came out totally different because of JP’s influence and him really pushing us to make it better.
So yeah, I don't miss it. I prefer to work with producers and collaborate with others.
I'm sure the financial stability felt a little bit better too, you know?
Getting to actually go to these professional environments and not just worry about making ends meet in your bedroom.
We're an independent band, self managed. Trying to juggle that financially—it was tough. But it was definitely worth the investment. I wouldn't change anything looking back at it.
As you started releasing music, you opted for an interesting kind of release pattern.
Instead of going for a full length LP off the bat, or even an EP, we saw three, three-song ‘episodes,’ released from 2011 to 2013.
Was it always the idea to follow up Episode I with II and III?
Having those initial three songs, it was really just a case of, “Okay, this is all we have for now, we want to put something out, three seems like a pretty good number.” It's not quite a single, it's not quite an EP, it kind of falls in the middle. Then, when that idea came up for an episode, it was like, “Well, let's have multiple episodes.”
The idea of three episodes, three songs each, came into our heads. It's kind of like the Star Wars thing. It also meant that we set a goal for ourselves to consistently release music each year.
We knew by releasing it in episode numbers that if somebody did hear of Episode III, they would know that there's earlier episodes as well, and they can go back and listen to them. That was a bit of a tactical idea for us to release episodes as well. But, it kind of just happened naturally. It wasn’t a big, grand idea at the start. It was just, “Oh, what if like, okay, episodes?” It just went from there.
You mentioned getting to meet the Dann Hume’s of the world, getting into more studios, working with more producers.
How different was the creative process for each episode as time went along?
How the songs originate, that was always the same, where we wrote them at home and demoed them at home. Nothing really changed in terms of the songwriting. But then, the biggest thing that would change was taking our demos and presenting them to somebody else to work on with us.
So I guess, opening ourselves up to other people's creative ideas and allowing people to have an opinion on our music before we release it, that really changed from Episode I into Episode II and III. In terms of the creative process, it was really our say, our call, on any creative decisions within the music.
I’m interested to know if there were certain sounds that you wanted to explore—looking at the creation of Episode II and III.
Did you always have a specific pathway for your style over the years, or did that come up naturally along the way?
Playing live really shaped our sound in terms of what direction we're heading into. Like I mentioned before, it was dance, new disco, kind of funk. You really want to see people move when you're in the live scene.
When we first started, we never played live. I think we didn't start until Episode II, actually. That really shaped our sound and the direction that we were heading, we wanted to make something that had more of a dance feel.
Like I was saying before, that new disco scene was really big at the time. Lots of great remixes coming out. It was that really, shaping out our sound coming into the Leisureplex EP.
One thing I like a lot about modern day funk and disco music is that a lot of people have been trying to bring that live instrumentation back.
Even if you look at smash-hit records, Silk Sonic with Anderson Paak and Bruno Mars, all the performances, the Vegas residency, it was all live bands. No phones, they wanted to take it back to the 70s.
Nowadays, a lot of producers and artists just rely on the sounds they can get from those programs where they mix and master.
The actual thing about the Leisureplex EP was that we said that [there would be] no computers involved. We wanted to really put ourselves in a box. Creatively, that helped us finish it because if you work within a laptop, there's an endless amount of possibilities and sounds and things you can tap into.
So for us, it was no computers, we're doing 100 percent in the studio, 100 percent live. We're gonna get a session drummer in, a bit of piano, guitar, bass, percussion. That's it. So yeah, it's interesting you say that, because that was our whole ethos for making Leisureplex.
I like that. When you listen to it at home in your headphones or on your speakers, it’ll sound the exact same live.
It bugs me when I go to a concert and an artist sounds so great, but when I come back home and listen to the music, it just doesn’t compare to hearing them live.
One of the challenges with technology is that a lot of producers that are making things in the bedroom find it hard to translate to a live setting without just hitting play. The Leisureplex EP wasn't [based on the] idea of sounding better in a live setting.
It was more the fact that we need to push ourselves, we need to set limits to ourselves, just so we can get this finished. Also, we released it in 2014. To put six songs out after we just put the last episode out, it was quite a big, quite a big task. Putting that limitation helped us get it finished.
Another thing that I'm sure played into the pressure of releasing that EP was the success of Magic in 2013. Let's talk about Magic.
It’s your most successful track to date, with almost 18 million streams on Spotify, forever etched into the FIFA soundtrack Hall of Fame, making an appearance on EA’s Ultimate FIFA Soundtrack.
Yeah, yeah, on Spotify. I think I saw that.
Before we talked about the FIFA aspect—I know you said that when you brought that demo to the studio you thought it was good, but did you think it'd be great?
At what point did you know it was gonna be as big as it was?
It's hard to say. When JP finished mixing it, and it was mastered, just hearing the final version of it — I was blown away.
It was just so much better than our demo that we made at home. It sounded very professional and quite catchy, the drums were bangin’, the bass was great, and the vocals hit.
I just remember thinking, “Wow, this sounds like our first real, professional pop hit”, — and this was before we even released it. I'm just so grateful that we got to work with JP on that one, because he really helped us take it to the next level.
Who was behind—I don’t know the exact musical term for it—but instead of a proper bridge on that song, there’s a really nice drum solo leading into the final chorus. Whose idea was that? I love it.
That really just comes from our inexperience as musicians.
I guess for us writing it, it was just like, “let's just put a drum break down,” because we were struggling to write the bridge. It was just more of a fact that we aren't trained musicians, you know? We didn't know how to read or write music or anything like that.
It was just us experimenting. It is a bit left of center, but it works within the song. Even when we used to play it live, it was a fun little breakdown, instrumental kind of section.
It’s that part of the song—going back to talking about dance, funk, and disco influences—where everyone can ‘break it down,’ you know? (no pun intended)
With the drum breakdown, that's just the time for everyone to just dance, enjoy the song. I feel like the absence of a bridge in that tune just lets the ear wormy hook stay in your mind, whenever you think about that song.
That's what makes it so great in my mind. It's a simple tune, but it's great, and it's instrumentally complex, in terms of those drums.
It’s a bit of a homage to the disco break that eventually formed rap music and hip hop. Those breaks were just a really fun little section of the song where you could just have a little dance, have a little breakdown, and then hit the go back into the chorus. Yeah, I guess even though I don't think that was in the back of our heads, looking back on it now, essentially that was like a disco break, where it’s just drums.
Touching on FIFA, I mentioned it before in terms of the notoriety of the soundtracks.
Back in the 2010s, it was a pretty popular platform for independent artists to reach new audiences. You had alternative artists such as MGMT, Portugal The Man, Foster The People, even going back to some rock legends Blur on FIFA ‘97.
I don't know if you're a big football guy, but how did it feel to have that song get on the FIFA soundtrack? What was that like?
It was pretty unbelievable. Like I was saying before, we are an independent band—we don't have a label, we don't have management, all we have is a publisher. Publishers work to get you syncs, to get you on TV, video games, etc.
It was very surprising. We'd worked with EA (Electronic Arts) before, on a game called Real Racing, where they just literally sent us a message on Facebook. You know, like, “we've got this game coming out.” At the time, we just signed with our publishers and were like, “okay, great.” You can speak to our publishers to negotiate. From there, they were able to then pitch Magic for FIFA, through that relationship with EA.
It wasn't completely out of the blue. They'd been talking with EA, but when we got that email, it was just crazy. Especially for Kam, because he's a FIFA fanatic. He played it religiously. Even when we were making Magic, he was playing it in the studio, he brought his Playstation and set it up. He was playing FIFA in the reception area, [laughs] so maybe that helped. Maybe that was sending some vibes through the air, because he was playing during the studio sessions.
Being one of the only Australian bands, along with Empire of the Sun. It was us and Empire…
They had “Alive” on there, that same year y’all were on, right?
Yeah, the same soundtrack, so that was crazy. Because they're huge, and we're just this little independent band from Sydney. So it was crazy.
I think back to those golden years, the favorite titles of FIFA that I played. Back then, when I was 12 or 13 years old, the soundtrack was so good.
I'm always gonna think back to those songs (i.e. Dreaming by Smallpools) and associate them with the good memories of the game, which makes them just that much sweeter, you know?
Have you thought about the impact your music can have upon listeners’ memories and nostalgia?
For us that standard never came up. It's not even something that we think about, because you're just so in the moment, trying to make the best songs that you can.
But now, given the time between releasing songs, we're at a point where we can look back and just see what kind of influence we have had on people. For me, reading through the YouTube comments on Magic, that's probably where that whole realization of nostalgia and impact really comes into play.
It's crazy to just see that song has had an impact on people, people saying that it reminds them of a time and a place where they felt happy and free. It's really special. It's really amazing to hear because I think we all have songs that take us back to a place.
For me, there's this Daft Punk song called Something About Us, that really takes me back to ‘07-‘08. I just started DJing and really getting into music and it was just after I left high school. Every time that song comes on, it's one of my favorites that reminds me of [that] time and place.
So to hear people say that Magic is that song for them? It's crazy. I can't believe it. I'm just so glad that we made it.
Like you said, the YouTube comment section! I was on the Magic page the other day, and there's still dozens of people commenting, “Oh, I miss this song,” or “FIFA soundtracks haven't been great since this,” stuff like that.
In terms of nostalgia, I've never seen such an adamant, niche fandom behind something like the FIFA community is behind the classic FIFA songs.
Have you seen that on other FIFA songs? I haven't had a look, but the Smallpools song—are there people writing those comments on their YouTube as well?
You take pretty much any song from the “Ultimate FIFA Soundtrack,” especially the most beloved ones—the 2010s indie pop, more pop-centric records with replay value. It’s just incredible.
Yeah, we're stoked that people are still writing comments on that YouTube video.
I always thought that if EA wanted to make a killing, maybe even during a World Cup, they would just throw together a stacked music festival lineup of the best “FIFA artists” and bands of all time.
Let's say you had the chance to be on a stage for the ultimate FIFA festival, which artists would you want to share the stage with?
Empire of the Sun. LCD Soundsystem. Foals. I’d say those are my top three.
Moving on, another avenue of media Magic was on—and I did not know this until the other day—was the pilot episode of “13 Reasons Why.”
When making them back in the day, did you ever think about your songs being on such widely viewed platforms?
More than anything for us, we wanted to see music on films and TVs more than ads, even if ads are better money. Being able to watch our art within other art—that's just amazing. Just to hear music being used to enhance a scene, anything like that, it's a dream.
We never thought when making music, “Oh, hopefully this ends up in a film or [on] TV,” but it's definitely super rewarding when people choose our music because they think that it can enhance a scene. It's kind of like FIFA where it opens you up to new audiences and people Shazam your song. We never made music that we thought was gonna get into an ad.
I don’t think anyone tries to do that.
[laughs] Yeah, “Let’s make music for ads!”
Except for maybe Ed Sheeran.
[laughs] Maybe. It’s just a bonus if it happens. That’s just how we rolled.
(^case in point, Sheeran fans)
You get to put any song from your catalog to put into any film ever made.
Off the top of your head, pick a song, pick a film, give me a reason behind it. What do you think would work?
Good question, “We Can’t Get Away.” It’s five or six minutes, quite a long song. It's dark, kind of groovy. It's a bit depressing, but it's also dance. It's kind of funky too—I like the baseline in it. I would love to see that in a film where somebody's getting chased. Maybe one of those Bourne films called, oh…
There’s Bourne Legacy, Bourne Ultimatum, like 20,000 of them [laughs].
[laughs] One of those films, something like that. A chase scene, I’d love to see that.
Let’s look past Leisureplex, or as we say in America, “Lee-sure-plex.”
“Lee-sure?!” Wow.
Well, at least we both call it ‘soccer.’
[laughs] We’re trying to make the switch here, though.
On the topic of Australian football—Tim Cahill or Harry Kewell?
Oh, that's a tough one. I guess they both are iconic players, but I'll probably go Cahill.
Nothing's gonna top that volley he scored in 2014.
Exactly, and he's just a legend, so down to earth. He's a great, great guy.
Coming back to Olympic Ayres. You talked about Episodes I through III. The Leisureplex EP. A few other singles here and there.
What starting point makes the most sense for a new listener?
The starting point, wow.
Maybe the answer is to just press shuffle?
I would love people to jump into Leisureplex. That's a project that I'm really proud of. It's probably my favorite project that we put out.
Following Leisureplex, you guys had a few remixes of Magic drop in 2015, but didn’t release music again for another, when you dropped the single Waiting.
In 2020, you released another single called Planet Us with some pretty cool merch alongside it.
How did it feel to come back after such a lengthy hiatus?
It was pretty nerve wracking. It had been a few years and we really weren't sure if anybody's gonna care, if anybody's gonna pay attention.
At the end of the day, we make music because we feel like making music—it's for us, whether or not anybody really cares or how many streams we get. It's so nice for people to like your music, but at the end of the day, you have to make it because you love it. You love making music, you're really proud of what you're making and it makes you feel good. We make music for us, and if people like it, then that's awesome.
I don't know how much you can speak to Kam, but he released a good bit of solo music amidst that hiatus. An EP, a few singles.
What was it like with him coming back, having done those solo ventures? Did you feel like he brought more to the table?
With Kam, he kept going. For me, I had a break from music and didn't make anything literally that whole time. Coming back into it, Kam was well-oiled. He was, you know, seasoned. Seasoned well.
For me, it was kind of just figuring it out again. He definitely brought a lot of good ideas to the table, and schooled me on things like Splice as well, which had come out and I'd never even heard of. Splice is a sound library, essentially, of all these sounds you can access and things like that. So yeah, that was awesome.
He did push me as well, to get back into making music again.
I’ll leave it on this closing note. Given your absence from the music scene since the 2020 release of Planet Us, I’m sure I’m not the only one wondering if there’s still new stuff coming.
Will there be an Episode IV? Is it time we shut the book on the final ‘episode’ (pun intended) of Olympic Ayres, or are you leaving it open?
I'd say we're leaving it open. We live in different countries now —, obviously, that makes it a lot more difficult. But, I never understood bands that have come out and just said, “We're breaking up, and we're stopping making music.” I think it's better just to not do anything and not say anything.
We could be 50 years old and decide to put out another Olympic Ayres track. There's nothing stopping us. Even if nobody cares about it, it doesn't matter. It's really a project for us, to push our creativity, and to do something creative because it's really fulfilling for us. So, look, never say never. We don't have anything in the timeline at the moment. But just keep your ears to the ground. You never know when another Olympic Ayres track is gonna pop up.
Bonus question. In the music video for Magic, you end up at a restaurant and you're eating some very delicious looking tacos.
Tell me about those tacos.
I remember it very clearly. It's this pub in Sydney called the Abercrombie. It was just one of our favorite go-to spots, near this nightclub called Purple Sneakers there. It was this old, sh*tty pub with a courtyard.
Why we went there—it was just iconic for us. The whole idea of that video was starting from out west where we grew up, and then getting into the city. Abercrombie just recently reopened. It was closed down for three years and opened up in December.
Right in time for Magic appearing on the Ultimate FIFA Soundtrack.
[laughs] Just in time. Long live the Abercrombie!
(You can view Abercrombie’s menu here. Sadly, no tacos on it at the moment).
Listen to the full Olympic Ayres interview on Spotify or Apple Podcasts ⬇️
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Copy editing provided by Nimra Ahmad, @nimra_ahmad22.
©EHendo Media, 2023