A product of the not-so-underground, genre-bending melting pot that is Naarm (Melbourne, Australia). producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Don Glori (AKA Gordon Li) prepares to unleash his forthcoming album ‘Don’t Forget To Have Fun’ via DeepMatter Records.
Following the release of his much-heralded 2022 LP ‘Welcome’, a subsequent sweep of the Australian festival circuit and an EU / UK tour, Don found himself straight back in the studio but coming up short this time around. He explains: “Don’t Forget To Have Fun was initially recorded in mid-2022 after several months touring my first album Welcome and at a semi-tumultuous time in my life. Add in a tough 3 days in the studio – broken equipment, illness, burnout from the touring, 40-degree Australian summer heat, a bike accident, and I was left finding it quite hard to enjoy the music. All these things combined made me decide to put the DFTHF session recordings on ice indefinitely.”
Following his relocation to London, UK in 2023, Don managed to tap into a potent creative current, by taking himself to a place of discomfort, and taking his creative back to basics – allowing additional room for experimentation. He says “I revisited the album after moving to London in May 2023, I was living in a tiny room with barely any equipment and my only income was from the slight bit of touring I was doing which was all going towards rent and groceries. It was a good opportunity to redefine the songs from the DFTHF sessions and inject some new life into them. I had just finished touring Europe, moved to a new city, didn’t know anyone, and had all the free time in the world to experiment with wacky, zany ideas. In the end, I re-recorded a lot of the parts on the record in the kitchen of my Whitechapel flat while my housemates were at work.
Following the release of his much-heralded 2022 LP ‘Welcome’, a subsequent sweep of the Australian festival circuit and an EU / UK tour, Don found himself straight back in the studio but coming up short this time around. He explains: “Don’t Forget To Have Fun was initially recorded in mid-2022 after several months touring my first album Welcome and at a semi-tumultuous time in my life. Add in a tough 3 days in the studio – broken equipment, illness, burnout from the touring, 40-degree Australian summer heat, a bike accident, and I was left finding it quite hard to enjoy the music. All these things combined made me decide to put the DFTHF session recordings on ice indefinitely.”
Following his relocation to London, UK in 2023, Don managed to tap into a potent creative current, by taking himself to a place of discomfort, and taking his creative back to basics – allowing additional room for experimentation. He says “I revisited the album after moving to London in May 2023, I was living in a tiny room with barely any equipment and my only income was from the slight bit of touring I was doing which was all going towards rent and groceries. It was a good opportunity to redefine the songs from the DFTHF sessions and inject some new life into them. I had just finished touring Europe, moved to a new city, didn’t know anyone, and had all the free time in the world to experiment with wacky, zany ideas. In the end, I re-recorded a lot of the parts on the record in the kitchen of my Whitechapel flat while my housemates were at work.