By Mikayla van Loon
Healesville and Warburton will play host to the soulful sounds and perfectly paired harmonies of Lior and Domini later this month as they finish their first EP tour together.
Despite having worked together for many years, with Domini touring as the support act for Lior and often singing duets with him, musically they only began to explore a partnership in 2019.
“We realised there was a great synergy in our voices and knew we loved singing together,” Lior said.
“Leading up to my most recent solo album a few years ago, we thought, let’s try and write a song together and see if that same synergy that we feel singing translates into our songwriting process.”
Composing a song called ‘Where Will We Be’ to feature on that album, it became clear to the pair that writing and singing together flowed naturally.
“We’re aware there is something about the way we sing together that’s very intuitive and also just tonally, there’s just a bit of a magical blend. That’s not something you can earn, it’s something that’s there,” Lior said.
“We seem to understand each other very much, particularly vocally, we can anticipate each other’s breath or phrasing and I think that’s something rare.”
Having started in 2019 on the EP ‘Animal in Hiding’, when the pandemic hit Lior and Domini were forced to do things very differently, writing and recording from home.
“It was pretty difficult and I wouldn’t choose to do it again but we both felt like we really wanted to come out of that period with something that we were proud of and feel productive,” Lior said.
“We had about half of it written before we went into lockdown. So fortunately, we had enough momentum that we could then focus in on details of completing missing lines and missing melodies.”
The lockdowns did, however, present an opportunity to use and engage with musicians all around the world, with contributions from London and Berlin.
Although a complete coincidence, the title track was the first to be written and explored, following the theme of isolation and regeneration.
“We chose to focus on the theme of isolation and regeneration and taking that time, almost of hibernation to regenerate. That was even before we knew what Covid is. So it was quite a bizarre coincidence that that was the first song that we chose to write about.”
The rest of the EP looks at various themes but Lior said they all come from the life experiences both he and Domini were going through at the time.
“The songs just started with us talking about what’s going on in our lives or things that happened to us or people we know. Until we found some common ground of interest in them, then we set about writing them together.”
Touring every corner of Australia for the last 12 months, Lior said the regional locations are some of his favourite venues to play.
“So often you get to areas where not many artists stop and so audiences are so grateful that you took the time to make a stop somewhere that doesn’t see much traffic.
“It’s also a beautiful thing, when you find out that you have an audience in a remote part of Australia that has really connected with your music and has wanted to see you live for a long time, but just haven’t been able to.”
Playing at The Arts Centre Warburton on Friday 28 April and The Memo Healesville on Saturday 29 April, the local region has an opportunity to experience the intimacy of Lior and Domini.
“What we strive to do with these shows is make people feel like they’re in our lounge room or their lounge room for the night,” Lior said.
“We can create that intimate world with the two of us and and go off script and every show is slightly different and we get a chance to tell stories about the songs.”
