Composer, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and visionary Ollie Olsen has been at the forefront of Australian electronic and experimental music innovation since the 1970s. As a teenager growing up in Blackburn, Melbourne, Olsen studied under avant-garde composer Felix Werder learning the principles of electronic music and sound synthesis.
Throughout his career he has performed and recorded with many influential groups including Young Charlatans and early electronic outfit Whirlywirld where he combined synthesisers with rock-inspired guitars and drums. Olsen was at the forefront of the Melbourne ‘Little Bands’ scene which embraced artists from many different disciplines and continued this approach with subsequent endeavours including Orchestra of Skin and Bone, industrial techno band, NO, and collaborations with local and international artists such as Nick Cave, Paul Grabowsky, and U2.
In the 1980s, Olsen began composing for film and television, and was the music director for Richard Lowenstein’s film Dogs in Space (1986) starring the late Michael Hutchence. Olsen and Hutchence subsequently formed the duo Max Q and released their critically acclaimed self-titled album in 1989. From the success of Max Q, Olsen established the band Third Eye and co-founded the independent electronic music label Psy-Harmonics in 1993.
In this interview, Olsen discusses songwriting with Rowland S. Howard while performing with Young Charlatans in the 1970s Melbourne punk scene, paving the way for new music through building instruments with Orchestra of Skin and Bone, and collaborating with Michael Hutchence in Max Q and on the Dogs in Space hit song, ‘Rooms for the Memory’.
As part of our commitment to capturing and sharing great Australian music stories, the Australian Music Vault asked some of the country’s most influential trailblazers and unsung heroes to open up about their lives in music.
Interviewer: Jane Gazzo
Location: The Channel, Arts Centre Melbourne, 2022