A Chat with Lior Golan (26.08.26)
Forging through personal struggles, resilience and a zealous commitment to authentic expression, Tel Aviv-based Lior Golan explores mental health, drug abuse and painful loss in his music. We speak with Golan about his EP, Midnight Trains, future plans and much more.
OSR: Rather cliché, but what made you decide to pursue a music career? What drew you to music?
Golan: It was after the army. I was in great confusion and dispersed, and playing guitar and jamming was the only thing that made me feel a bit good, so I moved to Tel Aviv, joined jam sessions every night and started to form bands.
OSR: What does music mean to you?
Golan: Expressing, healing, enlightenment in the great darkness.
OSR: You recently released your EP, Midnight Trains. What can you tell us about the EP? Is there a particular backstory or theme? Also, did you face any writing or production challenges, or was it quite easy going?
Golan: It was a journey, not so easy – pulling up bands, searching for players, with no budget and no scene to support my music with an audience. I must mention Gabriel Lefelman, who was the lead singer through all the versions we had with the band, 4 versions in counting. Nothing but the true persistence of 2 artists made this EP come out.
OSR: You mention that this album explores issues like your PTSD and drug abuse. Do you find it difficult to bring all those vulnerable feelings and side of you to audiences? Are you scared of how you’ll be received?
Golan: I’m not scared. I am ashamed a bit, coz for so long I was like a car without its driver, no responsibility, and I would want to use my experience to shut out how bad and wrong and unhealthy drugs can be. The struggles and the efforts are just too hard to deal with, and changes you completely until you don’t know who you are. It’s very dangerous; drugs are deadly, it’s evil, and we must have our eyes wide open.
OSR: Which do you find more challenging: creating the melody or writing the lyrics?
Golan: Creating the melody or the main structure of a song; only then me and Gabe would come up with lyrics that resonated with the song structure. So you got a square to put words into, but bringing a structure out of everything – well, that takes a lot of listening and playing until you come out with 2-3 parts in which you can title a song.
OSR: What do you hope people take from this EP? Also, what do you take from it? Is it significant to you and how?
Golan: I wish people to enjoy it, love it as much as I do – the flow, the movement. Music is motion, and in life we get stuck so many times, so creating a movement in a cold, freezing world is quite an achievement.
OSR: If you had to introduce a listener to your music, what song would you recommend?
Golan: That’s a hard question. I think it’s up to the listener’s mood. Generally, one could start with the theme song ‘Midnight Train’, and from there, all will be good.
OSR: What else can we expect from Lior Golan?
Golan: Well, I have another project called Orshina, which will have a 2nd album soon called Requiem for NOVA, and another new psychedelic/house project will be launched soon. All planned to be released in October. After that me and Gabe will record Midnight Trains 2. We do plan on playing a concert after we record the other songs.
Many thanks to Lior Golan for speaking with us. Find out more about Lior Golan on his Facebook, Instagram, SoundCloud and Spotify.
This artist was discovered via Musosoup #sustainablecurator
