This post was updated Dec. 3 at 8:20 p.m.
A UCLA alumnus is inviting listeners to explore their own emotional terrain, blending melancholic poetry with a warm, intimate timbre.
Liam McGrath, who graduated with a degree in music history and industry from the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music in 2023, is an alternative folk singer and songwriter from San Diego. He released his first singles in 2023 and his most recent song, “Abel,” in February of this year. His latest song, McGrath said, started as an instrumental project and adapted a standalone written piece centered around the biblical story of Cain and Abel.
“They’re (Cain and Abel) both tragic figures, and that gets lost in a lot of narratives,” McGrath said. “There’s depth to every character, and there’s two sides of every character.”
McGrath’s love for music emerged upon joining the school band around the third grade, when he discovered music could be studied rather than just consumed, he said. Years later, as a senior in high school, McGrath said he learned to play the guitar, which would eventually become the driving instrument behind his music.
The same year, McGrath said he found himself in a friend group of guitarists who inspired his affinity for folk punk and punk music. This friend group acted as a launchpad for his performing career, joining him onstage at local spots around Los Angeles and San Diego, he said.
Though acoustic guitar remains the beating heart of his music, McGrath’s musical repertoire has a multi-instrumental experimentation and an appreciation for artists across a plethora of genres. McGrath said other than his formal lessons in guitar and the saxophone, he is self-taught, dabbling in the electric bass, electric guitar, piano, keyboard, ukulele, dulcimer and the tongue drum, attributing such knowledge to “YouTube rabbit-holes” and online tutorials.
[Related: UCLA students sync sound, community in alternative band ‘afterthought’]
As a musician, McGrath said some of his biggest influences include Paul Baribeau, Nick Drake and Elliott Smith. The singer also publishes online covers based on what he is listening to in the moment, he said, including artists such as Tim Buckley, The Beatles and Don McLean. He has performed both covers and original pieces live but is currently focusing on his own projects, especially since his recent relocation to San Diego, he said.
McGrath returned to San Diego primarily for a job opportunity in audio and event sound but has plans to record at a friend’s studio in the area for his next project – a demo-style collection inspired by Nick Drake’s “Pink Moon,” he said. McGrath said he has a habit of holding on to projects and consequently has about a dozen finished works in reserve that are waiting to be compiled for a future release.
After graduation, McGrath said he encountered the roadblock of creative burnout, feeling unsure of his ultimate goals. However, he said a turning point came last September, when he was invited by Tiffany Naiman, an assistant teaching professor and director of music industry programs at the School of Music, to perform the Big Bear Film Festival’s “Frame & Frequency.”
“It was really sweet because I honestly have taken a backseat with my own personal music stuff,” McGrath said. “It was a little push to get working again on these writings that I’m just sitting on.”
McGrath’s friend and collaborator, hip-hop musician Isaiah Bradshaw, said he and McGrath have blended their expertise in different genres and techniques to create a fresh fusion of sounds. Bradshaw said hip-hop often lacks the live instrumentation he enjoys, so part of the vision for their collaboration was to create a hip-hop performance accompanied by a live band.
[Related: The 529s want to “Do The Right Thing” with first album release]
Shoshi Brustin, a UCLA alumnus and artistic collaborator of McGrath’s, said they met the musician at a party. Although he and McGrath work in different mediums, the self-taught musician and costume designer said he loves to explore different forms of creativity and connects with McGrath through the vulnerability of the artistic process.
“I love the depth of emotion that he conveys,” Brustin said. “I think that he really cares about creating soundscapes that you can really lose yourself in, and I really love that he wants the listener to feel something.”
Brustin said McGrath shares demos with him, and the pair bounces ideas, along with music recommendations, back and forth. They said as an artist, they find inspiration in leaning into the specific feeling McGrath’s music elicits, as it invites listeners to let themselves feel and to pay attention to the beautiful lyricism.
McGrath said his upcoming project will be a collection of stripped-back demos with instrumentals and vocals recorded simultaneously. He said he hopes the music doesn’t dictate emotion but rather opens a door, allowing each listener to enter their own version of the experience.
“Once you make something and put it out, it’s no longer yours,” McGrath said. “If it makes someone happy, if it makes someone nostalgic … if it makes you feel any sort of way, I feel like that’s a win for me.”
Comments are closed.