Leap into the Unknown

From busking outside Grace Bros department store to composing music for a Sydney Dance Company production, Nick Wales says music has always been like a shadow that followed him around.

“It was the only thing I was ever really good at,” he says.

Nick emerged from a family that encouraged and respected music. He fondly remembers his grandmother playing organ at church and explains that from a young age he had played violin. Later, Nick studied music composition at the University of Sydney and since then his career has spanned almost every conceivable creative genre from fashion to film. He has worked on music for Australian Fashion Week, Bell Shakespeare, and recently as a member of Sarah Blasko’s band.

Nick says he has always enjoyed touring and, despite having both an honours degree from Sydney University and a postgraduate diploma from AFTRS under his belt, says, “The road I took with music was more practical than academic. Getting out there and playing my music, that’s been important to me.”

Especially notable amongst Nick’s burgeoning CV is his involvement in ARIA nominated CODA, a group which incorporates classical styling with contemporary rock and electronica.

“We got sick of playing all the classical stuff and started jamming,” he says. “We saw Balanescu Quartet and that was a big influence in what we thought we could do, so we started a string quartet and gradually added drums and bass and keyboards and electronics.”

CODA has now spent over a decade touring internationally to critical acclaim, and most recently released a fourth album. It has been working with CODA that informed much of Nick’s knowledge of the creative process and collaborative possibilities; he recalls working together with lighting and costume designers as well as visual and multimedia artists.

In his time off, Nick enjoys travel and this has inspired some of his eclectic musical preferences, “I enjoy Ethiopian, Armenian and Indian music.” He also likes electronic music and it is this genre that he introduces to the project he is working on at present: 2 One Another. The production is a contemporary dance piece exploring the nature of human relationships and themes of connectedness. A fusion of poetry, sound and dance, Nick describes the show as edgy and engaging, “It’s very beautiful to watch, the choreographic language is quite complex and still accessible.”

Late last year, Nick spent two weeks in the jungle of Brazil with his friend and 2 One Another choreographer Rafael Bonachela. Although meant as a holiday, Nick admits that spending time away with the show’s choreographer influenced the creative process.

“That experience really informed some of the sounds,” he says. “Brazil was an escape, like searching for where you belong, and so I tried to incorporate those feelings into the score because the piece is about human relations and ultimately where we belong in the world.”

The production is set to a score perhaps best described as a synthesis of orchestral and electronic sounds, inspired by the poetry of Sydney cross-media artist Samuel Webster. Samuel spent time in the Walsh Bay studio with the dancers, writing short poems as he watched them perform.

“In the beginning we weren’t sure whether we were going to use text in the work or whether the text was a beautiful catalyst to some ideas,” says Nick. “It was more about different creative forces coming together to try to create a kind of dramaturgy to the work.”

Working with poetry has provided a challenge to Nick who admits he is not one for words.

“I was pretty nervous about using text in a dance work because sometimes it can come across as the voice of God, or telling people how to think. My gut feeling was to approach the text in an abstract way.”

Nick sat down with Samuel and Rafael to pore over the words, record them being spoken, and pull out specifically affective phrases to use. “I’ve recorded some of the dancers saying the text and incorporated that into the piece, [using] the words more as musical and textual ideas rather than straight up poetry.”

The music for 2 One Another is a mix of found music and original pieces, with Nick spending much time “trying to balance the score out. In one piece of music, I really tried to bring sorrow into the score. That desperation or sadness between people during, say, a breakup, because I felt that the work didn’t have that.

“The score has some definitely new classical moments, but also some darker, deeper electronic moments.”

Sydney is home to a healthy community of collaborations says Nick who has enjoyed the opportunity to bring friends into the score he created, “It’s always great to collaborate with friends,” he says.

Nick says that his work is inspired by ideas of duality in relationships, “Relationships are not usually all smooth sailing, they can be a double-edged sword and I tried to bring that into the music.”

That said, Nick feels the production is open to interpretation from its audience, “I think the work itself – musically, visually and choreographically – is quite abstract, so people can take what they want from it. I hope that it can take the audience on a journey, to totally push them into another world,” because, he says, this is what relationships are like, “a series of ups and downs and a leap into the unknown.”

While most of the musical composition has taken place in his Pyrmont studio, Nick explains how he worked together with the dancers at times too, “I was creating the music while the dance was being choreographed, so they were going in tandem in a way.”

“I’d watch and see the dance that was being created to my music; it was really exciting,” the dancers will get a work out too he says, “The music builds and builds and builds, but they make it look so easy. They’re amazing.”

Nick says he can’t wait to see the production when it launches in March, “Once it’s created, when it’s put in the world, that’s the exciting part I think, when it’s let loose.” And while Nick enjoys down-time to indulge in visual art and swim at Watson’s Bay or quiet spots on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, there’s not much opportunity for rest in the coming months.

Following the 2 One Another season it’s off to the UK and Europe where he is working on several projects including a show for Brighton festival, “It’s a shopping trolley ballet, five dancers and five shopping trolleys. It’s quite camp, it’s almost like synchronise swimming on wheels. It’s very fun.”

To the future, as he contemplates the inspiration to come, he considers every possibility of abstract expression. “I’m obsessed with Australian native plants. They are so kooky.”

2 One Another runs from 9-31 March at Sydney Theatre, and features the choreography of Rafael Bonachela with a team of collaborators: Tony Assness, Benjamin Cisterne, Nick Wales and Samuel Webster.

Photography of Nick Wales is published courtesy of Samuel Webster. All Rights Reserved.