Words by Michaela Nolan
19-year-old musician, Nick Ward, has been making leaps and bounds across the stretch of new Australian music. The Sydney based songwriter and producer recently signed with Hunnydew Records, releasing his latest single, ‘I Wanna Be Myself Or Nothing At All’. Ward credits his inspiration to Lontalius, whose music is described as an atmospheric pop sound.
“Having Lontalius feature on this song is still mind-blowing to me – his music sound tracked a lot of those years in high school. He's the only feature on the whole project, and I really love what he brought to it.”
Channeling this, Ward desires to elevate the idea of ‘bedroom pop’, emphasising vulnerability in a cinematic way. Ward further describes his latest single as he highlights his own experiences and the process of its creation:
“The song is about my journey with my own identity and sexuality while attending an all-boys school. It's scared the living shit out of me since I wrote it a couple of years ago in the midst of it all. The lyrics have been floating around on my phone for a couple years, but the production and arrangement has taken many different forms. I really love blending production elements from different genres, and I see this song as a blend of boom-bap drums, baroque-style choral arrangements and folk elements. I produced, performed and mixed the whole project in my bedroom.”
From about 5-years-old, Ward had an eager interest in music, kicking off his career learning classical piano before adventuring to guitar, double bass and drums. He took the plunge into producing at just 11, experimenting with garage band on his mum’s laptop. In November 2018 Ward released his first song, ‘Crush’, and has been dropping singles ever since. With just a few years of experience, Ward has already had the chance to support artists such as BENEE, Tora and JOY, and in his final year of high school made the cut for Triple J Unearthed High finalist.
Ward describes his creative efforts in both film and music as:
“an interest in exploring masculinity and identity.”
Continuing his creativity, Ward has a keen passion for filmmaking. Exploring this interest led to Ward’s creation of his bi-monthly series, ‘Kill Your Darlings’. In 2017 Ward won the Tropfest Junior, and later his collaborative film ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ made it into the Tropfest adult competition.
Teasing us with his new single, ‘I Wanna Be Myself Or Nothing At All’, Ward confirms there’s more to come, including music videos, collaborations and even a zine. Follow Nick’s website, Spotify and YouTube channel to stay in the loop.
