One of Australia's hidden creative treasures, Nicholas Brown is an actor, screenwriter, playwright, singer-songwriter and 'Play School' presenter.
Nicholas played Chubba/The Father in the recent season two of Tim Minchin's 'Upright', and is currently starring in ABC's musical drama 'In Our Blood' (inspired by Australia's response to AIDS in the 1980s) as well as staging his play 'Sex Magick' as part of Sydney WorldPride 2023.Brown's other recent acting credits include 'Christmas On The Farm', 'A Perfect Pairing' and 'After The Verdict'.
Now Brown has switched gears to focus on his music, with his debut single the glistening, playful electro-pop of 'Up And Coming'.
Inspired by his love of '80s pop music, the intro to 'Up And Coming' could be lifted from WHAM's back catalogue, as it offers a smooth, stylised ride through sophisticated bubblegum '80s pop tones and vocals that reach inside your soul.
Other nods to the '80s include Bananarama, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, and Kylie Minogue. "I originally wrote this song with my music partner Justin Gagnon whom I was in a funk band with when I was living in Los Angeles.
"It was part of our funk set list with our band Knuckle Funk which later turned into Luck Now. I've always been very fond of the melody and the lyrics, so I collaborated with a DJ/ producer in Greece called Sakgra who does a lot of queer pop remixes on YouTube.
"He's unofficially remixed many artists from Kylie Minogue to Kate Bush. I was stoked that he agreed to work on my song as I love so many of his pop remixes.
"When I wrote this song, I was tired of being considered up and coming and was hoping for a win. I'm hoping the lyrics resonate with listeners who keep striving no matter what.
"It's a cheeky, fun song that celebrates the climb – rather than our goals be a struggle, why not dance through them."
Ahead of the song's release tomorrow (23 March), scenestr is thrilled to premiere the 'Up And Coming' music video today. Enjoy.
'Up And Coming' comes vividly to life through its animated video clip directed by Zachary Lurje, with Juan Ledezma also joining to create the AI graphics. The clip also features a hilarious moment when an animated bird poops on Nicholas' avatar... priceless lols.
"The plan was to make a psychedelic '80s Bollywood disco clip. I wanted to experiment with animation and AI with the music video.
"I just wrote and co-directed a play at Griffin Theatre in Sydney called 'Sex Magick', which was part of Sydney World Pride and we had an AI component to our visuals.
"Working closely with the video designer for my play, I realised that I wanted to create a music video for 'Up And Coming' that took its viewers to a psychedelic '80s Bombay disco.
"The hero of the clip is an avatar of myself – we used 3D animation to create this Bombay Romeo. I wanted the setting to be in a world similar to that of Alejandro Jodorowsky's film 'Holy Mountain'.
"You can definitely tell that a lot of the imagery is inspired by that film. We delve into the hero's mind – into his head, mouth and ear – to see what's going on in his inner world.
"It's all pretty colourful and queer. The end of the music video is a tribute to 'Flash Dance'. Told you it was '80s!"
