I first started learning cello at 8 years old, but I think the moment I began to really appreciate the art of playing music is when I started playing in orchestras. As a country kid, the opportunities for this were slim, so I always relished the time of year when I got to participate in the regional workshops that were run by Orchestra Victoria. It was there that I met my first cello teacher who was exclusively a cellist (my previous teachers were violinists who also taught cello), and I think that was what really got me into the true "art" of playing my instrument. 

I've only recently become a core artist of Forest Collective -  I started off interning with them through uni, just doing administrative work. I've done one project with Forest so far, which was a recording project with singer/songwriter Haydn Lawson. We recorded strings/piano for one of his songs in his upcoming album. Coming from a classical background, I really love getting the opportunity to work with contemporary artists in releasing their own music. It's something completely different from what I studied and I'm so glad that I get to do things like this more and more. It's really rewarding to be able to play a part in bringing an artist's music to life, and to see the joy it brings them. 

I spent the first 12 years of my life in this outback town in Queensland called Mount Isa. My first cello lesson was actually over the radio- I lived in town, but I did a year of homeschooling with my Mum, who worked at a distance ed school for kids who lived on cattle stations. Mount Isa has a big open-cut mine and, when I was living there, each night at about 8pm there was an explosion in the mine that you could feel the faint rumble of from your home. Once, on a family road trip, we felt a similar rumble at a random fuel station and thought nothing of it. It was only that night when we turned on the TV in our motel that we realised there had been a magnitude 3 or 4 earthquake in the area. I still chuckle thinking about how we were none the wiser at the time. 

Ever since I was a kid I've always loved escaping into worlds of science fiction and fantasy, either through books or TV/movies. Because of this, film scores hold a special place in my heart, particularly Hans Zimmer's score for Interstellar. There's something about the other-wordly sound of the pipe organ, combined with my own childhood memories of looking up at the stars, uninhibited by city lights, that really speaks to me. 

I've always had a soft spot for rock and metal music. Something about the all-encompassing wall of sound and its intensity hits a sweet spot for me. Before I got into the harder stuff, my favourite band was this alt-rock group called Muse. At about 10 years old I filmed a lip sync video to Supermassive Black Hole, complete with air-guitar. Mercifully, this video has since been lost (I hope).