Trea Hindley.

Art is one of those tricky terms, but I can't remember not creating things. My earliest memories involve drawing, making & playing around with words, song, sculpture, and sound. I think every kid is sort of inherently born with that playfulness. Holding onto our childlike wonder and freedom as we grow up is probably the greater challenge, in a way. It's a valuable and lifelong pursuit, keeping that part of us alive, I think. Musically-speaking, I carried a guitar everywhere religiously since I was six, picked up trombone through school in Year 7, and sought out my first trombone teachers when I was 17, thinking that I'd like to learn more seriously about that at uni. What measures up to the precarious title of art - and perceptions around our own success or not at achieving that - is constantly self-questioned and changing even outside of pandemic years, but that's the journey we sign up for as artists. Ultimately I'm always trying to come back to that fundamental sense of wonder, imagination, connection and creation. That's a wholesome, happy place.

I love the variety of FC projects, from the ritualistic 'Skin Deep' graphic notation project (2018), with Nikki's walls of jagged, colourful scores being torn down as we played them, to our director Evan's own ballet-opera 'Orpheus' (2019), where I was doubling between modern effect and evoking the ancient sounds of the sackbut (the trombone's historic predecessor). I'm particularly fond of our contributions to singer/songwriter collabs such as past projects with Adi ('fluttering hearts // thinking machines' (2018), where audience and artists shed tears every performance; Max Lawrence's gorgeously catchy and holistic 'Chlorophyll' (2020); and blissing out amongst the hypnotic sounds of 'Diimpa x Forest Collective' (2021), performed on the lawns of Heide Museum of Modern Art and combining beautifully with local native birdsong.

My VCA nickname, Tofu, has been my joke facebook name for so long that even some close friends have admitted they thought for a few years that it was my actual name. I'll take either, but my name is 100% Trea, however you want to pronounce it. Tofu has popped up on a concert program or two throughout the years... that caused a bit of a giggle.

If Mother Nature can be considered an artist, I find her work captivating. I'm lucky to live amongst protected native bushland on Woi-worrung country. Sitting on the deck here, immersed in the sight, sound, feel, aroma... it's an all-encompassing oasis for mind and soul. After lockdowns, I feel more connected to country than ever. The subtle and dramatic changes, and all that is evoked through personal observation and connection... to me, that's art, and it inspires much of my practice.

At a soiree party at Caetano's apartment in Ipanema, Brazil, I accidentally drifted asleep on his couch (it was about 5am at that point). The room was full of Brazilians who seemed surprised to be asked what their name was, and everyone sang all the words and melodies to decades worth of Brazilian music, all the way til sunrise. I think I'd only drifted off for a minute, but woke to him singing this softly next to me. It was the only time that night that the rest of the room fell silent to listen to the host... waking up to that felt quite angelic! Slowly others joined in and the party rambled on. This song has a tender place in my heart, and I often catch myself singing it.

Cucurrucucu: 'Dove, don't cry'