Actor/Musician Nicholas Hamilton Speaks From Hotel Quarantine

Over the course of the last two years actor/musician Nicholas Hamilton has uprooted his life twice in order to move to the opposite side of the world and chase his dreams. Nic’s first big move came in 2019 when he relocated from a small town just outside Byron Bay to Los Angeles to pursue acting. However, when the world shutdown acting dried up and Nic again chose to pack his life into two bags and return to Australia to chase his other dream of becoming a professional musician.

Since Nic was in the midst of completing his mandatory hotel quarantine period when he spoke with City Hub we asked how he had been whittling away the time. To our surprise he was rather upbeat about the experience.

“I released a song, so that was pretty handy. In Line came out on Friday after I arrived in Australia on Monday, so that has taken up a lot of my time with press, live streams and performances,” Nic explained.

This latest single, although only just released upon return to Australia was actually written before embarking on his journey to LA revealed Hamilton. 

“This is one of the oldest songs on the upcoming EP. I wrote it just before I moved out to the States with my guitarist and collaborating Ben Kuhl. We wrote it about my hesitance and trepidation about moving out the States and whether it was the correct decision.”

Bearing that in mind we asked if it seemed particularly fitting that the track is now releasing as Nic once again had to come to terms with another big life decision. “Being able to now come back here to release and tour music felt really natural,” answered Nic. “Once I moved over the States I started chasing music more fully, but it didn’t feel like I was doing that the right way so I’m really excited to be back, and especially to move back to Byron to be a Byron musician.”

With the way the world has dramatically changed over the last 12-18 months now is such a great time for Nic to be returning home. Not only can he now pursue music in a setting he feels more attuned with but there are also ample opportunities for him to continue to pursue his acting dreams. Particularly since Hollywood have increased their footprint in Australia with studios and productions setting up shop for the foreseeable future.

“Stuff has been filmed in Australian for ages, that is not new but the amount of stuff filming here now is huge,” said Nic excitedly. “Netflix just opened up a tiny subset of their studio in my hometown, which is insane. I moved out of there two years ago to go to LA to achieve my dreams and now Netflix has opened a studio down the road from where I grew up. I’m excited to be back here not only for music but also the opportunities that the film industry is creating in Australia.”

During our conversation Nic also spoke about how different things are between his first audition and auditions today, “My first audition at school  involved one person auditioning 10 people at a time. Now it’s the exact opposite when I go into chemistry reads.”

In closing Nic had to thank someone who altered his life forever, “I’m incredibly grateful to Paula, my Drama Teacher, for setting up that first school play. She was the one that sparked the love which made my life what it is today. I don’t think I would have done any of this had it not been for that play.”

Keep up with Nic at: www.nicholaswhamilton.com