100 Million Canyons

For Sydney Festival, Canyons (Ryan Grieve and Thomson) and acclaimed artist Daniel Boyd are bringing their collaborative art piece, 100 Million Nights, to the Opera House. They've previously played the piece at Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) and Tasmania's Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), but Thomson is certain that touring the work doesn't make it stale, as changing contexts keep the work dynamic. “It kind of opens up different opportunities and I think people engage in a different way to the music because it's not like standing there singing along to a song they know or something like that. That's another big part of it: that no one's heard this before because we haven't even recorded it or released it or anything. It's interesting seeing people's reactions to hearing it for the first time.” 

Plus 100 Million Nights is constantly evolving: “There's kind of little changes like little extra bits and pieces in the music… There's a freedom there to move things around or add extra musical element,” says Thompson. “If we do change something musically then we've got to go and make sure that the visuals really fit with the changes in the music.”

The collaboration stemmed from the realisation after a shared performance with Boyd at Golden Plains that their music could work well with his art. The Canyons boys were also interested in the implications of the medium to their songwriting. “I think it's nice to think in terms of what the purpose is behind the music you're writing. It's nice to have the freedom to work on something where song structure isn't necessary and it doesn't have to be played on the radio.”

For 100 Million Nights, they wanted to create a piece that switches between restrained and raucous playing. The songs are quite dance-oriented, but don't fit it any one genre. “There was one kind of longer piece that he had made which we started with and we messed around with some music to work out what fit with that. And then once we started writing music we had a bit of an idea about what kinds of things would probably work with the collaboration and we would either send him a few minutes of an idea or something to think about. Sometimes the music that we came up with would give us a particular idea about some kind of narrative or concept and then he would think about how he could evoke that concept through the artwork that he was creating.”

It seems like this kind of multi-disciplinary work is becoming more common on the Sydney live music scene, with small bands adding oil-based works or video footage to their live shows. Thomson posits, “Lots of people aren't necessarily just creative in one way; they might be making music but also have great ideas for a visual element. Perhaps technology permits more people to be able to do that.”