Nate Scholes - Prue Fleming and William Scholes

Duo Prue (Wink) Fleming and Will Scholes met at UNE during Orientation Week in 2015 and their college friendship grew into a creative partnership. The musicians now perform as Nate Scholes and took out the people's choice busking award at this year's Tamworth Country Music Festival.

So how did you meet?

Wink: We both started at Robb College and had the same friendship group, so we became mates, but it wasn't until my third year, when I'd moved out of college, that we started playing a bit of music together. We always had the same interest and taste in music. I wasn't too flash on the guitar but Scholesy could really play, so we sat down one day to try a few covers. We ended up putting together a good set list, showed a few mates, and then started getting a few gigs around Armidale.

Will: We ended up having a few gigs at the New England and Kilda pubs and played some college events. They were pretty biased audiences. We were creating our own music as we went, but didn't start recording until 2018.

What were you studying at UNE?

Wink: I was studying a Bachelor of Nursing.

Will: I was studying law.

How would you describe your music?

Wink: People ask me what sort of genre it fits into all the time; I never know how to answer that. We like music that sounds good and makes people happy.

Will: I'm influenced by a broad range of music, but when I'm writing I wouldn't categorise it in a particular genre. It has roots in folk music and blues, but it doesn't fit into any category. Music is a real outlet for me; it's a good way to get thoughts on paper and clear your head. It's another outlet for my creativity, I suppose.

How did Nate Scholes survive when you went to live in different towns?

Wink: I left Armidale at the end of 2017, when I finished uni, and went to Dubbo. Scholesy was still in Armidale. He came to Dubbo only once, but he'd send me voice memos by text and I would send him stuff back. Writing a song was a long process. We'd talk on the phone occasionally, but we didn't really think it was going to go anywhere. Last year it was a bit easier because I was in Tamworth and he was in Muswellbrook. He came to Tamworth a bit more but he did most of the musical work last year because I had my hands full with full-time work and uni.

Will: I've sung and played with other people, but with Wink it just works. It wasn't exactly easy living three or four hours away from each other, but we have the same musical taste, which isn't very normal, and can work together. I don't know anybody else who listens to the people we do and when you have that commonality, your brain works the same way.

Tell us about the couple of demos you recorded in your Walgett "studio".

Wink: We spent some time at my family property over summer in 2017. We have a little cottage at the side of the house that we set up as a studio and it was like 45-degrees and there was no air-con, just a fan in the room. It was so hot we recorded with the doors open and I had a pet lamb at the time who used to sleep in the garden, so you can hear him bleating in the recording.

Does UNE come through in any of your song lyrics?

Wink: The Fear references the horrendous Armidale winters. In typical song-writing style, a bit of heartbreak and college love that went wrong also seems to have found its way in.

Will: I'm sure that most romantic lyrics draw from the past in one way or another. That first verse of The Fear and the cold is definitely an Armidale line.

How is your musical career progressing?

Wink: We released a five-track EP called Feels Like Ages last year and Scholesy wrote four of the songs and I wrote one. We put it together over just a few days in Newcastle. The nicest thing is that we didn't expect it to go anywhere ... Having finished studying, I'm now hoping to put more work into it and give our music a proper go.

Will: We're getting a bit more of a following now and we've had some radio play on JJJ and some community radio stations around the country, which is good. A few more requests to play are popping up in the Inbox. I'm always writing songs, with notes on my phone or ideas in my head.

What was it like performing at the Tamworth Country Music Festival?

Wink: Scholesy and I hadn't played together for about four months and I was really hesitant, but a friend who was helping to organise the busking competition encouraged us to register. It went really well and we had some good crowds and got lots of votes. We made it into the top 10 and played on a medium stage on Sunday and then a bloody big stage to a massive crowd on Sunday night. It was very exciting and everyone was pumped up. We'd only played in front of 40 people, max, before. We had about 20 mates right at the front, screaming at us. We were just happy to be there and having a nice time, but it was pretty big.

Will: I didn't even know we were going until the Saturday before, when Wink told me I needed to be in Tamworth all week. It all came out of nothing. We seem to have won some fans. We needed 12,000 votes to make it into the top 10.

What are you doing now?

Wink: I finished my registered nursing in 2017, did a year of that and then transferred to midwifery. I've just completed my midwifery studies and I'm waiting on my registration, to continue working at Tamworth Base Hospital. I really enjoy midwifery, but I think playing music would be a whole lot more fun. But it's been good to have the money behind us to afford to get some help to produce quality songs, and to have something to fall back on. We've got a couple of gigs planned and some requests to be on radio. The busking competition has been the bestest thing in terms of publicity.

Will: I'm in Tamworth doing my Graduate Diploma in Practical Legal Training, which requires a 75-day placement. Winks and I are planning on doing an album at some point and getting a few songs together, and probably doing most of it ourselves. Studio work is very expensive.