Couple combine talents for theatre soundtrack

EVOCATIVE MUSOS: Zac and Holly Winterwood have combined their experimental and classical styles to form Silver Lillies.

Musicians Holly and Zac Winterwood have not long settled in Wairarapa, but they are already making an impact on the local theatre circuit.

The husband and wife duo, originally from Melbourne, are better known in their native Australia as Silver Lillies -- a musical project combining Holly's classical training and vocal chops, and Zac's innovative guitar skills. The couple, who recorded their first album in 2013, specialise in evocative, multi-layered musical scores, using strings, vocals and percussion.

Holly and Zac settled in Greytown in September and have already contributed to the town's artistic scene, writing an original soundtrack for Greytown Little Theatre's production of Take a Chance on Me, which opened last week.

The Winterwoods discovered Wairarapa while on a caravan tour of New Zealand in 2013, visiting an exhibition by friend and fellow muso, Campbell Kneale, in Martinborough. So far, they have found Greytown is the perfect place to make and record music.

"We love New Zealand -- we came for our holiday, and Zac was like, 'when can we move?'," Holly said. "We were only in Wairarapa for a couple of days, and we thought, 'this is our place'.

"We love how quiet it is -- in Melbourne, we lived near a highway, and it used to take our sound engineer two hours to get rid of all the traffic noises."

"Now, we get the birds in the background, and that's about it," Zac added.

The Winterwoods, who work as graphic designers, both come from musical backgrounds -- Holly's mother is a folk singer, while Zac's Dad played in various groups during the 60s.

Holly has been playing the violin since age six, and took up singing opera while at university. She received degrees in performance from the University of Adelaide and the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, and performed with Opera Australia.

Zac, however took an edgier, less-structured approach -- he taught himself to play guitar at age 12 and, after first dabbling in grunge, began experimenting with noise music, ambient drone music and soundscape.

When he and Holly met through mutual friends, they were fascinated with each other's contrasting styles, but didn't end up playing music together until they got engaged. They were eventually spurred on by Zac's father giving Holly an electric violin he found at a second-hand shop.

"Zac thought it'd be cool if we jammed together. I was used to Mozart concertos, so I had no idea," she said. "But one day, I plugged in my violin and we gave it a go.

"We played the theme from Braveheart, and then kept playing all day."

The couple later recorded their first album, called Forever Changed -- composing lush, sprawling pieces complete with operatic vocals, violin and piano, acoustic and pedal steel guitar and various percussion instruments, including bells, cymbals, gongs and Turkish drums.

Shortly afterwards, the began their second musical project, Otamo, using similar instruments - and some flute from Holly - but this time recording more experimental, ambient music, which is often highly improvised.

"We often just press record, and see what happens," Zac said.

Now in Greytown, the Winterwoods were invited to contribute musically to Take a Chance on Me after meeting director John Gilberthorpe at an open day for Greytown Little Theatre.

However, they were slightly daunted by the idea of writing for a Roger Hall comedy about dating and relationships.

"But then we read the script, and realised there's such a fragile, human element to it," Holly said. "We started hearing ideas right away."

After attending rehearsals, the couple began composing tracks to fit the often pensive, bittersweet mood of the show, using acoustic guitar and violin, melodica and percussion.

Holly said hearing their music played throughout the play was a "surreal" but gratifying experience.

"It's a big step for us. There are some really poignant moments in the show, and it was amazing seeing them complimented by our music.

"It's been a wonderful experience writing for theatre, and I hope we can do it again."

Take a Chance on Me runs at Greytown Little Theatre until Saturday.