David Bridie

David Ross Hope Bridieis an Australian contemporary musician and songwriter. He was a founding mainstay member ofWorld musicbandNot Drowning, Wavingwhich released six studio albums to critical acclaim. He also formed achamber popgroup,My Friend the Chocolate Cake, which released seven studio albums. During his solo career he has issued five studio albums and worked on soundtracks for Australian films and television likeThe Man Who Sued God,Remote Area Nurse,Secret City, andThe Circuit. Bridie is the founder and artistic director of Wantok Musik Foundation; a not-for-profit music label that records, releases and promotes culturally infused music from Indigenous Australia, Melanesia and Oceania. In 2019 he received theDon Banks Music Award.
David Bridie was born in 1962 and grew up in the Melbourne suburb ofDeepdenewith three siblings.He attendedCamberwell High Schooland theUniversity of Melbourne, and received training in classical music.From 1980 to 1983 Bridie provided keyboards for Misspent Youth, with James Southall on percussion.They travelled toPerth, after their lead singer convinced them they would earn more money.Bridie had dropped out of his Arts/Law degree course for the venture, but found that Perth bands performed cover versions due to "the city's penchant for Top 40 and retro hits."They returned to Melbourne and he left the group soon after.He was also a member of Go Circus, alongside Rowan McKinnon on bass guitar.
Bridie on vocals, piano, synthesiser and percussion formed a World music duo,Not Drowning, Wavingin Melbourne in 1983 with fellow classical musician John Phillips on guitar.The pair had met atLa Trobe Universitywhen Bridie invited Phillips to help record a track, "Moving Around", which had McKinnon providing bass guitar.Initially Not Drowning, Waving was a studio-only project while Bridie, McKinnon, Phillips and Southall formed a performance group, Easter, with Russel Bradley on drums and Tim Cole on lead vocals."Moving Around" was issued as Not Drowning, Waving's debut single in April 1984.The duo followed with their debut album,Another Pond, in January 1985 via Rampant Records.It was produced by their Easter bandmate, Cole.
Easter were performing shows around Melbourne and released their own single, "Cheesecloth", in August 1985.Some of its members joined Not Drowning, Waving and the two groups co-existed with almost the same line-up.Not Drowning, Waving started live shows, while Easter wound down and eventually disbanded.Bridie and Phillips also worked in screen music beginning with the soundtrack for a film documentary,Canoe Man, directed by Mark Worth.To research music for the documentary, Bridie had travelled toRabaul, Papua New Guinea (PNG) in 1986 and first heardGeorge Telek's "amazing song coming out of a recording studio."He returned, with Not Drowning, Waving, to Rabaul in late 1988 to record their fifth album,Tabaran(1990). Aside from Telek they used other local musicians, and the album was co-credited to The Musicians of Rabaul, Papua New Guinea featuring Telek.They toured PNG together, including a concert at the nation's capital,Port Moresby, to an audience of 25000; and then they toured Australia.
In late 1989 Helen Mountfort joined Not Drowning, Waving after having provided cello on a track onTabaran.Bridie, with bandmates Bradley and Mountfort formed an acoustic strings-based side project,My Friend the Chocolate Cake, as achamber popgroup.Other founders were Andrew Caswell on mandolin, Hope Csutoros on violin and Andrew Richardson on guitar.They released a self-titled album in 1991 with Bridie co-producing alongside Mountfort, Carswell and Cole.Also in that year Not Drowning, Waving provided the soundtrack for comedy-drama film,Proof.Bridie and Mountfort worked with Jen Anderson on violin (ex-the Black Sorrows) and members ofHunters & Collectors' horn section on a feature film,Hammers Over the Anvil(1993), which was issued in the following year as a soundtrack album,Hammers, credited to Not Drowning, Waving.The group released their sixth and last studio album,Circus, in 1993 and disbanded by the end of the year.
AllMusic's Australian-based music journalist,Ed Nimmervoll, observed that Bridie and Phillips' early work, "sparked the duo's enthusiasm for the sort of free-form ambient soundscapes that would become the basis of their sound as the group Not Drowning Waving and lay the seeds for their interest in film music."Fellow Australian music historian,Ian McFarlane, noticed the influences ofBrian EnoandDavid Byrneon the pair, but "[they] were not averse to incorporating African and other Third World rhythms into their muse. Likewise, they placed an emphasis on natural acoustic and atmospheric dynamics rather than an electronic approach."
My Friend the Chocolate Cake, with Bridie and Mountfort as mainstays, issued seven studio albums before the group took an indefinite hiatus from August 2018.Periodically Not Drowning, Waving have reformed in 1996, 2001, 2003 and 2005 to 2006 and released a live album. Bridie and Phillips have issued two duo albums,Projects 1983–1993(1994) andProjects 2(2011). After My Friend the Chocolate Cake's debut album Bridie's further work as a record producer in the mid-1990s includesArchie Roach'sJamu Dreaming(1993),Paul Kelly'sWanted Man(1994) andChristine Anu'sStylin' Up(1995).He joined Anu's touring band in support of her album's release throughout 1995.At theARIA Music Awards of 1995he was nominated forProducer of the Year.
During 1998 he recorded a soundtrack album,In a Savage Land(November 1999), for a feature film of thesame name,which was set and partly filmed on PNG'sTrobriand Islands.He had collaborated with Musicians from the Trobriand Islands.His score received widespread critical acclaim, Andrew L. Urban ofUrban Cinefilepraised the film's "unity of vision", in using "a wide palette of extraordinary music and sound."His work achieved multiple awards,Best Original Scoreat the1999 AFI Awards, Best Music Score from theFilm Critics Circle of Australia, andBest Original Soundtrack Albumat the2000 ARIA Awards. Upon reflection Bridie explained to Paris Pompor ofFilmInkin 2017 why it was one of his favourite projects, "[it] allowed me to soak in the Trobriand Islands' culture and stay in a beach shack for eight weeks recording anything that moved and learning about a fascinating part of the world. It was dark, cultural and layered and challenging and I had free rein."
His first solo studio album,Act of Free Choice, appeared in May 2000,and "was greeted with critical praise."The album's title refers to the IndonesianAct of Free Choice(1969), which was supported by a plebiscite on the incorporation ofWestern New GuineaintoIndonesia.Bridie'sAct of Free Choicereached the top 40 on theARIA Albums Chart.Evan Cater of AllMusic rated it at three-out-of-five stars and explained, "[he] finds new layers in his well-established gift for moody atmospherics" although "his breathy tenor can be slightly grating", while "his real strength lies in a compositional adventurousness."PopMatters'Imran Khan determined, "[he] created a new world of sound to explore, one that would define him as an artist as well as create a sonic visual that would allow the listener to enter that world and immerse himself in the emotional experience created from the album’s imagined realities."In 2019 he received theDon Banks Music Award.
Bridie is a father of two daughters, is divorced, and lived in the inner North suburbs of Melbourne (Northcote >2009 and Ballantyne St., Thornbury, 2009-2021) for much of his adult life. In 2021 he moved to an off-grid property close to theOtway National Parkon Victoria'sShipwreck Coast.
He travels widely. His first trip overseas was to Papua New Guinea in 1986, encouraged to do so by a filmmaker, Mark Worth.He still makes extended trips toRabaul, Papua New Guinea where his friendship with musician SirGeorge Telekbegan and where his band recorded an album. He speaks Tok Pisin and had gone through Tubuan initiation rites at the invitation of the community. This is documented in a 2023 film,Abebe-Butterfly Songdirected by Rosie Jones, which includes extensive archival footage of Bridie and Telek.
At the launch of the film at the Melbourne International Film Festival in August 2023 Bridie revealed he hasADHD, takes on many projects at the same time, with uneven effects on his health and well-being.
Over the years, David Bridie has balanced his career as a live musician with the composition of soundtrack music, with credits for over 100 feature films includingProof,Bran Nue Dae,The Man Who Sued GodandGone,several of which received International release. He also received theARIA Awardfor "Best Original Soundtrack, Cast or Show Album" forNautical Forlornin 2004.
David Bridie has also contributed to many television shows, short films and documentaries soundtracks most notably forRemote Area Nursefor which he won anAFI Awardas well asThe Straits,Dealine GallipoliandSecret City.
The song "Pitjantjara" written and performed with Frank Yamma forThe Alicewas awarded anAPRAScreen Music Award for "Best Original Song" composed for a 'Feature Film, Telemovie, TV Series or Mini-Series'.