After a decade of Twisted there are bound to be stories of people who have come through, been inspired, and gone on to do incredible things. We caught up with Sara Nikšić AKA Inner Child to hear hers – a tale of how a love for marine biology and music festivals led her to create a series of critically acclaimed albums incorporating whalesong with electronic music that have been performed across the world. Ahead of her performance and lecture we got the lowdown on her journey, the lives of whales, and what she has prepared for us on the dance floor. Check it out here:

I believe that artists and scientists are like kids that never quite grew up, and I am a bit of both. I grew up next to the sea and I learned to swim before I learned to walk. I was always fascinated by the underwater world and nature in general, which is why I went to study biology, and eventually earned a master’s degree in marine biology and nature conservation. I worked on countless projects as a marine mammal scientist and bioacoustician, as well as a scientific diver. As a kid I also grew up surrounded by music. Alongside regular school I went to music school where I learned music theory, piano, and singing. During my teenage years I went to heaps of music concerts and while I was at Uni I discovered the wonderful world of electronic music, parties and festivals.

After finishing my studies about a decade ago, I came to Aotearoa – originally just for a short visit, but I loved it so much that I came back and stayed for a whole year. During my time there I worked on a couple of very interesting projects with the University of Otago studying whales and dolphins, and went to several music festivals. I came to Twisted for two years in a row where I had the most wonderful and inspiring times. It was during my stay in Aotearoa that I felt the urge to start producing music and combine my scientific and creative work, which eventually led to the creation of my Inner Child project. It is also the place where the idea for making music with the whales came to me, which later evolved into a global music-art-science collaboration project I called Canticum Megapterae.

From Aotearoa I went to Australia to work on a few whale and dolphin research projects. After that I travelled to California to work with The Ocean Cleanup as part of the first-ever aerial expedition mapping the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. From there I headed back to Europe, where I worked on some pretty cool music festivals and took a course in electronic music production. I spent a few years at University of St. Andrews in Scotland doing a PhD on the evolution of humpback whale songs. For various reasons I didn’t complete my PhD, but I released two Canticum Megapterae albums about my research which, in my opinion, were much more valuable than a PhD.

The albums ended up getting some amazing feedback, winning several awards and being covered by the global media such as the BBC and the New Yorker, and in the process I also got to collaborate with some of my favourite artists. I was invited to present them at numerous scientific conferences and institutes, as well as some of the biggest music festivals like Boom and Ozora, and I can’t wait to share them with you all at Twisted!

The ocean is my home, and one of the very few places on land where I get this feeling is the dancefloor. Both of these environments get me fully immersed in the moment and my true nature comes out. I feel absolute freedom to be who I am and connecting with others in this state is nothing short of magical.

Working with whales also holds precious and surreal experiences. Thinking of my times in Aotearoa, one of the highlights was definitely working with the sperm whales off Kaikoura. We acoustically tracked the whales by listening to them with a hydrophone, and were pretty good at approximating where they would come up for air just by listening to their sounds – on a few occasions we were so on point the whale would come up right next to our boat! Being in the presence of such a huge animal (almost 3 times bigger than our boat!) is truly something exceptional! Over the years I worked with several species of whales and some of the most humbling and cherished moments of my life are being up close to them. 

I feel honoured spreading their songs and stories through which I hope others can also get a glimpse into their extraordinary lives. I have been studying whales for over a decade now, and yet, the more I learn about them, the more I am aware just how much I don’t know. This journey of exploration has been humbling and eye-opening in many ways. We can learn a great deal from these magical creatures, about their cultures, the ways they communicate and learn from each other, how they collaborate… We still don’t know exactly how they do all of this, but my feeling is that they are much more advanced than us in many ways.

I am stoked to be coming back to Aotearoa, it will be a full circle! Twisted was such an inspiration to me and some of the people I met there have been following and supporting my journey ever since. I am really excited to share all that I’ve been up to since my last time there and I look forward to seeing how the festival and its community grew over the last decade. 

For the upcoming Twisted I am preparing a lecture about my journey which took me across the oceans to some remote places very few people have been to, from top universities and institutes to the biggest dancefloors in the world. It will focus on my work on humpback whale songs, both as a scientist and a musician, and how these two professions came together in my Inner Child project. I will also play a special set through which I wish to take people on an underwater journey to dance with the whales. I will play some of my own tunes and some from the wizards who made tunes for my releases, perhaps also a few others with watery vibes. So excited to meet you all at Twisted after all this time!

Kia ora Sara, we’re stoked to have you back in the field after more than eight years away and can’t wait to hear your whalesong through the big rigs! Don’t miss her lecture at Twisted and be sure to check their incredible tunes in the comments below.

https://innerchildmusic.bandcamp.com/