Ebb and Flow
Words–
Nat Woods
@nat.woods_
Photos–
Anna Hutchcroft
@annahutch_photo
Muse–
Bobby Alu
@bobby_alu
For many of us, the price we pay for living in this slice of paradise is having to travel far and wide for work. It can be an exciting, draining, and relationship-straining existence, but returning home each time is made so much sweeter by the time away. Local musician, Charles Wall AKA Bobby Alu, and environmental lawyer, Nina Lucas, are no strangers to this lifestyle, each having to regularly leave Byron Shire for music tours and legal cases. We caught them both on a rare weekend at home.
On the day we visited Bobby and Nina’s home in the hills behind Byron Bay, the couple were celebrating Bobby’s third album, Flow, which had been released the day before. They were also still in the process of settling into their newly finished home – three days after they got the keys to their new home, Bobby flew to North America to tour as the support act for his good friend, Xavier Rudd, and Nina went to Europe to visit family and friends, so they’d only been home together for ten days.
Just like Bobby’s music and Nina’s personality, their home feels laidback and welcoming. With one large open-plan living space wrapped in rammed earth and a large timber deck overlooking the property’s majestic Moreton Bay Fig Tree, the home feels like the perfect gathering place for family and friends. And as Nina explains, the home brings together the influences of their heritages, “I’m half-swiss, I was born in Switzerland, so we love the homey chalet feel of the place, but then also the Aussie rammed earth walls and the big deck.” Various elements of the decor also reflects Bobby’s Samoan heritage.
The fig tree was also a main focal point of the design, and the couple wanted to honour the tree in the design of the home. “The tree was the whole thing that brought us here. That was the hardest thing to figure out – how to orientate the house towards it and design something that didn’t take away from it visually,” explains Bobby.
Rather than follow trends, you can really tell that Bobby and Nina have designed exactly what they wanted in a home, from the amazing circle window in the second bathroom, which was always Nina’s dream, to the “bunk” bed in Bobby’s mezzanine music room. I comment that the double bed alcove complete with a curtain is like the bunk beds on tour buses, and he says “Exactly! I’ve always wanted a bunk and this is just a bigger version of the bunks we sleep in when we’re touring on a bus.”
“I think in hindsight, building a house and recording an album was pretty draining, but it’s been pretty amazing too that they’ve both kinda finished at the same time.”
WORDS TO INSPIRE–
01. FLOW
02. GROUNDED
03. HERITAGE
04. RYTHYM
05. NATURE
Outside on the deck overlooking the fig tree, a kookaburra swoops past as Bobby points out where he recently spotted an echidna in the gully, and where the builder saw a koala walking across the block. Small reminders that when we buy land and build our dream home, we’re nestling into an already existing habitat.
Anyone who has designed and built their home would understand the achievement of pulling everything together. With Bobby touring most weekends, the couple had to make decisions on the fly during the work week, Nina explains. “Because I work full-time, I’d come home in the evening and there was a whole list of decisions we would have to make, because he would be away on the weekend when I had the headspace to think about it more.”
I ask Bobby about the process of designing and building a home alongside recording an album, and he said, “I think in hindsight, building a house and recording an album was pretty draining, but it’s been amazing too that they’ve both kinda finished at the same time. You know I launched the album yesterday, and then we’ve moved into the house, and it’s like ‘wow what a phase and an achievement!’ I feel so lucky that I got to create a house with Nina and an album, and that that’s been my life for the past few years.”
The new album, Flow, is about moving and being moved. Finding your flow and going about each day to the rhythm of your own making. I feel this theme coming through in my conversation with Bobby and Nina, about finding the balance of both of their busy schedules. Nina, who is currently working on multiple cases regarding the misuse of water in NSW’s most drought-affected areas, reflects on finding the balance between thriving when she’s being challenged intellectually and doing work that could make a difference for the environment, versus putting too much in and burning out. “There’s always an ebb and flow I think, there’s times when we’re all really busy and then there are times when I can finish work early and take some timeout,” she says.
The sun starts to dip behind the house and we leave Bobby and Nina who are heading out for dinner together to celebrate the new album. Their dedication to music and to the environment is so inspiring, but what’s just as inspiring is their commitment to finding their flow together away from the concert halls and court rooms. They might not always get it right, none of us do, but they’ve created a peaceful home overlooking the fig tree where they can keep trying.
You can listen to Bobby Alu’s third album Flow on Spotify, or purchase online at bobbyalu.com