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30 | ATTITUDE

ATTITUDE |  EDIT Words Owen Myers

 Boys’ own storyComposer Nico Muhly brings opera into the internet age

MUSIC

For Nico Muhly there are two

types of people: those who are

good at being online, and those who

aren’t. ‘I live a life that is basically

online/oine all the time,’ the

29-year old composer says from his

apartment in Chinatown, New York.

‘I heard a report on the radio two days

ago about how young people have

di erent online and oine identities,

and you think, ‘Hmm, kind of...’ But

there’s a huge permeability there.’

Nico has a deft hand at merging

the esoteric and the ultra-modern.

In addition to releasing his own

acclaimed, genre-eschewing modernclassical releases Speaks Volumes (2007)

and Mothertongue (2008), in recent

years Nico has become the most

sought-after collaborator for indie

bands experimenting with orchestral

arrangements. Antony Hegarty, Jónsi,

Grizzly Bear? Check, check, check.

Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson? He’s

known them for years. Björk? Duh.

Essentially, he’s the Nicki Minaj of the

classical world.

For the past two years, Nico has

been working on Two Boys, an opera

about gay cyber-homicide that opens

in London this month and will

transfer to New York in 2014. The

piece is loosely based on a notorious

1990s internet murder that happened

in Manchester.

‘The opera begins with a boy who’s

been stabbed, and another boy

who’s been seen stabbing him on

camera,’ he explains. ‘And there’s a

policewoman who has to figure out

how and why this happened; she’s

essentially a creature of the analogue

world, and we trace her journey into

understanding what the dangers,

possibilities and ecstatic moments of 

a life online could mean.’

The policewoman, played by the

‘wonderful’ Susan Bickley, uncovers

a digital world previously unknown

to her, where physical location is

irrelevant and identity mutable.

‘I think one of the things the

internet does is de-specify people,’

Nico says. ‘You can be chatting with

someone who says they’re in London,

but actually they’re in Singaporeand a di erent gender and the wrong

age. When the boys are IM-ing in

Two Boys and one says, “What do you

look like?” all of a sudden there’s a

picture of a girl. That moment is an

intimacy; it also happens to be a lie.

To me, that is an enormously exciting

dramatic moment, and it reminds me

of the shifting identities in Mozart or

Rossini, and a lot of opera.’

If anyone was going to transpose

the old world of opera into a digital

context it would be Nico. He talks

enthusiastically, casually littering

his conversation with bon mots and

classical references, the tone falling

somewhere between music dork and

old-school camp.

The latter is not surprising, given

his upbringing surrounded by gay

separatists. ‘It’s fair to say that my

parents were pretty bohemian,

and some of my mom’s best friends

were Radical Faeries,’ he says

One of the things the internet does is de-specify people

nonchalantly. ‘It was a very queer-

normative household in a genuine

sense. It didn’t feel di erent.’

But amid the ‘strange polygamist

configurations’ that went on, the

11-year-old Nico started his musical

 journey by learning the piano and

 joining a boys’ choir.There’s a frenetic energy to his

conversation, which perhaps

goes some way to explaining his

extraordinary work output. Where

does his drive comes from? ‘

‘At the moment there’s this

unspeakable debate about whether

gays should be in the military in

America, which is so crazy on a really

fundamental level. If you’re putting

a flaw on someone’s willingness

to perform a public service you’re

basically saying they’re not citizens!

So for me as an artist, I feel an

especial drive to achieve consistent

excellence, just to prove that I am

citizen of something, if not the

country where I live.’

So does being gay have anything to

do with his impressive workrate? ‘I

sometimes find myself in these weird

situations, where the only answer

is just this weird queer supremacy,

where you just think, ‘Let straight

people be late for the bus, and let

straight people not know their music,

and all us queens are gonna get ourshit done.’ It just means that it’s done

and we’re awesome.’

Like Two Boys, Nico’s story bridges

the gap between analogue and digital:

bookishly steeped in tradition and

literary references, but constantly

travelling and tied to his iPhone.

After our conversation I get home

and check Facebook. I have a Friend

Request from Nico: ‘I’M E STALKING

YOU!’ I’d expect nothing less. Say

what you like about Nico Muhly, but

this queen is getting his shit done.

 Nico Muhly’s new album, Seeing Is

 Believing, is released on 6 June. Two Boys

is at the London Coliseum from 24 June to

8 July. eno.org