PERFORMANCE | COMPOSITION | PRODUCTION

Nick Wiley is a guitarist, vocalist, composer, and audio engineer with specialties in solo fingerstyle guitar and ensemble performance. Growing up in an extraordinarily musical family, his journey officially began at age 11 when a family friend gifted Nick with a beginner’s guitar. After a couple of years of self-study, he was taken under the wing of guitarist Rick Allred, a nationally-renowned master of the Chet Atkins tradition of thumb-and-finger style playing, who would go on to shape and build Nick’s technique and repertoire for five years. During this time, Nick developed an expansive, memorized solo repertoire of pop, jazz, and folk standards, eventually spanning nearly five hours in length.

Late high school and early college brought about a rush of new musical curiosity. Having always played “by ear,” Nick enrolled in the tutelage of W. Matthew Hoover to begin a year of formal classical study. In addition to traditional guitar curriculum, Hoover introduced him to composition and heavy metal guitar, thus beginning an interest in rock ensemble that continues to the present day. After taking a couple of years off from formal study, Nick auditioned for the School of Music at UNC Greensboro and rounded out his education with two years of private lessons with Mark Mazzatenta before earning his B.A. in General Music alongside a B.S. in Information Systems.

Presently, Nick leverages the gig economy to earn a living from I.T. consultation, music production, performance, and podcasting. Music has not taken a back-burner, as he celebrates his latest duo, Him Know Who, with drummer and younger brother Stephen Wiley, while looking back on a discography spanning 9 releases (with several ensembles) since 2008. That unassailable curiosity has most recently reared its head in the purchase of a Charlie Hunter style Hybrid Guitar, a monstrous instrument incorporating simultaneous strings and outputs for both bass and guitar, which can be heard on Him Know Who’s most recent single Unwelcome Guest. Most recently, Nick is enjoying a burst of creative inspiration in the wake of his departure from corporate I.T. and continues to hone the art of podcasting after co-launching The Working Man’s Weightlifting Show with brother Stephen in September, 2020.