Getting to Know Local Legend, Bailey Pickles
- 3 days ago
- 7 min read
Australian composer Bailey Pickles is an impressive young man, one of outstanding character. At the age of 22, he has the maturity and drive of someone well beyond his years, already achieving a remarkable list of accomplishments and with many more in his sights. A talented composer, singer, producer and songwriter, WEST sat down with this Camden local legend to talk music, family, success and what’s next on his life vision board.
Bailey Pickles is a name taking on the world stage. With an extraordinary ability to play songs by ear, compose on the spot and create stirring, emotive pieces, his music has connected with audiences worldwide. Bailey’s foray into music started early, humming in his cot at 18 months old, playing the family piano by age three, and starting piano lessons at four. Focused on The Yamaha Method of interactive learning, Bailey credits this approach with developing his ability to play by ear. At just 10 years old, he successfully auditioned for the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with a piece of his own composition, going on to study there for the next seven years.
His leap into the limelight was unexpected, Bailey crediting his mum for helping to launch his social media profile. While he was still at high school, she filmed him composing and playing songs by ear and shared them to TikTok. His social media account took off and garnered a huge amount of followers almost overnight. At a current 1.7 million followers, the rest is history. Once his profile grew, offers of composition and songwriting started flowing through.
“I've always known I wanted to do music and I've never had a plan B in my mind. I was so set on it. I didn't see any risk in it. Whether that was just naivety or whether I was just that confident in myself, I just knew that this is what it had to be”.
Bailey is a proud Camden local. Growing up and both living and working from here, Bailey finds it’s the perfect backdrop for creativity.
“It’s such a beautiful community out here. It’s just beautiful and quiet out here as well.
I do everything except for if I'm going in to do a session with an artist, then I'll generally go into the city. I did a session a couple days ago from here. It just means that the artist has to come a bit further to get here, but they love it when they get here because it's so quiet and calm and peaceful. Other than that, I do everything from home. I'm pretty fortunate.”
Surrounded by support, Bailey credits his family with encouraging his aspirations “I wouldn't be anywhere near where I was today without my parents. I was lucky that I was really invested in music, and then mum and dad backed that”. His mum, a high school maths teacher, taught herself piano at 17 years old, the very piano that Bailey first learned to play. He has a younger brother that he’s close to, and dad is a Campbelltown local legend, owning the well-loved Tim’s Garden Centre, creating the beautiful, green home setting Bailey lives and works from “as long as you’ve got Tim's best potting mix, everybody can grow a plant.”
To stay grounded while pursuing his music career, Bailey worked at a café and at his father’s nursery, learning the skills of running a business. “I have to know how to do the business side of stuff. I have to learn. I have to make mistakes. I have to develop the calluses of making that mistake and then learning.” Bailey already displays a shrewd business sense matched with drive and passion. His goals are big and knowing this young man, he will achieve all that he sets out to.
“Everything in life is like the game Monopoly. That's how I view this, that’s how I view any business, it's how I view life. It's an exponential game. I feel like at the start, you're frustrated because you know where you want to be, but you don't have the resources to get there. You don't have your houses set up, your Monopoly houses. You don't have the hotels yet.”
Bailey says for him, it’s been about collecting people and knowledge, and everything building on itself “it's all exponential. So I'm basically setting up my little houses on the road, one by one, adding them, and then in five years, you know, I'll have Mayfair or whatever. That's the plan.”
That mindset has already delivered major milestones. One of Bailey’s most defining achievements was composing for VIVID Sydney, the Southern Hemisphere’s largest festival of light. In 2024, he created a 10-minute soundtrack synced to the lights across Sydney Harbour Bridge and Circular Quay.
“VIVID was and it still is one of the craziest things that's ever happened. It still might be. I grew up going to VIVID every year with family, it's like a yearly tradition. And then I got an email saying, hey Bailey, do you want to write the music for VIVID? And then to have the lights of the Harbour Bridge sync to my music, it's the most crazy experience.”
Bailey is known for sharing artist collaborations through his social media platforms, amazing some of the best-known artists in Australia and abroad with his sensei-style ability to play a song by ear. Bailey’s followers are big supporters, and with a personable presence through his videos, fans have helped drive his name forward to some of the biggest names in the world. His video with Australian band The Rubens was the starting catalyst, and from here Bailey has played with international artists including Dermot Kennedy, Matteo Bocelli, Becky Hill and James Bay. Two artists he’d like to work with are The Kid Laroi and Jacob Collier “again it's like the game Monopoly. I'm working up to Mayfair and I think every step we get slightly closer to these bigger artists.”
One of Bailey’s most memorable experiences to date, is his visit to Paris to join a Masterclass run by American scoring mixing engineer Alan Meyerson. Known for working with German film composer Hans Zimmer on films such as Avatar, Dune and Gladiator, Bailey spent a week learning from and becoming friends with a legend of the industry.
Another huge achievement that Bailey is proud of, is his collaboration with MrBeast for Beast Games Season 2, one of the biggest prime time shows in the world. It’s an incredible testament to the talent of this South West Sydney artist to work with one of the most well-known creators on the planet, with Mr Beast’s YouTube following at a lofty 462 million and his TikTok account a cool 124 million.
After receiving a DM on Instagram from the Beast Games co-creator Sean Klitzner, Bailey found himself engaged to write music for the new Beast Games 2 series. Working often until three in the morning, collaborating back and forth and scoring scenes filled with intensity and emotion, it’s a career milestone he’s proud of.
“If you're a creative, or a business person or an entrepreneur, there's never been a better time to do anything. This is the most resourceful time, the most abundant the human race has ever been. You’re now connected with everybody across the world.”
“And so the other aspect is now I can put my music out in the world and this guy from America can see it and reach out, so that's what he did.”
Creatively, Bailey draws inspiration from everything that he has ever heard and loved, particularly film scores. Influenced by composers such as John Williams and Hans Zimmer, he credits a conservatorium teacher with igniting his passion for cinematic music. So what’s next for this talented Camden local?
“What I love doing and what I want to keep doing is the cinematic writing. So writing cinematic music and doing it for the biggest shows in the world. I want to do the Olympics, I want to write the music for the Harry Potter series as well. I love cinematic music, and that's my goal, whatever that is. I'll keep doing that because I love it. So as long as I'm following what I love, then that's the main thing.”
When it comes to goal setting, Bailey has clear vision for what he wants. He believes by writing down your goals and revisiting them daily, "it means that whenever you're in a situation where a door opens up just a little bit that points in the direction of one of those goals, you're going to recognize that the door is open and that you need to walk through that door because your mind is locked into those goals, so it's basically giving yourself an internal compass.”
Bailey shares some final words he has for young, aspiring composers, and anyone who has a dream.
“Everything unlocked for me was when, I had this unwavering belief that I could do what I wanted to do, or I could do the thing that I wanted to do. And how I got to there was lots of positive self-talk about being able to get where I wanted to go.”
“And then the way that I do that and I still do it, is I have a journal and I write lines in the journal. Like, I want to be the biggest composer in the world. I want to be the most successful composer in the world, and that means when I go into rooms with people, they are convinced because I'm convinced. So I think what the line that I leave is, if you can convince yourself, you can convince the world.”
Bailey Pickles is an artist to follow, support and celebrate, and an inspiration to all of us with a dream and the drive to pursue it. His talent knowns no bounds, whether singing, producing, playing or creating, and WEST has no doubt this young Australian is on a trajectory bound for worldwide success. A true local legend, Bailey Pickles is living proof that grounded roots and relentless belief can turn big dreams into global success. Explore Getting to Know Local Legend, Bailey Pickles with West.
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