Low Groves Doc Kicks Off ‘Wish You Were Here’ Event Series

An impressive crowd packed into the Evening Muse on a rainy Sunday evening for the start of something special. 

They broke into applause following a screening of Nick Will’s new music documentary, The 10,000 Hours of Low Groves, before the subject of the film, local alt-folk singer/songwriter Adam Naliwajko, who performs as Low Groves, launched into a short performance. 

A 20-minute film premiere followed by a live music set is usually enough for an evening’s entertainment, but Will was just getting started. The event served not only as a premiere screening but the kickoff for a larger series titled Wish You Were Here, through which Will hopes to fuse his two passions: film and music. 

Sunday night’s itinerary also included two open mics hosted by Te’Jani and Phaze Gawd, respectively; a performance by local indie rock band Woody; and two sets from Dog Days, an alternative band featuring Will and his filmmaking colleague, Logan Harbin.

Just as Wish You Were Here promised similar parties to follow, Will’s rapturously received film The 10,000 Hours of Low Groves was the first in a proposed music documentary series titled The 10,000 Hours, also to be produced by Will and a tightly-knit crew of colleagues and friends.

On the Monday following the party, Will premiered The Secret Formula for Lovin’ Life, a 10-minute documentary capturing local group Secret Formula Band’s journey from a rehearsal stage to the Lovin’ Life Music Festival this spring, with Queen City Nerve.

It’s set to be the first in a series of shorter music docs and write-ups for Queen City Nerve that Will is calling “From the City. For the City.” 

It’s all a lot to take on, but perhaps Will is so amped to pursue all these different paths because it’s all part of his chase for that high that he said comes about every once in a while in filmmaking. 

“There’s something magic about being in the right place at the right time,” he explained. “You don’t see it coming, but afterward, you can’t believe it happened so perfectly.” 

As he told the applauding crowd at the Muse on Monday following his latest screening, you just have to “trust the vision.”  

A filmmaker’s journey

After studying graphic design at Central Piedmont Community College, Will went to work for former Carolina Panthers players DeAngelo Williams and Gary Barnidge, shooting, directing and editing their paranormal investigation YouTube series Skeptic. Will recruited his friends Harbin and camera operator Evan Chambers for the project. 

At one of the series’ haunted locations, the multi-denominational Ura Shrine in Bristol, Tennessee, Will inadvertently became part of the show. While the Skeptic crew staged a seance, Will slipped into a trance and started talking about how he felt the presence of his recently deceased grandmother in the space.

Speaking to Queen City Nerve days before the Evening Muse event, Will noted that the shrine encourages people to donate objects to the space if they feel the need to do so.

“So, I donated a watch that my grandma had given me,” Will said. “I somehow just had with me that day.”

Back in Charlotte, with production completed on Skeptic, Will signed up to film a music set for Low Groves. 

Raised in the Chicago suburb of Mount Prospect, Naliwajko moved to Charlotte in 2022 and started playing open mics as Low Groves, noted for his haunting folk-inflected alternative tunes. When he landed the chance to open for singer-songwriter Adam Melcher at The Underground, Groves’ friend and fellow musician Te’Jani advised him to hire a filmmaker to document the gig. 

Groves met Will in The Underground greenroom moments before his set and the two became friends. But Will’s job didn’t stop with that single set. 

Over the next two years, with assistant camera operator Chambers and sound designer and composer Harbin, Will documented Naliwajko’s life and music. The result was The 10,000 Hours of Low Groves.

Standing under Evening Muse’s awning while the film about him unspooled inside, Groves noted that the documentary — and Will’s proposed series of music-themed films – both take their titles from a quote by Canadian author Malcolm Gladwell that suggests it takes 10,000 hours of dedicated practice to achieve mastery in a skill.

“I would assume that I’m close to 10,000 hours, because I’m definitely not a master of any of it,” Groves said. “I hope that I never feel like I am.”

When asked for his reaction to the film, Groves responded, “God knows how long I’ll be able to play music, so it’ll be really cool to have this … moment in time that Nick’s been documenting.”

He offered that 10,000 Hours of Low Groves and Wish You Were Here are testaments to Will’s perfectionism and dedication

“It’s unique to see somebody pouring that into a local scene,” Groves said.

Follow Nick Will’s Mislabeled Productions on Instagram for updates on what he’s up to next, and stay tuned to Queen City Nerve for more of his work.