Nicholas talks about Melbourne disability care, his passion for music and his collaboration with Dream Theater’s James LaBrie!
This is the stuff that prog rock dreams are made of! Our resident rockstar Nicholas Georgakopoulos (Melbourne Business Development Representative) sent a song, unsolicited, to Dream Theater frontman James LaBrie. Little did he know that this leap of faith would lead to a collaboration with the Grammy Award-winning singer.
His track “Into Oblivion”, featuring vocals by LaBrie, is now available on Spotify, Apple Music and other major music platforms.
It’s a ‘pinch-myself moment’ for Nicholas, but also something that puts his work in disability care into perspective: “If you work hard, dream big, anything is possible.”
Watch our video or keep reading to learn more about Nicholas:
15 years in healthcare
Nicholas has been working for 15 years in healthcare. Prior to joining Afea, he was working in the dysphasia management sector. Dysphasia is a condition that affects a person’s ability to produce and understand spoken language. Assisting people “is very much embedded within my values”, he says.
Joining Afea gives him a chance to connect with more people in the community and learn more about the NDIS.
“There’s an excitement around helping people within Melbourne. Being able to match the participant with a support worker is very, very important. We don’t just allocate somebody just to tick a box. We ensure that we do our due diligence. I think this is where we’re different to other companies, where we’re look at it from a humanistic perspective.”
A prog rock life
Aside from assisting people living with disability, Nicholas’ other passion is music.
“I’ve been playing the drums now for over 30 years. A lot of people think that playing the drums is an aggressive act. It’s not. If anything, it’s an act of relaxation.”
The music that sustains him is progressive rock. ‘Prog rock’ developed in the late 1960s and pushed the boundaries of rock music by emphasising experimentation and concept-driven lyrics (Masterclass).
“Progressive metal or rock is the genre of music that I gravitate towards. There’s a jazz element to that, there’s also a rock and a heavy metal element to that.”
Dream (Theater) come true
Nicholas has been writing his own songs and chatting with prog rock musicians on his podcast, which he started during the pandemic. One of his interviewees was Montreal-based singer James LaBrie, the vocalist of progressive metal band, Dream Theater.
Dream Theater has released 15 studio albums to date and won a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 2022.
It was a dream come true for Nicholas when LaBrie agreed to collaborate with him on his track. “Growing up with Dream Theater as my favorite band to now be working and collabing with the vocalist of Dream Theater is just, you know, a ‘pinch-myself’ moment.”
“And that puts everything into perspective. Not only in a personal realm but also in business and in what we do here at Afea. If you work hard, dream big, anything is possible.”
Afea in Melbourne
Let’s dream big together. We look forward to welcoming more people into our Melbourne family!
If you, a loved one or a client is in need of Melbourne disability care, whether that’s in-home or community care services, support coordination or plan management, simply submit your details through this link and we’ll be in touch.
We are also continuously onboarding support workers located in Victoria. Become an Afea Carer now.
Interested in joining our team? Check out our current opportunities!
