Making Waves on the music scene
23-year-old Aucklander admits to feeling ‘a bit shocked’ at being a finalist in this year’s Aotearoa Music Awards. By Uma Ahmed.
Paige Tapara is basking in the sunlight at a friend’s house, taking a well-deserved break.
The 23-year-old singer, known more commonly through the mononym Paige, has had quite the year. When we talk she’s celebrating being a finalist for the Breakthrough Artist category for this year’s Aotearoa Music Awards for her EP Always Growing.
The awards are tonight and in that category she’s up against Chaii ( Lightswitch), Jawsh685 ( Laxed) and Melodownz ( No Mercy). Previously, Tapara was nominated twice under the producer category for her songs Yellow, and Waves.
‘‘I feel a bit shocked, which is, I don’t know – maybe that’s normal,’’ she says.
‘‘I feel like I haven’t been in the industry very long, so it’s really nice to be recognised. And supergrateful and it means that I’m doing something right.’’
Up until recently Paige was working at a Krispy Kreme in Manukau, South Auckland. Even though she’d signed a record deal with Arista Records in New York last year, she stayed on handing out doughnuts.
‘‘I’m glad that I did retail while I was doing music because it kinda just sort of gives you some grounding point. And good social experience, good work ethic and all that sort of thing that kind of sets you up for life. You know? So I’m really glad I did that job.’’
While it felt bittersweet leaving after three years, as she loved working there, she was happy to be able to finally do music full-time.
Tapara has been singing and songwriting since the age of 10 and uploading videos to YouTube. Her stage name came from wanting to be genuine.
‘‘About who I am as a person and I feel like if I were to give myself a false name that wasn’t my own name, I don’t think it would resonate well with the music.’’
Her song Bloom has had more than 6 million plays on Spotify since its release last year.
Although she comes from a family of music lovers, none of them is musical. She grew up in a household that had music playing all the time: a mixture of Motown, disco, funk, jazz and more.
George Benson is a favourite. ‘‘[He sings] Give Me The Night, which is so funny because it doesn’t sound like anything I’ve made, but it’s a song that I always refer back to.’’
Her family are particularly supportive, and she recalled a time when they were eating at KFC when one of Tupara’s songs came up on the music system. They were all thrilled.
‘‘We were all sitting there and thinking like, I wonder if these people sitting here know it’s …’’
It’s reminiscent of a typical Kiwi story: On a talk show Lorde once spoke of a taxi ride when Royals came on but the driver didn’t make the connection to his passenger. It’s one of Tapara’s favourite stories – she’s a big fan.
Famous artists have tipped their hat to her: Billie Eilish, Lizzo and Ruby Rose have all shared Paige’s music on their Instagram.
Tapara said it felt overwhelming, but after the initial shock to the system it was easy to see these stars were just music fans too.
‘‘Nobody really cared about what I was doing until like I had these really big names next to my name. I mean it’s not something I love, because it’s quite hard but it’s still something I want to celebrate and kinda let everyone know that I’m grateful for it – big opportunity in that sense.’’