Singer Ayda (16) on sold out shows and musical influences

AYDA WHYTE ON WHAT INSPIRES HER MUSIC AND HER INFLUENCES

BACK in the pandemic when most of us were learning how to make banana bread and watching a strange documentary about tigers, Ayda Whyte was one of millions of teenagers cooped up in her room, strumming on a guitar, wondering if life would ever be the same again.

In her case at least, life has become markedly different since restrictions eased, a budding career in music reaching new heights with a new single and a performance at a sold-out Wexford Arts Centre (WAC) supporting Wallis Bird.

Still just 16, Ayda’s journey began in earnest once public gatherings resumed. Having enrolled in the Summer Sessions Young Voices at the Arts Centre, she began writing her own music. The first song she wrote (“a cheesy little love song about some guy I liked at the time”) has since disappeared into the annals of music history, and in the intervening years the Loreto student has refined her craft, culminating in the release of Home, a brooding, mysterious track which has already received airplay on South East Radio.

“At the time that I wrote it, I was going in and out of friendships, a lot of stuff was happening at the one time and I couldn’t really take it to be honest,” she says. “I asked, ‘how can I make myself feel better? How can I not feel like this?’ And I said, ‘I’m going to write a song’. When I started writing it I couldn’t stop, the words just kept coming out, which is why it’s five minutes long.

“The lyrics have meaning but the melody has a bigger meaning, it’s a very slow song and I wanted it to describe someone passing away; the old me is passing away and I’m emerging as a new person.”

Such depth of feeling and emotion may seem uncommon in a person so young, but Ayda has been engaged with the arts, and the Arts Centre, since before she was born. Daughter of Elizabeth Whyte, Executive Director of the WAC, she was reared on live music, absorbing the atmosphere and emotion of one of the county’s most beloved venues while still in the womb.

There were further influences from dad, Kevin.

“I was growing up listening to trad, country, the music in here, and then Guns ‘n Roses in the car with my dad on the way to school, it’s helped me now because I don’t have a preference, I’ll listen to anything,” she says.

“She’s always been singing ever since she was a child, she used to sing into the hairbrush inside the wardrobe,” says Elizabeth. “Her dad would play a tune and she would get the melody straight away, and when she took part in the summer sessions you could see her begin to grow. It’s lovely to see her music develop.”

That growth reached new heights recently when Ayda performed her biggest show to date at the Arts Centre in front of more than 200 people, an experience which she says was both terrifying and thrilling.

“I was really nervous,” she says, I knew Wallis Bird was well-known in Wexford, but not that well-known. I looked out and saw 200 people and said, ‘oh my God, I’m going to die’. Then I stood up on the stage with the lights beaming down on me, my hands sweaty, and it went on to be one of the best shows I’ve ever done. If I’m going to have 200 people staring at me and listening to me I might as well do it right.

“Playing live is completely different, you’re terrified going up but the minute you start into your first song it’s like you own the world. It’s such a great feeling.”

With a couple of “happier songs” in her back catalogue, Ayda says she has an album in her, has enough material to produce one, but feels the songs are too personal, too raw, to be shared with the world just yet.

“Right now I’m not going to force my music on anyone, constantly talk about it or post about it, I’m just going to let it do its own thing and see where it goes. I want to take it slowly and let it grow on its own, and if something does happen it will happen because people have found music they want to hear.

“I have a couple of happier songs, but I find that most of my songs are sadder and slower because that’s how I get my feelings out. I hate talking to people about my feelings, it’s much easier to put it in a song. I do want to release an album, but as of now I don’t think I’m ready for it, I have a lot of songs that are ready to be put out but I’m not ready for anyone to hear them.”

Debut album or not, Ayda will keep making music, keep expressing her innermost thoughts and fears through the medium of art, and when she looks for inspiration, for an artist to emulate, she need only look down the road.

“I am Rachel Grace’s biggest fan, she’s so nice, I love her so much. The fact she’s from Wexford and lives down the road from me is terrifying, the amount of times I’ve seen her on the street and said ‘oh my God it’s Rachel Grace’, mam would say ‘go over and talk to her’, and I’d be like, ‘no, you have to come with me’.”

You can listen to Home and Ayda’s other single, Training Session, on Spotfiy.

I find that most of my songs are sadder because that’s how I get my feelings out