"Jessica Paige, my favourite singer-songrwriter" Adam Hills (when he introduced me on his pilot episode of Gordon Street)
"it's so great hearing a young voice with so much song-writing ability...Jessica is going to do well". Ben Harper , 2011 (about Teddy's Song)
"You're shit-hot" Dan Sultan (he called this out to me and my brother when we were playing)
" Your songs are really good" Mark Seymour ( I played before him at a festival)
" Outstanding talent,. the real deal" John Butler ( I got a JB Seed Award)
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I am a singer/songwriter from Melbourne, Australia. I play solo, duo and with my band of awesome musicians..
You could say my musical genre is "alt pop" but I occasionally see that reviewers also use adjectives like "bluesy" "soulful", "jazzy, "cruisy", "relaxing", "minimalist". Anyway, I love melody and poetic lyrics. The Music Network wrote that I write "gorgeous melodies and delicious lyrics to match". Rolling Stone said I write " jazzy pop sophisticated beyond (my) years".
Now my album Once Upon a Time is available here andsongs from the launch are on Youtube. I wrote 5 of the songs with amazing pianist, Luke Howard. Luke's playing is just a revelation and the Montreaux Jazz competition judges obviously agreed with me, twice!
I started busking on Swanston Street, Melbourne when I was 15 and I still busk often in and around the Bourke Street Mall.
As Aussie legend, Ross Wilson told me he reckons busking is probably the hardest gig of all and I have well and truly paid my dues! And he thinks it is also largely responsible for my ease in front of an audience. Easy for him to say! I was actually on Adam Hills new TV show recently and I felt very nervous, but no-one seemed to notice. So I need to get more TV appearances under my belt in order for it to become easier.
My second EP, Under My Skin, was released November 2006 (my first was in 2004). I was so lucky and relieved when John Butler took me under his Indie wing and gave me a huge helping hand with a JB Seed grant that paid for promotion for my East Coast band tour that followed. Every year he seeks out acts that he thinks can contribute to the music scene and helps them out.. We then, of course, have the obligation to help out others in turn and pass it on!
Under My Skin went well for an Indie EP with limited means .. much better than I had even hoped for actually! My song was on the compilation disc gracing the COVER of ROLLING STONE magazine along with tracks from top Aussie musicians such as John Butler, Missy Higgins, The Waifs, The Cat Empire and many more. They put my picture and profile in the magazine as well. I was off to a flying start - Australian Guitar Magazine also ran a feature about me and John Butler together. I was also interviewed by radio legend Barry Bissell for his internationally syndicated Top 40 Countdown show and I played live on air too.
The launch of my EP was held at The Spanish Club in Fitzroy and it was one of those times when everything that could go wrong did go wrong! Aaagh!. I held it in a lovely stately old venue with lots of atmosphere, but the sound system had a lot of wiring problems and I had a young sound guy in there. At one stage he was like a deer in the headlights as the feedback and the buzzing got too much for the system. To top it off, I had just got out of hospital and wasn't feeling my best, but I couldn't let all that work, the band, the audience, the money to advertise the gig in the press and radio etc go down the drain. So I was kind of propped up and everything was going quite well until the sound debacle. But I believe in the "act like everything is cool principle" and I just decided we should switch to acoustic guitars and everything worked out pretty well in the end.
A couple of months later, after the band tour and a solo tour I was delighted to find that Under My Skin was added to rotation on Qantas in-flight radio, sandwiched between Kelly Clarkson and Gwen Stefani. Not bad going for an Indie song!
The following year, 2007, I played at Live and Local for the huge St. Kilda Festival. Foxtel filmed my gig for their Max Music channel documentary entitled "Launch of Legends". It featured an interview and footage of the gig. The next year I was invited back to play the festival with my band of Paige Boys.
Writing Under the Influence...
Well we all like to think we are totally original, but actually we are all influenced by lots of things, sometimes hard to pin down, but I am going to try....I listened to a lot of The Beatles, Billy Joel, Elton John when I was a teenager. Notably all strongly melodic and lyric-driven. My father is a master singer/songwriter, vocalist and guitar player (Steve Romig). His songs again have great lyrics and melodies that really stick in your head. Now my brother Josh is also a singer-songwriter and he writes really beautiful tunes and has a great turn of phrase lyrically.
My favourite songwriters now are Rufus Wainwright and Ray Lamontagne. I also love Bonnie Rait, Amy Winehouse, The Weepies and local musicians like Nick Roy (my former housemate) and my brother Josh's music .
When I was 16 or so, I really didn't know if my songs were "any good", so I decided to put them in song contests and see what other people thought. (It is surprising hard to get real feedback on songs - everyone says "it's good, I like it", and that doesn't help a writer get better). They started getting awards in local, then national and international contests. At that stage it gave me a lot more confidence. Nowadays it is enough for me if I like the song, after all I am writing it for me! But at that point it was a real boost to me. (Full list of awards here ). An award that means a lot to me is the APRA Songwriter Award I got in the national Musicoz competition.
In 2009 my unreleased song Sleepy Head was selected for the UN/Fender Music Foundation's competition for Bandtogether2 Compilation. That is nice - a simple acoustic song just done in my home studio :). It renews my faith.
My songs are available by download on over 60 download sites (like ITunes and JB Hifi downloads).
Cannon and Paige - this is a jazz standards duo I have with multi award-winning jazz guitarist Glenn Cannon, suitable for all types of special events, parties and weddings. I love the way he plays guitar, a special touch and he never plays any song the same twice!
I have recently been to the US a couple of times to take on a bigger picture for my music career, particularly my songwriting. So I went to L.A, Nashville and New York, I met up with some really wonderful people in the music industry and that has lead to a few new projects which I will update you about on my blog from time to time.
cheers,
Jess
©2011
