Jessica's Page

Ben Harper and me :)

Sat, 19 Nov 2011 22:51:07 GMT

A friend of mine (who put together the video of the song) via one of her friends, got my "Teddys Song" to all round amazing Grammy-winning activist, musician and song writer, Ben Harper. And this is what Ben Harper said -

"it's so great hearing a young voice with so much song writing ability...Jessica is going to do well".

Yes well Ben, many thanks, I am trying :) And I appreciate the encouragement from someone who knows so much about song writing .

I have a song about the importance of a few nice words, we all need that!

You can listen to Teddy's Song on my Music page.

ABC Radio

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 02:55:00 GMT

I was delighted today when I heard that ABC radio 774 am were playing my song "Never Land" . So I tuned in to hear Lindy Burns of the meliflously beautiful voice invite me to ring in and arrange an interview and come on to play live. Join my email list and I will let you know when I am on!

ABC radio plays all over Australia and it is what I have been trying to get on. ABC Radio guru Tim Richie befriended me on Facebook and I got into contact with him as I was trying to work out how to negotiate the ABC network without having to employ a radio plugger at great expense for uncertain response.

Tim Richie is a true music lover - he has been exploring a huge scope of music for years and his aim is to help people find new music that they will love. That excites me!

My album is now available on iTunes!

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 03:23:14 GMT

Here is the link :) or just search in iTunes for Jessica Paige "Once Upon a Time". It is $16.90 there for the 10 song download.
http://itunes.apple.com/au/album/once-upon-a-time/id443987569

If you want a copy of the cover art, let me know I can send it to you by email.

The difference between ordering it through iTunes and here on my site is just a couple of dollars. If you get the hard copy you also get the illustrated 10 page booklet - basically that is a few dollars more and then you copy the songs onto your system from the CD yourself. It is also available through CD Baby to order as a hard copy or download.

So it really just depends on where you are and how you like to get your music :)

If you do buy it from ITunes could you please leave a brief review and a star-rating to lead others to buy it there too ?

Jess x

My Dad is on Australia's Got Talent!

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 09:46:27 GMT

Hi
Dad (Steve Romig) is in th semi-final of "Australia's Got Talent" which is on Channel 7 at 7.30 p.m. around Australia tomorrow night ( 7th June). Check him out at www.steveromig.com . I would love it if you could also vote for him! SMS or phone the number they give you on TV before Friday. I will put it on here when I get it!
Dad will be singing and playing a song he wrote himself. I think he is a triple threat

May Day! Radio ready to go... can you help?

Tue, 03 May 2011 09:30:24 GMT

Three of the album tracks have just been added to the Airit site where community radio hosts all around Australia can go and get them digitally for their shows. If you know a radio host or show that my music would suit , please forward my name to them - they probably know about this site but here it is anyways. They can put my name in and search me out. I appreciate your help! This is only for May, so don't delay :) http://airit.org.au/airit/home.php Jess x

My Debut Album Launch!

Sun, 17 Apr 2011 02:55:00 GMT

Well you only get one go at having a debut album launch, so finally 4 years after my last release, here it is! Sunday May 22nd at The Northcote Social Club. Details on the Shows Page here on my website!

It is going to have a theme of stories and tales of course, and lighting and set design and... oh just come if you are in Melbourne! I am excited about performing with Shane Reilly on Pedal Steel - it is an unusual instrument and not many people can play it - it is one of the most difficult instruments to master - and Shane is a master - the sound is so beautiful, liquid, dreamy and makes a soundscape.... just gorgeous. Also Josh, my brother, will be there singing beautiful harmonies.

The second half will unveil my new band, Jessica Paige & the Golden Rule! These guys are seasoned musicians - I am incredibly lucky to have them! Spyder Marret on drums (formerly of Taxiride), plus Tim on keys and Barny on bass. I will be getting the gig filmed on the night too.

I did a radio interview last week with WITRR Blog radio Program. They played a very old song of mine from my first EP. But after some confusion about the time I had to ring ( 8 hours behind, he said - but it was actually 8 hours behind but on the day ahead... you know, that date line is a confusing thing,,)

I got new photos taken by my old buddy Ricky Bond, who also took the Little Fish photo. I got my Princess alter-ego out and a forest and gorgeous dress, and.... anyway they are beautiful. See them on my Photos page here on my website.

My albums are selling like hot cakes when I busk and I am really happy that people are so excited to get them. Here are some comments I have had lately :

"I am showing everyone your music, just loving ur CD, incredible voice, incredible music, incredible songwriting." Cam Nacson
"Hi Jess, you capture my imagination and you're so inpiring " Paul Cruikshank
"Beautiful CD. Love the sound, rich and resonant. Very McGarrigle sisters at times." Neil Wedd
"Loving the new album! I urge everybody to run out and panic-buy it right now" Richard Burleigh (Melbourne)
".. a big thanks for sending the new signed album. Sound quality of you AND the instruments is fantastic. Some fantastic piano, really powerful." Adrian Smith ( UK)
"The CD - I play it every day..I'm no expert but I know talent when I see it. Wow she is a talent!" Craig Dickenson ( S.A.)
"You play such soul moving music I fell asleep with your cd playing and just woke up to your voice - best wake up ever :) " Lyndsey Mason - Wodonga

Well after 3 years making the album, that is so nice to hear, believe me. I did the best I could possibly do, and it makes me feel so good that people like the songs.
Jess x

Apra Professional Development Awards Finalist - I am on the shortlist!!

Sun, 30 Jan 2011 08:28:07 GMT

APRA - Australia's copyright and royatly association - sent me an email this week and said that there were a record number of entries this time for their biennial PDA awards and that I am a finalist! The prize consists of $12,000 cash ( and what musician doesn't need an injection of cash to record, film, release, promote, tour !) plus some gear and $1500 for travel. I have plans for every bit of that prize.... .. so here's hoping! We find out who the 3 pop/contemporary/blues/rock/ssoul /hip hop/folk/r & b etc winners are on Monday March 14th! There will be one winner out of the • Country • Jazz • Classical • Film and Television music • Indigenous music categories. Previous winners include such wonderful musicians as Wally De Backer (Gotye), Vassy, Mia Dyson, Michael Yezerski, Abbe May, Amira Pyliotis, Laura Jean Englert and Dianna Corcoran. The shortlist of finalists, narrowed to 250 from 2,500 is now available at the APRA website www.apra-amcos.com.au/pda APRA does a great job of running seminars and sponsoring competitions locally and nationally for musicians and I have benefitted from their assistance many times. Plus it is pretty good that every time I play my own songs at a gig, I can log that and get paid for it annually as part of the distribution from their fee collection from venues. Without the help of the government grant programs, the competitions, and other mentorships and helping hands it would be much harder to release anything. Not to mention the help that we get from other musicians with more experience who often step up and offer the benefit of their experience. Anyways, at last my album is at the replication plant! Can't wait to see it!! I will put the picture here soon :) Jess x

Steve Poltz gig review!

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 11:15:00 GMT

Steve Poltz at Riverview Function Centre, Footscray by Carly Findlay (abridged review)
Find the full review here with photos:
http://carlyfindlay.blogspot.com/2011/02/steve-poltz-at-riverview-function.html

The Riverview Function Centre overlooks the Maribyrnong River, the city skyline and Footscray Park. Very pretty.

Jessica Paige with Joshua Romig and Shane Reilly: Jessica sang most of the songs and Joshua sang one. I loved his voice. Jessica was a bit jazzy - a really beautiful and unique sound. She spoke to me after the show and thanked me for watching. A really nice girl. Shane played a string instrument ( pedal steel) with such precision - it was lovely. Gorgeous string work. The stage banter between Jessica and Josh was funny too.

Steve's gig was late but great! He said it would be 'the funnest show of the tour' and I think it was! He was silly, romantic, childlike, clever and made me think. He told some hilarious stories - Sack Off 99 was my favourite.

His fantastic guitar skills shone last night. As did his lyrics. He is a perfectionist, and when he made mistakes in a few songs, he profusely apologised.

There was serenading on chairs... Throwing chairs... Lots of head bobbing and goofy grins... He did a lot of requests: Street Fighter's Face, Pixie Stick Girl, Cold German, Medical Career...

My favourite part was the ballet followed by yoga poses to his own guitar solo, mid show
.And there was an all in singalong... There weren't many people at the show. It's a shame because I want the world to see this brilliance.

After the show, I had a hug from Steve. He liked my review, which was nice. Thanks for playing, Steve! It was a privilege to see you - you are an amazing musician - come back to Australia soon!
Oh and I forgot! Steve pashed two audience members!

Special gig on January 30th in Melbourne with San Diego musician Steve Poltz!

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 11:35:00 GMT

Hi,
Guess what!
I am doing a gig at a lovely venue on the Maribyrnong River on Sunday January 30th supporting Steve Poltz ( a famous singer songwriter who co-wrote a hit song with Jewel). He is funny and very quirky and extremely entertaining... which is why you should get your tickets early as there isn't that many.

The artwork on my album Once Upon a Time is just about done.. it looks like an old time story book - just what it should be since most of the songs were born from the influences of the books and stories I read when I was a child. :)

I am still busking in the city most Friday and Saturday nights when I'm not playing elsewhere.

Jess x

We won the Australian Songwriters Ass'n Award: Contemporary/Dance/ Pop AND the Open sections!!

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 00:10:00 GMT

Hi

A song I co-wrote called "Miss You", has just won 2 sections of the Australian Songwriters Association competition!

The story in brief:
For quite a few years I had been co-writing with Jesse Marantz, from a southern suburb of Melbourne in his studio. We have written quite a few songs and they are upbeat pop in style - we wrote a song together a couple of years back which had potential. Jesse and Josh, my brother, worked on it together and Josh sang it in his inimitable way Jesse got to the point that it sounds really great!! It was in the finals of 5 categories and won 2 of them.

The ASA is an organisation that runs a yearly competition and they get thousands of entries - in fact they say they are the largest song competition in the country.... they are all for recognising songwriting excellence and have been doing so for 31 years now!

http://www.asai.org.au/ The song is here for you to hear . What do you reckon?

Jess

I now have www.jessicapaige.com and www.jessicapaige.net!

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 23:46:09 GMT

Yes I got the .com of my domain which will be great.. I didn't get it when I first started because a young girl of the same name had it as kind of a hobby website in the US. So when it became avaiable a domain company emailed me and said I should put in a bid, so I did... and I got it.
Hard to know how these things work exactly but I wasn't ripped off, there were no dummy bids etc and I think the price was fair :) The guy even rang me from the US to say I got it.

SO now jessicapaige.com AND jessicapaige.net will both reach this site. Gradually over the next year I will replace the .net info on my links and cards etc and I will use the .com

Draft Busking regulations news

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 01:15:00 GMT

Well many of you know that I am and have been a busker since I was 14, in the city of Melbourne. Buskers must get a permit (currently free).
The Lord Mayor, John Doyle, who launched his draft Street Activity Policy this morning, believes a screening process would help raise the standard of street performers.

I was invited to go and represent buskers. I sang a couple of my songs to the TV cameras and was interviewed by various journalists (broadcast on all TV channels news programs and in The Age, The Australian, The Herald Sun ). The Lord Mayor reckons I am "a wonderful busker". Well, thank you very much.

The problem with auditioning buskers are many - I think they far outweigh the potential positives!
One problem is the idea of auditions outright - oh come on! Bad buskers don't last long. People have different ideas of what is good and bad and some people just need a break! Don't take our little freedoms away!
If you do have auditions, the proposed once a month is not regular enough and would cut out a lot of short term travelling buskers who we welcome.
I think it would be a shame to deny people the chance to perform. It takes guts to get out in public and sing and it is a great way to hone skills.
Our freedom to play is important but will be continually eroded by officials' need to over- regulate - the intention is to raise the standard of busking, but this will probably lower it because a lot of the great buskers will not be able to continue with the 2 hour set proposal. That might sound alright until you realise that it takes a couple of hours to get there and set up the gear ( and some buskers like me have a heavy P.A.,and battery set-up, instruments, CD's, stands etc). Then to play 2 hours and have to move to a new location makes the whole thing such a pain.

The whole idea of auditions is not new, Sydney does it and after they brought in similar regulations everyone says the standard of buskers went right down!. Bad buskers - there are some that don't sound so great - but it is obviously one of the ways they choose to help themselves. Most people see them and understand why they are there. New buskers might not have a lot of songs, but they will quickly learn more.. contrary to the assertion that buskers play one song over and over. I have been there a long time, we have good communiction between us buskers and word gets around who is doing what on the street.
A note regarding amplification - if we are no longer allowed to be amplified we would blow out our voices and no-one could hear acoustic guitar more than a couple of metres away. The three wonderful nylon string guitar players ( SANTOS) in the Mall would not be heard ( nylon strings are so soft). There are no little sound shell areas where the sound carries acoustically. We can't turn up over a certain decibel limit - a council inspector comes around and measures our volume with his audio metre and advises us if our volume has crept up, as it can, to battle the doof doof noises coming out of the shops, the general noise of the trams and traffic etc.. So let us retain our rights to amplification otherwise it is a death knell. Amplification also allows up to balance the intrument and the voice - it doent have to be really loud, just makes it clearer.

Here is the news item on it : Channel Nine News . And here is The Australian article .
The "angry resident" mentioned in the first story above has often stormed over to me, my brother, Josh and other buskers. She obviously hadn't taken into account that moving into a city centre to live there are noises from cars, people, music from shops and buskers, yelling, trams, etc. She chose to live on the noisiest corner right on Swanston Street and she thinks everyone should be quiet for her. Hmmmm. She was irate when the Lord Mayor had his launch as well. So she looked like a goose. I busk around there most Friday and Saturday nights and my brother busks those nights too. We get a lot of positive feedback!

I am afraid our freedom and choices to play music and be musicians will be whittled away bit by bit.
I love to play on the street for people, play my own songs, sell my CD's. People stop and gather around and start talking to each other. It brings us closer together. Sometimes it is absolutely magic.

Here is a short documentary about me busking that RMIT students made.

Jess