When it all changed

It was just after Easter 2014 and I’d experienced a string of family deaths. My health was shot and I felt overworked and under-appreciated. I ran my own business, managed staff and overheads as well as a home and family with two adorable children under three. My creative spark was fried.

I had bought front row tickets to see my favourite singer-songwriter, not knowing that the performance date would fall on the night of my Aunty’s funeral. After some family coxing we agreed to still go to the show, and I felt a transformation that night that would change everything for me.

You see, I was born into a musical family. My dad in several bands during his younger years, my grandmother an award winning piano teacher of 60 years and a classical music advocate. A music nerd, I self-scheduled a timetable of lessons in my younger years; piano, ensemble, theory, solo vocals, percussion, school band, choir and school musicals- rotating my stage performances with my role in the accompanying band.

But then I pursued a career with a BA in Graphic Design/Multimedia and have run my own Web & Graphic Design Studio Phunkemedia ever since.

I was so touched by the performance that night that it made me deeply sad that I had left my music behind. It wasn’t the first time I’d felt that way, but I decided it would be the last. I had received an awakening that night that I wouldn’t ignore, and it was over the many months that followed that I began my transformation from one type of creative back to another.

It was several years ago now that I made the conscious decision to reconfigure my priorities and inject music back into my life so that I could seriously start song-writing. I downsized my design studio and responsibilities, retrained in piano, guitar and vocals, as well as penned many collected thoughts into songs. All this while growing up my little poppets, who continue to keep growing!! Being miles from anywhere, we built a music studio in the back yard and I began recording those works that had been bubbling up inside.

…And the rest is revealing itself every day…