Pursuing your passion
- 19 Nov 2015
Ayla was awarded the 2014 Billy Thorpe Scholarship. She describes how the award has impacted on her career…
I’m a big believer in doing your best to make a living doing what you love. There are many facets to the music industry and – just like managers, agents, producers and all the rest – if singer songwriters have a passion for doing what they do and are good at it, I absolutely think they can make a living out of music. It takes time building up your career with songs, an image and a sound, and then I guess it takes time to break down all of those things and re-invent them to stay current, but it’s fun. Personally, there’s nothing I think I’d be more suited to devoting myself to than writing songs and performing them for people. Sharing music that you’ve created with people who enjoy listening to it is an incredible thing to do.
Since winning the Billy Thorpe Scholarship in March 2015, I have been able to progress my career by funding a music video as well as pre-production and production for my debut EP. The award was an honour to be nominated for and a blessing to win. It granted recognition to my career and enabled me to develop it to the next level. Being the first female to take out the award was a privilege. From when I was young, up to the past few years, it has been inspiring to see the success of many other female artists. These are women like Katie Noonan – who performed at the awards night – that have forged their own unique long-standing career paths. Women like Grimes who make fantastic material and produce it themselves, as well as the women in the industry who manage bands and festivals, book shows and make incredible things happen.
I’ve been singing, writing and playing music since I was young. When I was about fourteen, I decided that was what I wanted to do as a career. For anyone else who’s made that decision and is starting out in their music career, I recommend writing as many songs as you can write, playing a whole lot of shows and talking to a lot of different people in the industry to get as much background knowledge as you can. I’ve also found that the business of music is quite complex and that it really pays to find out as much as you can about it so you can be well prepared. I recommend finding out about the workings of all the things you’ll need as a musician such as publicity/marketing, publishing, grants/funding, writing, production – everything that you can really. Finding a network of fellow musicians as well as industry members and music organisations such as Queensland’s QMusic is also a fantastic way to get support for your career.
The QMusic awards are a wonderful outlet in giving recognition to musicians around the state and applying for the Billy Thorpe Scholarship for emerging Musicians puts you in the running to advance your career with resource and recognition.
In early 2014 Ayla marked her arrival on the Australian music scene with the release of her debut single, ‘Wish I Was’. The track was swiftly picked up by triple j, becoming their 15th most played track for the year. Internationally, ears were also pricked with ‘Wish I Was’ garnering attention around the world, resulting in a deal with Italian label Ego Music (Emma Louise and The Jezabels) and a subsequent Top 20 Remix EP and Top 10 single on the Italian iTunes charts. Ayla’s early song writing prowess was quickly recognised when her song ‘Talk About Home’ made it into the finals of the Teen category of the International Song Writing Competition in 2012, when Ayla was just 16. The following year she made it to the finals again, this time in two categories with ‘Wish I Was’. Since the release of her debut, Ayla has toured the East Coast of Australia sharing the stage with Katie Noonan, Husky and Bonjah to name a few. This year Ayla released an EP of the back of two follow up singles, which have both picked up rotation on triple j. Currently finishing up an East Coast headline tour and soon to play Woodford Folk Festival, Ayla is looking forward to another exciting year ahead.
Follow – Instagram & Twitter @ayla_live
Interact – www.facebook.com/AylaLive
‘Wish I Was’ Official Video Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13sSK8mk-aU
‘Waiting’ Ayla https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXfjVIpKnAQ
Listen – www.soundcloud.com/AylaLive & www.triplejunearthed.com.au/artist/Ayla