PAULA

Everybody who knows her personally and professionally knows that she has an unsaturated passion for both music and people. Her music speaks of love in all of its faces and facets, good or bad, right or wrong. Things people say, do and experience as a result thereof, is her key inspiration. She tells it like it is simply because in love, as in life, there are no shortcuts...

She has always been overtly of the opinion that her music talent is a true God-given and inspired gift. Her reason for this belief is based on the facts that, despite her inability to read or write sheet music, she is able to compose any song "by ear" with relative ease, and her vocal chords suffering major damage as a result of two laryngitis attacks. Yet she successfully composed, recorded and released her own original songs on three CD albums (country and gospel genres respectively) between 2001 and 2005 as an independent artist.

She started her music career at the age of 5 by banging out notes on glasses of water filled at different levels. By the age of 10 she competed in Eisteddfods and proved she had a voice to be reckoned with when she won a silver diploma despite a severe laryngitis attack a few weeks before the competition. At 15 she suffered such severe damage to her vocal cords after another laryngitis attack that no one thought she would ever be able to sing again.

For over six months she literally had no voice. When she eventually regained her vocal status, she was horrified as her voice sounded harsh and very unpleasant. But she wouldn't accept the inevitable. Without any professional training in music, she discovered the world of composing to be a worthy substitute. By the age of 30 she has composed enough material (country rock / ballad style) to put together almost 10 full original albums. With so much material at her disposal, she was determined to release at least one album of her own and started developing her voice again.

January 2001 she took on the biggest challenge of her life and started working with Elfhaven Productions in Johannesburg on her debut album at her own cost, time and pace. February 2002 saw the birth of the demo album "From Paula...with love" containing the first four original works destined to generate the remaining funding for completion of the full album and test the demand. She produced another six songs and added them to the above four to complete the full album entitled "Language of Love" and although it was ready in May 2003, it was only released officially during the beginning of 2005.

Sometime after the release of her second album, Paula started feeling the urge to produce a gospel collection to say thank you to the One who made all this possible. She was surprised when she learned that she could write and sing in Afrikaans since this was a severe hindrance to her before even though she was raised in an Afrikaans environment. Whilst working on the album, all kinds of harsh misfortune literally became a daily threat to her previous ordinary life. Financial, emotional, spiritual and physical barriers sprang from nowhere to create all kinds of mayhem in her inner family circle. But she refused to give up.

Applying "preventative maintenance" by praying and believing, she sometimes had very little more than her faith to carry her. She produced the dynamic gospel album "Do you know Him?" and released it in June 2005. The album features a collection of original English and Afrikaans songs presented in a way gospel has never been heard before. The album's focus is around the question "Where does God fit into your day?" and is bound to rock the world of Christians everywhere.

Beginning of 2006 saw the birth of a total new era. She ventured into international terrain by signing a digital distribution deal on the "Language of Love" album with CD Baby.

She designed her own digital recording studio and while the building was in progress, she enrolled for a course in Recording Engineering and Music Production with the Audio Institute of America. June 2006 she successfully passed her examinations with flying colours and proudly received her diploma before she moved on to form her own independent recording label.

She is currently working on a new gospel album which is expected to see the light in 2010.