Angela's Biography

It's hard to know where to start when asked to give an updated résumé on my musical history. I guess the obvious place is my childhood. I came from a family of extraordinarily gifted musicians and was influenced throughout my childhood by the family's tastes, which covered pretty much every genre.

My older brothers demonstrated the feasibility of a musical career while I was growing up, and taught me the ukulele and guitar. I was helping paste up posters, being a soundboard for their original material, and eventually became old enough to go to their gigs. We all made music together in harmony and all 5 kids took part.

I feel as though I've done about everything in the music industry that it's possible to do, in the 15 years since I made the decision that music would be my career, my living. That decision has taken me from New Zealand, to Britain, Ireland and the Continent. While being a performing musician all that time, I've also managed to cram in teaching, writing for various music magazines, touring as a backing vocalist, stage management, events management, lots and lots of session work, production and engineering.

I've run a folk festival in Scotland, owned an award winning recording studio, sung the praises of Stuff, from talcum powder to cordial, in advertising, run a variety of workshops, started a performers club, a songwriters group, and committed committees!

I've been very wealthy and I've gotten funding and grants to do various musical projects, and I've also wondered where my next meal was coming from. I'm maintaining my determination to make ends meet by doing what I love. My guitar and voice have been passports for me, opening doors of all kinds and leading me into astounding adventures, landing me in amazing places. I've played from massive to tiny audiences.

I've met so many varieties of musicians it seems, and have jammed to the wee hours with some of my all-time heroes. I've performed in castles, and hovels, and I've been on TV, radio, and in the newspapers more times than I can remember, and sometimes, in some places, I've been “famous”.

After four years of doing music therapy with the Scottish Society for Autism and young offenders in Scotland I was advised by my doctor to choose between a break or a breakdown. So I took a break touring my fourth album “Arrow” though Britain, then New Zealand. When I got to the Australian leg of the tour, it seemed to me that Maleny was the place to stop, take stock, and make some serious decisions about my pace, my place, and what I wanted from my life, now, and what I wanted from my music.

I’ve been doing a Design and Visual Arts course at Auckland’s Unitec  (Mt Albert) with the aim of gaining a bachelors degree. I’m 6 months into it, and am feeling fully engaged and inspired by the tuition I’ve been getting.  I’m looking at things in a completely different way, am learning things I never would have known of, and trying techniques I would never have thought of. And I’m making art that I love.

It’s very different from what I have been doing up to now. My return to New Zealand has refreshed my love for Maori art and mythology, and my interest in my own Celtic background/art/history/mythology, have all been amalgamated into my latest pieces.

And after 14 years of roaming the planet, I’m indulging in a renewed love affair with Aotearoa. I feel this in the work I am doing now.