Chances are, you’ve seen and heard Paige McCauley before. The 15-year-old freshman at Landmark Christian School has performed at a number of local venues including the Legacy Theatre, the Frederick Brown Jr. Amphitheater, Eddie’s Attic and more. She hopes that you’ll be hearing a lot more of her soon as her EP, “The Little Things” comes out this week. She will mark the occasion with a release party at Maguire’s Family and Friends in Senoia on Saturday from 7:30-11 p.m.
McCauley has been perfoming country music since the age of five. She moved to Georgia from Texas and started doing theater. Several years ago she decided she wanted to become a singer-songwriter and has been pursuing that. Instead of just simply hoping that she would write songs and find an audience, McCauley worked hard at it. In addition to penning lyrics and having a teacher help hone her craft and doctor some of the songs, she worked with numerous music teachers on piano and guitar and started going to Nashville to network and work with others in the industry. In Nashville, she worked on a local cable program for country music and started meeting more people that introduced her to others.
Eventually the acoustic versions of her songs found their way to some producers. They wanted to take the songs and give them accompaniment from a full band. McCauley than started the process of recording the vocals, sending them to the musicians, all professionals who had worked with some major country artists, and then re-recording the vocals over their music before sending it to New Jersey where the songs were mastered by Richard Dodd, who has worked with artists like Wilco, Steve Earle and The Dixie Chicks.
“Some of the lyrics, I wrote in seventh grade, and the ideas would come at all times of the day,” McCauley said.
Her mother, Lisa, remembered seeing the lights come on in Paige’s room late at night. “I’d say, you’re supposed to be asleep and she’d say ‘don’t stifle my creativity’,” Lisa said. She supported her daughter’s dream and has helped her get to where she is today. Right now, that seems like the precipice of something big. Lisa stated that people have been very impressed with the quality of the songs and the writing, adding that they don’t feel like adolescent songs aimed at a distinctly young crowd. McCauley is aiming for a wide audience and hopes to launch a music career that offers her the opportunity of reaching as many people as possible.
“I love how some songs that I hear seem to relate to my life and I want that for my songs, for some people to feel the same way about my music,” McCauley said.
That being said, she isn’t rushing towards a label. She wants to wait until she is in the best possible position, polished and loaded with great songs, and there is still high school to think about. McCauley, who currently has a 4.0 at Landmark, is loving high school and will perform the role of Dorothy in the school’s production of “Thoroughly Modern Mille,” next spring. She has appeared in productions like “The Sound of Music” at the Fox Theater, “The Wiazrd of Oz” at the Alliance Theater, and “Children’s Letters to God” at Legacy Theatre (she was nominated for a Suzi Bass Award) among others. Ultimately though the focus is on becoming a singer-songwriter and there is something to do nearly every day to get closer to that goal. She practices piano and guitar every day, works with her band several times a month and continues to write music and work with Cody Sisco at The Stage Academy on her songs. Her band includes Becky Clark, Nathan Jones, Erick Bergman, David Bergman and Patty O’Malley. With the imminent release of her EP, there were also interviews with the newspaper and an interview and performance last week on 92.5 FM The Bear.
When she isn’t working on her own songs, McCauley enjoys listening to Adele, Sara Bareilles and Colbie Caillat, not a bad group of singer-songwriters to follow and aspire to be like.
McCauley is looking forward to performing at Maguire’s this Saturday and having people hear her EP. It is available on her web site, www.PaigeMcCauley.com and will also be available on iTunes and Amazon starting Nov. 5.
