Interview: Getting to know Paulina

April 20, 2021

Brisbane-based singer-songwriter Paulina has just revealed her new single, Lonely Drives. We asked her to tell us about herself:

I am… Paulina. I am sixteen years old and was actually born in Germany, but I moved to Australia when I was two, so I would say I am more of an Aussie than a German. However, with that being said, I love my home country, and have so many friends and family over there, which is why before COVID my mum and I used to travel back every year. We’re both just waiting until we can finally fly back again!

Lonely Drives is… A song that addresses how cruel your mind can be sometimes, how anxious and upset you can feel at times and how mad you can be at the world for things not going the preferred or right’ way. However, it then expresses the true beauty of simply going on drives, alone. Being alone, is the most beautiful thing you can do, to sit with and acknowledge your feelings, but also let go of them and look forward to what’s next in life, in this case, letting yourself go and driving wherever you truly desire.

Home is… where my mum is. I genuinely feel so safe and so at peace whenever I’m with her. Even while travelling in foreign countries, where I sometimes felt a bit on edge and a bit out of place, I still felt at home with her. Knowing that she’s around, to make me laugh, to talk and listen to me, and to hug me, means the absolute world, and so I truly don’t know what I’m going to do the day I move out and leave her haha! I don’t know if it’s because she’s my mum, or because she’s my best friend, either way, we are so incredibly inseparable, and I don’t know what I would do without her. We just share such a deep connection, and truly ‘get one another.’ Even though I know a mum and a daughter’s relationship is often quite special, for me personally I just find it’s special on a whole ’nother level.

I spend too much time… at school. I’ve only got a year and a half left woohoo! Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love school – it’s been like a second home for me since I can remember, and I truly am going to miss it – however I cannot wait to leave school and experience life to the next level. I’m so keen on going to Uni and studying what I really want to be studying (music !!), and I can’t wait to meet new, incredible people and most importantly, I can’t wait to travel more!!! I so desperately want to move to London and one day Paris, and just see where life takes me. To think that in 5 years, I will be doing who knows what, in who knows which country around who knows what people, excites me so so so much!

I’ve never… scuba dived with a great white shark. That is one of, if not the highest thing on my bucket list. Since I was about 8 years old, I have dreamt of freely scuba diving with a great white in Cape Town! I find sharks are one of the world’s greatest gifts, and are such fascinating, mesmerising animals. Honestly, my biggest wish in the world, would be that humans stopped fearing these incredible creatures, and instead saw them for what they truly are, intelligent, beautiful animals.

It might surprise people to know that… I’m actually a really happy person despite my sad songs. I’m a big believer in the universe and the idea that everything truly does happen for a reason. Knowing that I experience particular things and go through certain hardships in life, to prepare me in life through the lessons learnt, brings me so much peace. And also knowing that happiness comes within me and not from any other objects or materialistic things is such a basic belief, yet so vital in living a truly happy life. By loving the people around me, the things I am doing every day, the nature around me and most importantly loving myself, has made me so incredibly happy and this journey of life just so beautiful.