Getting to Know Bella Paton

May 26, 2021

Gold Coast artist Bella Paton has just released her new single, Spacey. We asked her to tell us about herself:

I am… Bella Paton. I am a musician from the Gold Coast. I work with my beautiful band and producer to make glittery tracks and we try our best to bring them to life at live shows.

Spacey is… my latest single. It’s a super real and honest track of mine as it deals with the struggle of living in the often chaotic and (let’s be honest) pretty awful world. Its main theme is exploring how love can be such an escape from these times and the world in general. It is easy to sink into a bubble of just you and your person.

Home is… wherever people I love are. I think the only thing that really feels like home is being with someone you love so much. People who you are completely yourself around.

I spend too much time… not in silence or being present! My brain is never off and I’m always listening to podcasts or music all the time. It’s like I’m allergic to silence.

I’ve never… picked up my trumpet again since I was a kid. I used to play a bunch in school and concert bands but when I was in primary school I had really bad teeth before braces and was told by my trumpet teacher I was an “awful player” because of my “awful teeth”. I dropped it right then and there. Not really sure what my teacher’s goal in telling me that was..

The last 12 months have been… literal madness. I think being inside has taken and massive toll on all of us. especially when you are the sort of person who gets inside their head a lot which i definitely am. I remember that one notorious week of Covid when all live music venues (and venues in general) shut down and I lost all my gigs. I was in big time denial like, ‘surely this isn’t happening? Surely some places will stay open!’ Lost all my work in one week and had only just moved out of home two months ago! Stress central! I’m telling you! Especially being so young and just craving independence at the time. I had some really awful roommates at the time who made me feel really unwelcome in the house. I was stuck in a house with these crappy people and it was really awful. I think learning to make my own demos in Ableton and having the ability and more time and freedom to create was the only thing that kept me sane. I think it was the same for a lot of artists when the pandemic hit.

It might surprise people to learn that… despite playing, thriving off and enjoying the environment of a live show, I’m probably the biggest introvert you will ever meet. Seriously. I need two weeks alone to get over a party and have hidden in cupboards at social events just to take a second to breathe. It’s not that I don’t like socialising, it’s just that it really drains my energy. Time you can take to be alone is so golden to me.