Paige Morgan will never change, but that doesn’t mean she won’t surprise you. Just the journey of making a record has surprised Paige herself.
The 20-year-old singer-songwriter is ready to make her debut, and this summer she enters wailing with first single “Never Change” (out August 6). Co-written by the Vancouver production team Heratix (indie-pop fans will know them as Dirty Radio) it’s a perfect introduction in the first five seconds. Prepare to get slapped with a massive pop sound, a soaring but sweet voice and the Paige mission statement: “Never Change.”
The song, she says, has a simple message: be yourself no matter what.
So who’s Paige?
Ask the singer and she’ll tell you she’s a lady who “works hard to play hard” – even if play, for Paige, means spending her spare time in studio with kindred pop-smiths like Kevvy Mental (of Fake Shark Real Zombie) and Louise Burns.
Ask her collaborators and they’ll tell you she’s a major talent and kind of a pop chameleon: intuitive, versatile, “genre-straddling.”
You can hear that gift in her vocals alone, says Anthony Dolhai of Heratix. On “Cutaway” her croon is smooth, sensual – coyly peeking from the song’s wispy layers of synths. On “Never Change” she’s a different character entirely, belting at full volume, charged with club-diva verve.
“Paige’s voice is strong and incredible,” marvels Tino Zolfo (Soul Decision), who worked with her in Toronto. Their recordings? She nailed them all in one take.
But getting to this stage hasn’t been so easy – though at first it seemed it might be. The journey started when Paige was a teenager. Every singing competition she entered, she aced. By 16, while performing at a music teacher’s recital, she caught the notice of a producer in the crowd. That connection led to her meeting Josh Ramsay of Marianas Trench, and the Juno-winner, in turn, ultimately introduced her to Vancouver’s 604 Records. (They’ll release her upcoming album, expected later this year.)
Getting “discovered” at random was exciting, but it was no golden ticket. In the earliest days, before the record deal, some people didn’t see the full package. They had their own idea of what a pretty high-school kid should be recording.
“I was 16 – a little, blonde, 16-year-old girl who wanted to be this pop singer,” Paige says. At one point, a producer offered her a song. She was flattered – thrilled – but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. “The song was just so bubblegum pop, I couldn’t even sing it. I tried and I tried – I didn’t want to be a diva,” she remembers. “But it just wasn’t me.”
What’s more “her” is a song with words she can believe in – lyrics she writes herself – a song that’s still perfect when you strip it down to voice and piano. Sure, she covers the traditional territory: love (“Paralyzed”), heartache (“Sundays I Miss You the Most”), party-time (“High Life”). But there’s a personal bent to her songwriting.
As for the sound, Paige has always been an “R&B, soul kind of girl.” Etta James is a favourite. A pianist since childhood, she’ll obsess over a Stevie Wonder recording. But just listen to the record and you’ll understand she’s definitely a student of Top 40 pop. She loves Rihanna, Calvin Harris – and finds inspiration in how a few simple chords can conjure massive sound and feeling.
"All the songs, they bring a memory to me,” Paige says of her debut disc. “That's why these songs are so special to me,” she says. “The record’s not so much telling a story. It’s just who I am and who I've become over the past years."
In the last year and a half, while compiling her debut album, new friends and collaborators watched that evolution. She raves about every co-writer and producer involved – a genre-blending team including Ryan Stewart (Carly Rae Jepsen), Adaline, and Colin Janz.
Every song, as a result, has its own pop flavour – ranging from banging club sounds to calypso-pop to piano ballads. Paige loves the mix. That perfect amount of variety wouldn’t exist without every collaborator’s individual signature. It’s another reason why “Never Change” is her M.O.
“There are so many people out there who are trying to be the All-American Girl or they want to be someone, because that’s who they think you should be. And I don’t think you need to be anybody but yourself. I’ve always lived by that, so it’s fitting that ‘Never Change’ is my single.”
Paige won’t change, but her world is about to. Just wait for her single to drop August 6.
