Years of building her craft and finding herself has taken Rotorua musician Alayna Powley on an exciting journey - and the year 2022 is looking to be a busy one for her.
Alayna signed a record deal with Canada-based Nettwerk Music Group last year, and is working to finish her debut album in 2022.
At the end of last year her music on Spotify had 7.6 million streams, with 2.2 million listeners from 172 countries.
The artist from Hamurana says her family is a musical one.
"Mum and Dad love music and we grew up with it. Dad would play guitar a lot and teach us songs.
"I sang for him the first time when I was about 6 years old. He said, 'Oh, you've got a pretty good voice', and I have been singing from then."
She says she went through her school years singing, and her dad would play guitar while she sang, but she started to learn to play guitar herself, along with a bit of piano.
In high school Alayna started getting into making her own music and wrote her first song when she was about 15 years old.
She then went on to university, studying music at MAINZ in Auckland.
"That's when it all really clicked that I wanted to write my own stuff and figure out myself as an artist."
After four years she finished her studies at MAINZ and moved to America for just over a year.
She was 23 when she put out her first song out and moved to New York.
"I wanted to go somewhere where I could do something on my own. I almost went to start again, and to learn more about myself. It just so happened my music started actualising at the same time.
"I worked at a restaurant and did music in my spare time. I got to meet really cool people, and some scouts and labels were reaching out which was exciting."
Alayna says, "I was living in Brooklyn. It's quite an artsy district, there's heaps of creatives and artists.
"New York had a lot of like-minded people to me - there to follow their dreams. Within three months it felt like home."
She says she was lucky to make some amazing connections in the music industry while in the United States, such as working on a song with producer Finneas O'Connell, the brother of well-known singer-songwriter Billie Eilish.
She also got to do things such as visiting labels and going to the Capitol Records Building.
Alayna says working with different producers and seeing how things worked in the industry was pretty amazing.
"I learned a lot from all the people I met, and a lot about myself."
Alayna moved back to New Zealand after just over a year, and continued to make trips back to New York and Los Angeles. However, Covid-19 has since halted those music trips.
Since moving back to New Zealand Alayna has released two EPs, and signed the record deal for her debut album in the middle of last year.
"That's what I've been working on over the last two years - my debut album of at least 12 songs. It's exciting but also daunting.
"It's definitely been a huge journey, and there's been quite a lot of highs and lows.
"I'm still trying to search for myself with my music, it hasn't all fully clicked yet."
Alayna says she is not trying to put her music into a specific genre, as she doesn't want to give herself too many barriers.
She remembers when her music reached its first million streams on Spotify.
She was at work in New York when she checked the numbers and saw the milestone. Alayna quietly left the building and walked around the block in a silent celebration, as her colleagues didn't know she made music.
"A good thing about Spotify is you can get on a playlist and then get a whole new listenership. I've been really lucky with algorithms and getting on the right playlists."
The head of the label she has signed with - Nettwerk Music Group - managed Coldplay for years.
"It's full of a whole lot of people that were in the industry and want to do cool music with people. They just felt right."
She says the biggest thing about not having been able to travel is that most of her relationships with the label and her manager are online.
Alayna says although Covid-19 halted her trips overseas, it gave her time to reflect and grow her connections here in New Zealand.
"I loved it so much there [New York] but that doesn't make New Zealand any less special."
She says one positive change that had come from Covid was having Zoom sessions to work on songs online with other artists and producers in different countries, rather than having to travel there.
Her goals for 2022 are to finish her debut album, release more music, do some more live shows where she can, and to aim for music on New Zealand radio.
She also hopes to travel, though says that may have to be next year.
"I would love to go overseas again, back to New York for my soul."
Last year Alayna also made her own merchandise under the name of Tender Hearts Club, which includes jerseys and T-shirts.
For these and to keep an eye on her music updates, go to alaynamusic.com.
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