Georgia Lines is a powerhouse of enchanting vocals, creativity and enthusiasm. But it’s her softness and vulnerability that has become a key part of her songwriting style and sound.
From busking as a kid in Mount Maunganui and winning the 2014 Rockquest, to launching her first EP at the height of a global pandemic, the Tauranga-bred performer has worked hard to find success locally and abroad.
Georgia Lines has since accumulated numerous accolades (at the time of print, she was up for four honours at this year’s Aotearoa Music Awards) and supported international acts such as Dionne Warwick, George Ezra and Pentatonix. She also no longer has to work as a piano and vocal teacher to supplement her pop aspirations.
In August, the 28-year-old heads off to Nashville, at the same time as her new EP The Guesthouse is released. It’s a title inspired by a poem that Coldplay frontman Chris Martin shared with her at a party, about learning to embrace, rather than avoid, pain and healing.
Over a sparkling water, the talented artist chats to the Weekly ahead of her show Under the Stars with Friends at Auckland’s Civic Theatre this month.
Were you a kid who enjoyed taking piano lessons?
No! I started learning at eight because we had a piano at home that I would tutu away on. The lessons were theory-based, which I really struggled with. I wanted to play chords, and I remember taking my teacher a Brooke Fraser song and saying, “I’d like to learn this,” but she said, “We don’t learn chords here.” So I stopped and picked up the guitar instead. I found myself drawn to playing piano again at high school when I took music as a subject. I would have carried on with the theory if I could do the things I wanted to learn on the side – and I remembered that when I became a teacher.
Share a memory from busking with your younger brother Mackenzie.
Mack is four years younger and he could play the guitar as well. He also had the cute factor. We figured out that if we busked when the cruise ships were in port, it could be quite lucrative. So we parked ourselves next to the ATM on the main street of Mount Maunganui and sang Maroon 5 hits. Mack would get tired and go home while I carried on, but he’d argue over wanting a half-share
of the profits!
When did you realise you wanted to pursue music?
It was during my last year of primary school, when High School Musical came out. I decided to re-enact the Breaking Free scene with characters Troy and Gabriella for a school talent quest. I borrowed a white lab coat from the science department. I remember it being a very significant event, even though I sang nasally trying to mimic Britney Spears.
What was the first concert you attended and how did it impact you?
I went to a Brooke Fraser concert at 12 years old. I got home and wrote in my brown leather songwriting notebook that I wanted to open a concert for her one day. So getting to live out my childhood dream at Spark Arena last year was such a magical, full-circle moment. I cried so much and I’m not normally like that.
As head girl of Bethlehem College, was there an unspoken pressure to go into a “stable” career?
Every other head girl I knew went on to study law. I felt pressure, but there was nothing else I wanted to do other than play music, create shows and make people feel something. It was hard trying to “adult” in a career that has no set pathway. I’m so grateful my parents [Sally and Andy] always supported me to go for it, though.
And now you share the same US agent as Coldplay! Tell us about meeting Chris Martin last year.
Chris is the loveliest human. Wherever the band’s been playing in the world, he does meet-ups with artists from that country. I got to do one in Auckland, which was very surreal. There were 15 of us in the room – all as nervous as each other – and Chris asked us to tell a short version of our story and what it’s like making music here. After everyone shared, he said, “Okay, I want to hear a song from all of you.” I was right at the end and played my song The Letter on the piano. Everyone else was getting this beautiful, thoughtful feedback. But all he said to me was something like, “Brilliant, so honest… okay everyone, lovely to meet you all, see you later.” I was like, “But where’s my feedback?!” Because it felt like a non-event compared to what he was giving the others and going over lines in their song.
Were you spinning out a bit?
Yes and thinking I had played the wrong song. I don’t know what the response was that I was hoping for. I was just disappointed after hearing his response to everyone else.
Please tell us that’s not the end of the story.
Hah, no! I went to Coldplay’s show the next night and I’d been invited to the after-party. So I went, even though I don’t love parties – I’m a 9pm-bedtime-and-a-cuppa-tea-reading-my-book kind of girl. Someone came over and asked me if I would like to go and chat with Chris. He ends up asking me, “What’s happening in your life right now?” I didn’t really know how to answer that question. Like, should I tell him my thyroid is playing up?! So I told him about something I had been learning over the past few years – how to hold the really hard things I’ve been going through and not wait for the hard times to move on before appreciating the little, good things that life has to offer. You know, sharing good food with someone or laughter… the things that are so easy to forget when life can be so unfair and cruel. Chris tells me to pull out my phone and says, “There’s a poem I want you to google – it’s my favourite and it’s the only poem I know off by heart because it changed my life.” It’s called The Guesthouse by Rumi. It articulated the conversation I had been having internally – where you have to greet the unwelcome emotions and allow them to teach you something before they leave.
How did that conversation finish?
Chris said, “You’re young, you’re talented, you’re going to be absolutely fine.” And I thought to myself, “That was so much better than him giving me feedback on my song!”
In recent years, you’ve been on a health journey after having thyroid issues. Can you share a bit about that with us?
The last few years have been some of the hardest years of my life and everything just went up the wazoo. Due to high stress, my body got out of whack and I felt really fatigued all the time. I’d be driving to school to teach and even though I’d had a coffee, I still didn’t feel awake. My iron levels were fine, so something else was off. I started working with a clinical nutritionist and after a bunch of blood tests, it showed my thyroid wasn’t functioning and causing my adrenal levels to skyrocket.
So what had to change?
I overhauled my diet – I don’t drink coffee any more – and I changed what I was doing exercise-wise. No more high-impact exercise like running, six times a week. It’s taken a long time to reset my body – a lot of undoing and giving myself grace. I found it very easy to compare myself with other women, too, and go, “Well, she’s my age and has kids and I have none, so I shouldn’t be complaining of feeling tired.” But rest and sustaining your energy – especially as a high-achieving, people-pleaser – is way more of a conversation now than it was five years ago.
You have such a great sense of fashion. What’s your favourite second-hand piece?
I have this incredible multi-coloured Saks Fifth Avenue dress that my mum bought for me for my 21st birthday from a vintage store in the Mount. I’ve ripped the seams under the arms many times, but I just keep repairing them.
Has op shopping featured in your sartorial choices?
As a kid, my aunty would give me $20 and take me around op shops to get a whole outfit. And I used to buy curtains from the op shop to sew a top out of. I’d often get comments from people saying, “Only you could pull that off!”
When you’re at the Mount, what café would we find you at?
Special Mention or Spongedrop – they have the best cheese scones in the world!
What are your future plans?
I’d love to open for [soul singer] Olivia Dean. And the aim is eventually for G. Lines to be based in America.
As told to Fleur Guthrie
On June 15, Georgia will be performing a one-night-only show at The Civic in Auckland, joined by Hollie Smith, Louis Baker, Nikau Grace and the Auckland Philharmonia. Find tickets at ticketmaster.co.nz
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