As the ratings and social media sing the praises of New Zealand’s latest entry in the talent show ring, Jessie Matthews not only has her feet firmly on the ground, she’s already looking further into the future.
The soulful Hamilton songstress has secured a place in the X-Factor top 24, beating thousands to spend this weekend with mentor Stan Walker at his chosen retreat.
But already she is recording songs from home, in the hope of releasing “at least an EP if not an album” by the end of this year.
She’s even given up her 10-year job running a music base with the IHC to focus on music – a sacrifice, but a necessary one.
“We had singers, dancers, musicians, and all people with a disability, so it’s pretty groovy. I love it but it just gets hard when you’re working fulltime and trying to do something on the sidelines.”
And when she’s being paid the equivalent of two weeks’ wages for 15 minutes of doing what she loves, it’s a fair trade she says, which her former employers fully support.
She also runs a glee club at Hamilton East Primary, which will keep operating.
“It’s just cool, and those kids are awesome. Rather than doing choir or whatever we would’ve had to do back in the day, they get to choose contemporary songs. They sell their own merchandise, fundraise, they have their own posters and do signings and stuff, we make CDs, they have a YouTube channel, it’s really cool.”
And in the meantime, it’s back to the surprisingly hard grind in “TV land”.
“It’s nowhere near as glamorous as it seems, it can be real monotonous. By the time you see us cheering for two seconds on stage, we’ve probably done it about 20 times in a row. Like, boot camp was about four days’ worth of filming for one hour on the show,” she said. Yet having been in the business of making music since she was 12, the now 34-year-old relishes those years playing where and whenever she could.
“I mainly played in bands. We did New Year’s Eve in the Mount [Maunganui], nearly every pub in the North Island, awards functions, wherever it takes me, really. All my family were always musical, so I guess that’s where the love started. I’ve never not had music in my life.”
X-Factor New Zealand airs on Sundays at 7pm and Mondays at 7.30pm.
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