_{By Andy McFerren}

Paige Fish has done more with her music career at 18-years-old than many accomplish in a lifetime. And she’s just getting started. 

The singer-songwriter from Springville, Utah has beginnings reminiscent of most people who choose to follow a career in the performing arts. At five, she was writing and performing the little songs she’d come up with. Or as she puts it, “I was a very poetic little child, and now I’m a very poetic little adult!”

But in her early adolescence, something changed. She grew up in a very musical family, so she was always involved with school and community theater and choir. But something bothered her: She never got the lead role, not once. “So, by the time I turned 13 I decided I wanted to play my own lead role in life!” She took the reins of her life and started pursuing her songwriting more seriously, began recording and performing her own music, and (in a way) the rest is history. 

There were many significant milestones along the way. At 15, she went on American Idol. Her audition wasn’t aired, but she remembers Katy Perry’s praise. “When Katy Perry tells you you got it,” she says, “you believe her.” Paige explained to me that this was a pivotal moment that gave her a certain confidence to pursue music more seriously. It was then that she realized that writing and performing her music could be something more than just a fun thing that she enjoyed. It could be a career. 

And Paige is well on her way to doing just that. In conjunction with graduating high school, Paige has released a new EP entitled In Another Lifetime. The seven-song EP includes five singles she has released previously, including her song “26 and 24” which has been streamed over 7 million times on Spotify, as well as two new songs: “The Bad Guy” and “My Hope Song.” 

The EP is full of surprising depth. I don’t wish to disparage Paige in any way because based on my own experience at 18 combined with my time coaching high-school-aged swimmers, she is a cut above the average 18-year-old. To process life’s trials through art as effectively as she does is inspiring. And when you talk to her about her love for music and songwriting, her enthusiasm is infectious. 

“Songwriting is my true love!” she says. “Something I fall in love with every day—a coping mechanism, something to be proud of, to help verbally identify my feelings, to create a beautiful melody by myself, it means everything to me.”

Not only does it mean everything to her, but it means so much to her fans. Go to a Paige Fish concert, and you’ll feel like you’ve been dropped into another universe, or a showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and it’s your first time. (Or maybe it’s just because I am 31 years old. Regardless—) You can tell her music means so much to her fans because Paige writes such relatable songs about real things that she’s going through – even the darkness that can come after a breakup. 

“Songwriting after a breakup is a haunting and lovely coping mechanism,” she said. “I find it the easiest topic for me to write about. So many details, little things, big things, so many emotions. Writing about heartbreak helps me to look at the situation through a very creative lens. It is a step for me towards moving on.”

But Paige isn’t limited to only writing about love and heartbreak. Her new song “My Hope Song” is a personal heartfelt song that touches on a recent Dark Night of the Soul. She says that when she wrote the song, “Hope is exactly what I needed in that moment! I was simply writing a lullaby to myself. A reminder to myself and the world that ‘it’s okay if you’re numb, and it’s alright if you feel.’”

Whether it’s her song “Ego,” which was written for “Anybody who’s been a victim to a stinky person with an ego,” or “My Hope Song,” Paige’s only goal when seeking a target audience is simple. “I hope it’s full of anyone who can truly relate to the lyrics in my music, to anyone who can resonate it with themselves.”

And it’s this kind of love and passion for her art that draws her fans to her and to her music. It’s what’s going to launch her into stardom.

So what’s next for the young singer-songwriter? Luckily for us, more music. After recently graduating high school, Paige has decided to pursue music full time. She is currently already recording more music. No current timeline on exactly when that will drop, but I, as well as many of her fans, will be waiting with anticipation. 

When asked about where she sees herself in ten years, she replied with hope. “I believe in myself. I believe in my life. I believe that in 10 years I will still be working hard to be exactly where I need to be.”

Be sure to follow Paige Fish on Instagram and check out “My Hope Song” below!