Bexy sweeps up charts

I did a live show in Sumner before Christmas and it was so nice to be performing again.

Songs by rising Christchurch singer-songwriter Bexy have had more than 9 million streams on Spotify. It is her first project with independent indigenous-led New Zealand label Five AM and she is touted as the country’s newest indie-pop jewel. As told to Vicki Anderson in the first of a six-part series.

Ihave been working extra days, sweeping up and washing hair in a hair salon. It has been so busy and hot. When I am sweeping I am thinking about my songs.

I am 23 and I recently released my debut EP, it is called Wear My Wounds Like Armour.

It came about really quickly. I started writing it more than a year ago after a writing retreat and got some funding for it. I have been working with musicians Will McGillivray and Ben Malone, we just clicked straight away.

Some of my songs are affirmations.

One song, Not the One, is about a close friend I was crushing on and trying to convince myself it was something. It is like I am writing and I am reacting to situations in the same way I have always done.

Are You Mine? was in the New Zealand charts at No 3 when it was released in December.

With my current boyfriend I struggled at the start of the relationship because of not having a label for what we were and I had to be really patient.

Before that I seemed to gravitate towards unavailable people and I think they were very much like me, and they were being very much themselves.

Like I was trying to almost write songs where I was being really honest about my destructive behaviour and relationships.

The EP is about being uncomfortably honest and to have the courage to fail or say and do the wrong thing.

Deep down I have always known I want to be a singer/songwriter.

I released some songs when I was 16 and an Australian guy got me to call him because he found my little songs on Spotify.

I got to hang out with Shawn Mendes and his crew while on holiday with my family in Perth when I was 17.

It was the weirdest experience of my life but watching the music industry from that point of view, from that moment on suddenly something clicked, and I just realised this is what I wanted to do.

It is the only thing I am just so passionate about.

My songs were included on a few influential playlists, and now they have had more than 9 million spins on Spotify and been on global radio. There was a while there when I was living off it – Spotify were paying me $600 per week.

It was just the biggest blessing, it was one of the most incredible opportunities. There were ridiculous numbers of listeners and that was kind of wild.

But then the songs went off the playlists and it is gone. Now I am sweeping and washing hair at a friend’s salon until I can get them back on to another playlist.

When I lived in Dunedin I was in a band with some friends, and we played Rhythm and Vines and a few other festivals.

It really gave me a push with my confidence.

I could not sing in front of people like my whole life until that moment.

It has been a weird couple of years with Covid-19. I feel a little as if I have been robbed of some important years. So many shows have been cancelled. I have turned that into recording and making songs and focusing on the online part.

I did a live show in Sumner before Christmas and it was so nice to be performing again.

It seems like in music that when you are 20 you would be going out and like moving to Los Angeles and life goes by and people the same age as me have not been able to do any of those things they normally would.

I am just trying to remain positive and focus on my music.