Did you always want to sing?

People keep asking me "So did you always want to be a singer, right from a young age?"

The answer's no, not really.  It's quite a recent obsession.

At school I was in the choir.  I went in at age 11 (one of the youngest founding members) and came out at 17 when I finished school.  I did Choir, the same way other people found themselves in the Chess Club or on the hockey team.  It wasn't really something I chose to do; it found me rather than the other way around.

Choir practice was Tuesday lunchtime and Friday after school, every week, no excuses.  It was more often in the lead-up to a performance.  We started Christmas carols in October, and performances often continued into the school holidays.  At the time, I don't think any of us thought it was anything very special.  We were just ordinary schoolgirls being trained to sing as a group.

The choir had great success.  We competed in Eisteddfod competitions each year, and several times we won national awards.  With the choir I travelled to Hobart, Sydney and Canberra.  We sang on stage at the Sydney Opera House - twice.  The first time was in the Eisteddfod contest; the second time was in a Royal Command Performance for Prince Charles.

After leaving school I was offered the chance to go to Singapore with the choir.  But by that time I was at Law School.  I'd finished with school uniforms, and with the Tuesday/Friday/Saturday/Sunday know-your-words-or-else discipline.  I turned the offer down.

In second year Uni I joined the University choir.  It was less demanding, but the standard was correspondingly lower.  It just wasn't as enjoyable because we didn't sound good.  I started seeing a man I'd met at choir practice and we both quit, in favour of more entertaining activities.

For many years I barely sang at all; the occasional Christmas carol and church hymn - that was all.  Then I happened to join a lawyers' choir for a Christmas event.  It was quite low-key, but taking part in this choir made me remember how good it feels to sing.  It's like going for a run - it oxygenates the system, releases endorphins and gets the adrenaline pumping.

In 2005 I got into singing in rock bands.  And started having singing lessons.  Then in 2010 I discovered cabaret.  This is the thing that got me hooked.  In Adelaide its' a whole sub-culture; quite a network of singers and musicians plying this art form.  I found it totally fascinating.

It was as if a tiny door had opened and I had wandered into a fantasy world.