Aquilla | Tindalls Beach

“Right, so my name’s Aquilla and I live in Tindall’s Beach in Auckland. Well actually this month I got to write a song for this charity that I’ve been following since I was like 11 years old, and they watched it and listened to my song, and that was like the best thing that’s ever happened to me. So, that was really cool. 

So Yogscast is a YouTube channel that’s been doing charity live streams every Christmas since 2011/12 I think, and they’ve raised over $10 million for charity over this time, and I got the opportunity to write a song for them, and it was awesome.

So I grew up on the Hibiscus Coast, and I love it here. I’m moving to Wellington next year, though because of the arts scene. I’m a musician, I’m a poet, I’m a dancer. I’m basically just a really arty person. I’ve always loved writing and singing and I’ve been singing since I was about three years old. I’ve been dancing since I could walk. Music is everything to me, and the power that art has to analyse your own life, I think that that’s really important to me. I think that art has the power to allow you to really introspect and get deeper into what you care about and what you value and also it’s really helped me to understand more about who I am, and who other people are, and it builds connection, because I talk about something that I struggle with, and then people can relate to that and say, like I feel that too, I understand. It’s why I love writing poetry, and expressing how I feel, and having other people say, I really connected with what you said, and I really connected with what you feel, too and it helps us all feel closer.

When I was 11, I was really into Minecraft, and they were the biggest channel on YouTube playing Minecraft, and it was like my favourite thing. I just love them. They just always provided me with laughter and happiness when I felt like I didn’t really have that in my life, and it was such a consistent thing that’s been there my whole life, I really love them for all the joy they’ve given me, and to be able to give something back was really incredible, and they continue to give back every year by doing this charity thing and all the fans just donate because we love them, it’s really special.”