Full-time teacher Georgia Finlayson continued her double life performing at Seeker Brewing last month despite the challenges of her vocal disability.
Georgia Finlayson, who goes by the stage name Georgia-Jean is a local singer from the Southern Highlands where she is also a full-time primary school teacher. Having a vocal condition has impacted both her singing and teaching career posing new challenges every day Georgia said.
“I found out that I have a condition called MTD, which is muscle tension dysphonia. I got that from having a stint of laryngitis during the COVID period. And it basically activates involuntary muscles in your throat and you can’t unactivate them. So they always sort of put stress on your voice,” Georgia said.
“Because I’m a full-time teacher already, sort of using up my six-hour quota of my voice capacity and then trying to either write songs, rehearse, or perform, it puts a big strain on me. So yeah, it’s challenging, but it’s also worth it.”
Georgia’s usually likes to keep her double life separate, but being from a small community, word spreads fast. Playing in local pubs and clubs, she has had students recognise her on stage. “Seeing teachers outside of school is already pretty crazy, but seeing a teacher doing something like that just made them starstruck,” Georgia said.
Last month, Georgia-Jean performed at Seeker Brewing which she said is a lot more intimate than working in other pubs and clubs. She said that since her EP came out, she has landed a few headline shows with Yours and Owls as well as Echo & Salt but the organisation that goes into those gigs are quite different to the smaller shows.
“I think the major difference is probably that with Seeker they’re not contracting out to those management agencies which makes it I guess a little bit more intimate” She said.
“Because you know, I have to organise everything that goes with it so I’m the one booking the bands and managing it.”
Georgia shares that when it’s a smaller venue, stage fright and nerves are heightened but it’s usually only when her voice is playing up that it is more noticeable.
“If my voice is playing up I think the stress is sort of set in beforehand but I love being on stage… I’m gonna say the smaller the audience the worse it is for me if there’s heaps of people I don’t seem to think about it too much because there’s so much to focus on,” Georgia said.