After losing himself in parenthood, Paddy Fred finds his voice in music

Life Music The Pōneke musician reconnects with the guitar and begins singing for the first time in his recorded work. Music 101 4 October 2026 4 min read Music 101 4 October 2026 4 min read Caption: Paddy Fred is a guitarist, beatmaker, singer-songwriter and producer based in Pōneke. Photo credit: Bandcamp Pōneke musician Paddy Fred, formerly of The Aviators and Harbour City Electric, says making his debut album helped him rediscover a part of himself he’d lost. Changes , the culmination of a journey spanning more than a decade, is Fred’s first full-length record. Written and entirely self-produced from his home studio, it follows his acclaimed 2013 EP Laminate and 2022's Spells . “I think a lot of parents, especially mothers, you can lose yourself in parenting and all that and you forget who you were before you had kids. I suppose that's what kind of happened to me and making this album was a way for me to reconnect with myself, find myself again,” he told Music 101 . “It's important for my kids to have a dad who knows themselves.” While grateful for his children and wife, former Music 101 contributor Melody Thomas, Fred sought therapy after feeling something was missing. “I was like just bawling in my car like, ‘man, this therapist, he's amazing’ and after chatting with him - my kids would have been about seven and five, I reckon, around there somewhere - it was clear that I'd just lost who I was before I had kids.” Paddy Fred adds guitar and voice to his personal debut album In some ways, becoming a parent also gave him permission to step away from a music scene he no longer connected with. “I studied guitar at Whitireia for three years and started my first few bands when I was in high school and all that, this heavy metal, guitar-y stuff... “Spent the next like 10 years with these two bands going hard, trying to get all these festival gigs and living that life and then we got there. I remember playing Rhythm and Vines on the main stage and being like, ‘I don't even like this music anymore’.” The album also marks the first time Fred has stepped out from behind the production desk to sing his own material. “I started singing over these songs because they had maybe 20 or so beats, demo things that I liked enough ... they were all like, ‘I'm lost, I'm sad, I'm alone’, all this real sad stuff and I was like, ‘man, is that what this album is going to be about?’ “Then I finished this one song called ‘Found You’ and I was in the process of singing that song and the words slowly appearing that I kind of found myself again. I was like, this is the feeling... “So when I finished that song then other themes started appearing, just things that I'm grateful for - grateful for my kids, grateful for my relationship with my wife, my family, all the beautiful things we're surrounded by - so it's not a depressing album.” More from Music