Aufhammer trades in dreams of stardom to follow her heart

By JIM TRAGESER - Staff Writer | Wednesday, May 14, 2008 9:11 AM PDT ∞

It was a shot at the brass ring most young musicians can only dream of: backing by an investor so she could concentrate solely on her music.

And Paige Aufhammer is grateful for the opportunity she got when Del Mar's Lee M. Chesnut heard her sing at church and offered to take on management of her secular music career, with his own money bankrolling the effort to break her through nationally.

Her 2006 self-titled CD on Chesnut's LMC Records did well for an independent release, and based on the strength of her songwriting and singing, Aufhammer soon found herself on tour.

Only it turns out that it wasn't what she wanted out of life after all. And so last August, she stepped away from the full-time music career to focus on her new career as a worship director for Generations Church in Oceanside.

But Aufhammer hasn't given up on music ---- just on the idea of being the next San Diego County artist to break through, on the idea of being the next Tristan Prettyman, Cindy Lee Berryhill or Jewel.

"I was starting touring a little bit, and I realized that touring would be a hard life for me," Aufhammer said by phone this week before a show she's playing Friday with fellow local singer-songwriter Derren Raser. "I realized I want to have a family and be present and be in one place, and it kind of dawned on me that touring was kind of lonely.

"I had a great time and great people were around me, but it was still a little bit lonely because I didn't have my family around me or my close friends who really, really know me.

"I'm very much a people person and a deep relationship person, and it was hard to be excited by touring."

She said she was doubly blessed when she decided not to pursue a career as a professional musician in how well Chesnut took the news.

"I was totally lucky enough to be in that situation with someone who was so gracious."

Growing up in Encinitas, Aufhammer said, music was always around ---- with an aunt who was a concert vocalist and pianist, Aufhammer said she thinks the music bug runs in the family.

And she's not really gotten very far from music in her new job; as worship director, she's very much involved in planning her church's music. She also schedules concerts there.

Newly engaged with an October wedding set, she said music also found its way into her pending marriage: Fiance Matt Carlson is a former hard-rocker who recently traded in his dreams of rock 'n' roll stardom to follow his real dream of being a youth pastor at his church.

In addition to their work with praise music through their new careers, Aufhammer and Carlson still play in coffeehouses and clubs, she said. She hasn't even ruled out recording another album ---- although if she does, she said the next one will be independently released with no expectations.

But that will have to wait a while, because Aufhammer said she hasn't been writing new songs of late, instead "decompressing" from the effort to establish herself. "It's a lot of pressure on a solo artist, no matter how nice the person behind it is," she said of her former campaign toward stardom.

"I'm just enjoying life and being engaged and looking forward to a new life together.

"Music has been a gift in my life, and it still will be ---- just in a different way."

Derren Raser and Paige Aufhammer

When: 7 p.m. May 16

Where: Solana Beach Presbyterian Church, 120 Stevens Ave., Solana Beach

Admission: $8

Info: (858) 509-2580 or solanapres.org

Web: myspace.com/paigeaufhammer

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