I was late, and the varsity field hockey team’s game with Myers Park was underway at Bessant Field. As I pulled my camera gear out of the trunk of my car, I could hear the parents and fans cheering on the players, but one voice rang out over all the others. “Let’s go, PD!” Each word was stretched out, so it was more like “Lehhhtttss Goooo Peeeee Deeeee!”
The game was intense, and the teams were evenly matched. My camera lens fogged immediately because of the heavy humidity of late August in Charlotte. When it cleared, I took a few shots of the players and then panned the benches to locate the source of the voice. It was easy to find. One player from the PD side stood close to the sidelines, smiling, clapping, and yelling enthusiastically. It was Paulina Williams ('22).
The next week, I saw her again on campus. In addition to the backpack that is ubiquitous on our campus, she was carrying a bag out of which protruded the long thin neck of a bass guitar. When I asked her about it, she carefully set the bag down and showed it to me. While most bass guitar bodies are boldly colored, this one wasn’t; the natural warmth of the wood had been preserved, and at the base of the fingerboard and beneath the pickup was an intricate graphic with muted yellow, amber, maroon, and umber. I remarked that I had never seen an instrument like it, and she replied, “Oh, my dad and I made it this summer.”
In November, I interviewed Paulina Williams. My initial goal was to learn more about her experience of building her bass, but over two hour-long lunch periods, I found that there is a lot more to her than her guitar.
Williams is a current senior, and she came to PD as a ninth grader. Although she loves the school now, she wasn’t always a fan. As a member of the Randolph Middle School field hockey team, she and her teammates were often envious of the Charger squad. “To be honest, I hated PD back then. I was like, they have their own bus? With their logo on it? It was a just stark difference from what we had.”
Her opinion started to change when she attended a performance of Providence Day’s production of Pippin. Williams had been involved in theater since she was a child, and she loved going to summer camps Children's Theater at Charlotte at ImaginOn. Although she participated in Show Choir in middle school, Randolph Middle didn’t have any musical theater, so she decided to attend PD for high school.
As a freshman, Williams played field hockey, was part of the cast of Grease, that year’s Upper School production, and sang with the girls a cappella group. During her ninth grade year, she also took physics, which changed her early plans for her future. “When I took physics with Ms. (Jennifer) Haney – who I love – it was the first time that I saw how math and science work together, and I thought that was really cool.” Although she had initially thought she would grow up to be a doctor, she started to consider studying physics in college.
Throughout her high school years, Williams has made it a point to try as many different things as she could. “Whenever there’s an opportunity, I try to take advantage of it.” However, those opportunities would become scarce when the COVID-19 pandemic hit during the spring of her sophomore year. When Providence Day made the decision to close its campus and teach classes remotely, all extracurricular activities were canceled, including the Upper School musical, Bright Star. This was a devastating loss for all concerned, including Williams, who was been excited to have been chosen to be a dance captain.
Like many people did during the COVID lockdown, Williams also developed a passion for baking. After a series of experiments, she decided to share her recipes with others. So she created several Instagram stories in which she shared her dairy-free recipes and demonstrated how she concocted her creations. Encouraged by the positive response to her baking stories, Williams would later start creating other short videos in which she shared her other passion: Dunkin Donuts.
“I am obsessed with Dunkin' Donuts. . . . it started over the summer. I just got a drink, and I was so curious about it . . . they had a Kombucha, which turned out not to be good, but I got it and filmed something on Instagram of me reviewing it.”
People liked that video and asked her to do more of them, so she did, and now she has an Instagram following of more than 1,400 people. Currently, she’s working her way through the new batch of winter flavors. And although she has concentrated mostly on drinks, she says that she has recently broadened her scope to include their breakfast sandwiches, and even a few donuts.
Turning the conversation to Williams's musical life, I asked her if she had always had an interest in music.“I have always sung and I took piano lessons in third grade and since then I‘ll just play whatever [instrument is around]. I’ll look stuff up on YouTube [to learn] a specific song” said Williams. She has also been influenced by her family. Her father's side has several musicians in it, and every once in a while, they gather for what they call "Grangefest."
Grangefest takes place in the Catskill Mountains on a plot of land owned by the family. "We would go there and set up the amplifiers and the keyboards and a drum kit and the guitars, and we’d put on a little concert. We actually have shirts for it! So we just play songs that everybody knows."
Williams says that the first time she ever touched the bass guitar was at the last Grangefest. “My dad just put it in my hands and said, ‘Here!’ Then, he showed me where to put my hands, and I just played the same thing over and over again.”
Williams's father has been a guitarist for most of his life, and he played in bands in high school and college. He also builds electric guitars and has constructed five in a workshop in their south Charlotte home. When Williams asked her father why he'd never built a bass guitar, he proposed that they build one together. She agreed, and for her 16th birthday, he bought her a bass guitar kit.
The process of building it took longer than she had anticipated. "School happens, life happens, you know." Williams sighed and added, "I can also tell you that building a bass requires sanding, like a lot of sanding. I was so tired of sanding after that because you have to prime it and sand that down, and then you have to paint it, and sand that down, and then paint it again, and sand it."
After all of that, it was time to consider what finishing color she wanted. "I knew I wanted it to be kind of funky, and since most bass players are guys, most bass guitars are more masculine-looking. I wanted something that matched my personality, something that was Paulina, you know? So, that's why I chose the yellow and this fabric with a pattern that I loved." Using fabric to decorate a guitar is uncommon, so Williams and her father brainstormed ways to do it. "We figured it out and decided to use Mod Podge and a lot of shellac."
Then, of course, there was more sanding, and as she was feathering the edges, Williams accidentally sanded down to the fabric. Although she is a self-described perfectionist, she feels like she made a bit of a breakthrough at that moment. "I was like, you know what? It's okay. And, a part of me started losing that perfectionist mindset. I was just like, just let it be."
"I was like, you know what? It's okay. And, a part of me started losing that perfectionist mindset. I was just like, just let it be." – Paulina Williams
During her junior year, Williams took AP Music Theory and enjoyed learning about the intricate structures of "what made music, music." When it was time for her to register for her senior-year courses, Williams knew she wanted to take another music class, and Jazz Ensemble appealed to her. However, she had never played bass guitar before, so she approached the teacher, Dr. Michael Hough. He was enthusiastic, and he recommended several YouTube videos to help her get started.
So, during the summer of 2021, Paulina Williams taught herself how to play the bass. “I listened to a bunch of types of music just to hear what a jazz bassline sounds like compared to a rock bass line or a blues bass line, or pop, or rap.” Through her summer search for bass lines, Williams discovered a band called Lake Street Dive and taught herself how to play a few of their songs. “I think that’s where I got some of my groovy baselines from, and then I just listened a lot to all of the jazz standards.” She also worked with Michael Hough, who helped her to learn different chord stacks. Then, in the fall semester of her senior year, she started to play with the jazz band.
Williams enjoys playing the bass, and she loves the feeling she gets when her body starts to move with the music, but she admits that it has been a challenge to do something so new. "I have to admit that I get frustrated when I mess up, especially when I see (the other members of the jazz band) and how it comes to them so quickly. But I'm learning that there are no wrong notes in jazz – jazz is the art of playing random notes that sound good together." The thought of soloing is also a challenge for her. "I'm really nervous-slash-terrified of soloing," she says, and although her peers have been really supportive, "I'm kind of a perfectionist, and I hate to mess up." But, she says that she is learning to let that go, and now the thought of playing a solo is less intimidating.
The conversation about performing with the jazz band came at the end of the second hour of my interview with Paulina Williams. As she packed her things and left the room, I found myself feeling a bit cheated because I had never had the opportunity to work with her in one of my classes. She is thoughtful, witty, easy-going, and extremely bright. I never would have known about her or her diverse interests if I had not heard her on the field hockey pitch or seen her walk by with her bass.
And I'm very glad I did.
