ROSALIND Chia marches to the beat of her own drum. The young, single mum and full-time musician has taken great pride in debunking the theory you can't make a living out of music and has come a long way to prove being happy about what you do is just as important as a good pay cheque.
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Now she's taking her career one step further with the novel concept that selling her music could fund her music.
Chia's folk EP has been in production since 2008, but she's hit a financial snag, halting the final process, which is mixing and mastering the music.
"Here I am, just short of releasing it," she said.
"So my solution is to sit quietly here in my leafy little corner of the universe and write some songs to raise the money myself.
"Literally, I'm going out there and singing in pubs to put straight back into paying a musician to play on my EP."
It's admittedly a "labour of love" for the multi-instrumentalist, but one she's not giving up on until it's perfect.
"Anyone who knows me will say that I am not one to do things in halves," she said.
"I could get a 9-5 job ... But I love my music concept to fund my music.
"If enough people buy my little acoustic songs, it's going to get us over the line."
Also helping Chia reach her goal is a band of fellow musicians who feature on the EP and in the first single to be released, Waterbound.
"It's a sad song about feeling helpless when someone is in a bad spot, but it's got that thread of hope, that tone of positivity," she said. "I'm just so close...[to its release]."
Featured on the EP will be Steve Bull on bass, Clare O'Meara on the fiddle, John Howell on drums, Cass Eager on the lap steel guitar, Floyd Vincent on electric guitar and Chia singing and playing guitar.
While the release of the EP has been a "slow process" at best, forging a career in the music industry is her dream.
She's already tried her hand at bricklaying, waiting tables, working as a concierge and travelling around before settling in quiet Bundanoon to follow her heart.
Penning melodies and strumming the strings of her guitar is where "I'm happy" and what she hopes will help fund the release of her debut EP.
"It's not like you're asking someone to commit to $20, it's $1.10 a single," she said.
"I'm not going to make all of the money I need to put this thing out, I know that, but the concept excites me.
"We are living in a world where people don't have to buy music anymore, so when someone goes to the effort to buy one and it's just $1.10, it means so much to me."
As each acoustic tune is recorded, Chia will upload and sell on CD Baby. To help support the release or to check out her latest acoustic song for sale, visit www.cdbaby.com/cd/rosalindchia or ITunes.