Jamie O’Neal
(Q)- You’ve worked very hard to achieve this goal of the release of your first album.
Jamie O’Neal- Yes.
(Q)- What did you learn from that experience to carry with you now that you’re album’s due out and the hard work ahead as far as promoting and performing has just begun?
Jamie O’Neal- I always wanted to be in Nashville, I have dreamed of this for my entire life. It started when I was eight years old, but I had been watching my parents from the side of the stage since I was age five. They were entertainers and as a duo, they in a way, as son as they realized that my sister and I could carry a tune, they sort of made sure that we were on-stage and at times, center stage as well. We got used to the fact that by entertaining people, you actually moved people and you then touched them in a special way. That’s a powerful feeling, so once I started singing, that was it for me, so I knew what I wanted to do. My dad wrote a lot of our material, so he used to write songs for us when we were really little and he taught us about harmony. He encouraged us to write songs when we were really little. The best thing about singing is being on-stage and reacting with your audience and communicating with them. That’s the whole reasons why you make an album, is to actually perform those songs on-stage and have people whom you’d touched. It actually doesn’t have anything to do with the business end of things though. That’s the sideline, that’s the harder work.
(Q)-The genre has become almost ridiculously competitive doesn’t that atmosphere of competitiveness shape your decisions as far as your music goes?
Jamie O’Neal- No. I have been doing what I’ve been doing for years and if, you concentrate on yourself and what you’re doing then you don’t look to the sidelines all that often. When I stared sing, I was singing at fairs and we did them year round. We didn’t even have a house, we lived out of a motor home. We used to live in campgrounds. I had a private tutor up until the time I was fourteen. We lived the “fair life” (Carny?) so much, traveling around from fair to fair to fair, that’s what I’ve known and loved since I was a little girl.
Jamie O’Neal- (Q)- In doing that and traveling to out of the way places so long, you saw a side of America that’s not always seen by many Americans.
Jamie O’Neal- Oh, yeah, I loved it.
(Q)- Doesn’t that help you to relate to country fans all the more?
Jamie O’Neal- Yes, I believe that since I lived the life I did growing up and we were in that envirnoment (of the fairgrounds) so often, I have a solid background to know what country fans want to hear and how to touch those people in a special way. The only state I haven’t been to is Alaska. There’s many different types of people and there’s also many different types of country music. I don’t understand this attitude of why some people (Industry insiders in Nashville.) think there is only one true style of country music. (Traditional?) I think there’s room for all styles of artists within the country format. I think that fate is that way. Everybody has their own thing that they do the best. No one can exactly emulate what it is that they do the best. So, you’re meant to actually do something with your life and you do what it is that matters to you.
(Q)- Kind of like it’s all preordained?
Jamie O’Neal-I wouldn’t exactly say it’s like that (she laughs).
(Q)- What events surrounded and lead up to your being signed with Mercury Records?
Jamie O’Neal- I moved here around four years ago. I had lived here and one to high school when I was little. We lived in Louisville, Kentucky and moved to Nashville then I moved back to California for a while and then back to Nashville again. My mom has always helped me with my career. She sent one of my demo tapes to somebody in Nashville and it wound up eventually in someone at EMI Music and I was signed to a songwriting and production deal (About two and a half years ago.). Shortly after that I sang for Keith Stegall at Mercury and then started working on the album.) I’ve been writing the music on the album for about a year and a half.
(Q)- Since you’re a songwriter, what is your attitude towards recording other songwriters material?
Jamie O’Neal- I’m into singing whatever the best songs are. There’s thirteen songs slated for the album and I love so many different songs, I’m open to whatever is me.
(Q)- Have you done the demo tape singer route?
Jamie O’Neal- I have always sung like me. You can hear a bunch of demos and you’ll be able to tell when it’s me. I don’t sing like anyone else. To me, I don’t sound like anyone else. I have my own style. I ended up writing with a lot of people. LeAnn Rimes, Chely Wright, Jennifer Day and Tammy Cochran have recorded my songs.
(Q)- What strength does you possess as a songwriter?
Jamie O’Neal-I think that it’s a strength as a songwriter to know who you are, what you like and don’t like. And what you want to say and what you don’t want to say. It must be hard for people who have to start from scratch and go out looking for songs. Because there’s so many different songs and so many different writers that, if you don’t know who you are (as a recording artist) then it’s hard to choose. I mean you could have an album without a common thread and having a common thread is important.