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carlculationinfinityinterviews · 6 years

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Kitty O’Neal Interview

Kitty O'Neal, an independent songwriter who’s recently released her debut album Giving In To You. This brilliant debut explores the embodiment of her experiences as a songwriter personifying them as entities and narrating them from different perspectives.

Coupled with a backing band or presented as a solo artist Kitty O’Neal’s music displays a vast amount of depth that’s complex, deep and cleverly cryptic. In this interview we explore the creative processes she went through whilst working on her debut and her musical origins.

Tell me about your first musical encounters and how those interactions led you to wanting to become a musician?

Like most musicians I grew up with my first musical interactions coming from my parents and other family members, my mother is a music teacher and my Dad was a bassoonist so there was always someone playing music around the house.

My grandmother gave me piano lessons though I switched to learning how to play guitar when I attended college where I discovered that I had a natural love and ability for songwriting.

Giving In To You Introduction

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Can you tell me the first piece of music that made you want to write your own music?

The first song that started to make me pay attention to music from a musicians perspective was Alanis Morissette’s Hands Clean, it was the first thing I can remember that I wanted to listen to or became attracted to it in a musical sense. I was really listening to songs that featured a lot of lyrics.

How would you describe your approach to writing music has changed since you started writings and how has your musical ambitions changed as well?

The main aim of songwriting at the start was just to write a song and have something that was complete, catchy and something that I could call my own. There wasn’t as much attention or direction put into the overall content which is completely different to how I work now.

The main change is that I’m drawing from experiences that are both first and third person or ideas that I need to express.

I feel that I’ve become more of a songwriter in terms of what I achieve with the overall output and finished product.

What was your process for writing and how do you write a song to A to B? What methods do you use?

I wasn’t a great guitarist when I first started out and most of my songs used to just start with simple chords. simplicity was what worked for me in the beginning with the lyrics just being shoved on top of them.

Now the focus has completely shifted to everything supporting what I have to deliver as lyricist. Words are something that I think about all of the time, the majority of ideas that I’m working with now spur from a phrase or experimenting with melodies to make them fit a lyrical phrase that I’ve had in my head.

The overall content or message of the song is different every time so I’m always moving forward as a songwriter.

Tell me about your latest single from your album without a sound? Can you tell me about how it changed when you took from playing it on your own to a full band and the process of working with the other members in your band?

Without A Sound is written about a feeling that I was experiencing which I personified in a way, as I found it easier to write about something if it was given a ‘body’. This is something I’ve been approaching differently in my songwriting process, as I used to write quite obviously but now I try to include levels in the meaning, although I can understand why a listener would think this song is solely about my relationship with another person.

Without going into detail, the general feeling I was experiencing which is personified in Without A Sound was the urge to disappear or remove myself from certain things. The phrase “I will go without a sound” kept resounding in my mind when I was writing it…the verses came easily as I wrote them from a conversational standpoint. Personifying these emotions allows me write more objectively.

Tell me about how you work with the band and what creative tools do they bring to the table? What steps does a song go through when you work with them?

I’ll write all of the lyrics, chords and melodies first before taking an idea to the band. I like to have a complete idea and the skeleton of a song before I start working with them.

I always think its important to hear their take on it, I always consider what feedback they have to give, how they respond since they are the first audience to any ideas that I have. Although sometimes I’ll have an idea and be dead certain on what I want for the overall outcome. We’re all great friends and are on the same creative wavelength and they are all greatly skilled musicians so we all equally respect each others ideas.

What made you want to work with these three other musicians and what do they bring to the creative elements of your music?

I’m extremely close with all of my band members which makes it all the more fun. My guitarist Morgan is one of my best friends and housemates, we met at university and started playing covers and my songs together. He’s been working with me throughout the duration of my studies and has become a musician that I’m really comfortable working with and being open creatively in front of.

Frazer (Bass) also lives with us. He is great at coming up with ideas that I wouldn’t usually think of, perhaps because of his broad musical taste. These ideas are mainly about the arrangements and what the whole band is doing and how they are supporting the song, and he’s good at coming up with really specific details in drum fills/bar lengths that I would never think of.

Dan (Drums) came into the band last winter and recorded and produced my debut album. He’s an amazingly talented composer and has added a lot of different compositional elements to my sound, both in the studio and in the live setting.

Take It Slow

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How have they pushed you as a musicians and how important is it to have that close working relationship, how does that benefit your music?

It’s the most crucial thing, having people that you enjoy working with really adds to the overall quality of the music, it really enhances our presence when performing as a band. The main message that I’ve heard from successful musicians is to surround yourself with people who not only love your music but people you are great friends with.

Morgan, Dan and Frazer have definitely pushed me to write more. When I worked on my own I took a lot longer to create things since it was only for myself but having something new to show them in rehearsals is always refreshing. Its a great feeling when I have a new idea to show them and they are equally excited to work on it.

You said that Alannis Morrisette was one the artists that inspired you to want to write music, what other artists have shaped the sound of the music you create and the approaches you apply?

As I mentioned earlier in my teens I listened primarily to a lot of female artists such as Sarah Bereilles, Agnes Obel and Missy Higgins who use a lot of lush, scrunchy chords and clever lyrics. They were the main inspiration behind the fist songs that I wrote which were mainly piano ballads.

When I started playing guitar Joni Mitchell was one of the guitarists that made me really wanted me improve my abilities.

Learning her approach to finger style guitar and the chords that she uses really helped me improve.

More recently I’ve started listening to Feist, Kate Bush. Also The Staves and Bon Iver, who’ve pushed me to try and use my voice in different ways and add dense harmonies in the studio.

Lucy Rose and Haim were also main influences when writing the album.

How do you ensure that you are becoming a better musician?

I don’t practice a lot but I do listen, that’s the main method that I use for improving myself. I make sure that I’m always doing something creative, whether its painting or writing or music.

Keeping my mind in that creative space allows me be ready for any ideas that come into fruition and ensures that I’m ready to work on those ideas as soon as they come.

Comfortable Enough

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How important do you think it is to push yourself as a musician, t get out into your comfort zone and to explore new grounds? Do you think that this a natural requirement for modern musicians?

I think nowadays that its important to push yourself as much as you can since everyone’s in a band or creating music. There’s a lot of music out there follows the same format and it can be very hard to stand out and make something unique and special.

It doesn’t have to be obvious and you don’t have to bare your soul to the world but you know as a writer when you are either settling for the middle ground or going that extra mile to do something different, if you want people to listen then you’ve got to push yourself and be honest.

Tell about your album and the processes that go into a making and how to do create that with taking the audience or listeners into the equation?

Giving In To You was an album that I wrote last summer, I mainly wrote the songs for myself until I had a large enough collection of songs to record as a collective.

I started a PledgeMusic account to help fund the costs of making the album. Dan Keen is the producer and drummer on this release.

Overall the main thing that goes into an album when recording is hours, I think I’ve spent over a 100 hours with Dan in the studio.

Promoting an album requires everything from artwork, photography, organising a release show, tour promotion and booking lots of gigs. I worked with the really talented Brandon Otto who took all of the photos album and my single release and created my album artwork. I also painted a floral design which can be found on the CD of the album.

Where Will I Go

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Tell me about your creative mindset a the beginning of this process in comparison to how you feel about the album as whole at the end?

At the beginning I thought the songs I had written were an exact representation of how I was feeling which, at the time was completely true. Over the duration I’ve written a lot of songs that have moved away from where I started in the creative process.

I think I’ve changed my mindset and am now writing purely because I love it and writing when it comes naturally. Whereas when I set out to write this album, I had a deadline and I was writing for an ‘end goal’. I think I prefer my new way.

Lyrically how are you approaching things differently from this album and where are you drawing inspiration from are you from the third person by personifying emotions and ideas or things that have happened to you directly?

Some of the earlier songs, such as Comfortable Enough and Make It Yours were written about things I’ve experienced with relationships/friendships.

Most of the ideas came from things that I’ve personally been a part of but I’m able put a twist on things and write from other perspectives. I don’t want to give too much of myself away but for me the main inspiration does come from my own feelings and my own mind.

How important is it to remain honest in what you have to say lyrically or musically?

I think its really important to keep honesty as a priority in writing. Each person is different and that individuality will set you apart from other artists.

In the beginning I used to go with the easiest option, by using lyrics just because they rhymed or followed lyrical themes or formulas of other songs that I had already heard.

Over time I found that doing things my own way provided me with the most authentic results and satisfaction as a songwriter.

I’m at a point now when I’m being completely honest with myself and know when I really need to step up and push myself , I’m continually pushing boundaries as a songwriter and trying to step out of my comfort zone with the new material that I’m working on.

As a modern DIY musician and what challenges come with that, what advice have you had a long the way and what advice can you give to other bands?

I’d advise just throwing yourself into everything creative that you can and you’ll figure the rest out as you go. There wasn’t a guide or anything when I started, I just went and started writing music and playing shows. Everything just comes together as along as you keep putting music out and continue to work hard on your craft.

Giving yourself a deadline along the lines of something like “I’ll be signed by this or that age” can be very unhealthy for the content of your work. My approach is to keep writing and playing music because I love it, keeping that in mind allows you really to enjoy every part of being a musician.

Without A Sound

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How do you want audiences to interpret your album live do you want differences between each of the different mediums? Do you think audience members expect a higher standard with each?

I like a bit of both, I like it when a band can perform the songs of an album as I’ve heard it previously but also strip things back and play a different rendition or version of the song.

There’s a track on the album called Where Will I Go, which sounds electronic and heavily produced so that will definitely sound different live.

If you could go back in time to see yourself as a younger artists what would you tell yourself?

I’d tell myself to keep going and not to worry about being good enough or comparing yourself to your peers, I had a year away from playing music and went travelling but kept coming back to playing music because its my passion. I’d tell myself to take my music more seriously from an early age. Having confidence in yourself is a great tool.

You can follow Kitty O’Neal’s Music in the following links listed below:

SPOTIFY

https://open.spotify.com/artist/7LNhh4bznMxIqjePfTAgTK?si=aDb2w4B1SDmt9mw3r3jCPg

FACEBOOK

www.facebook.com/kittyonealmusic

INSTAGRAM

https://www.instagram.com/kittyoneal_/?hl=en

WEBSITE

www.kittyoneal.co.uk

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