Interview with Terra Naomi

While preparing to record her new album, we had the opportunity to do an interview with the American singer and songwriter Terra Naomi, best known for her song "Say It's Possible". She told us about her music, her plans for the future and her new web show.

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1. How would you describe your music in one sentence?

Culturally relevant to Germans of all ages. Haha - just being funny - sorry! It's soulful, melodic, honest pop music, I think.

2. Was there something like a light bulb momemt where were young, maybe a concert, a certain song or a record that made you dream about a career as a musician?

There was never one specific moment - it was just something I always knew from the time I was a small child. I knew I would be a singer. The songwriting part came later - when I was in college studying opera. All my friends were in rock bands, and I listened to punk and all kinds of alternative, underground rock, and I realized that I was not interested in singing classical music. I wanted to write my own songs.

3. Are there any artists that might have influenced you some time?

Definitely. I think my biggest musical influences are James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Johnny Cash, Lou Reed, David Bowie, Elliott Smith, Sam Cooke, Kurt Cobain, Smashing Pumpkins...i have so many influences, and am constantly finding out about new music - well, new to me - stuff that's been around for a long time, like Elvis Costello. I only started listening to him in the past couple of months, and he is an amazing songwriter. I can't believe it's taken me this long to get into his music! i look forward to letting myself be influenced by his writing and seeing what comes of it.

4. How do you develop your songs? What part comes first, music or lyrics?

It usually happens all at once. Some lyrics with a melody attached to them will pop into my head. Then I sit down with my guitar or piano and put some chords to the words and melody and write the rest of the song around that initial part.

5. What song is most important to you? Why and how did it develop?

That is a really tough question. I have so many songs that I love, which are really special to me, and have been important at different times in my life.

At the moment I'm really into a new song called 'You For Me.' It really feels like me - like where I'm at currently in my life. It feels very honest and true to who I am. It's a song that wrote itself - just came to me all at once, lyrics, melody, chords - all I had to do was write it down.

6. In what aspects did your music change compared to when you started to make music?

My music has changed a lot since I first started. It took a long time for me to find my real voice. I spent so many years studying classical music, and learning the "right" and "wrong" ways to sing. This is not interesting to me - I do not want to hear someone sing in a technically perfect way. I want to hear raw emotion when I listen to music, you know? So when I first started singing my own songs, a lot of my singing felt trained. I did not know how to sing from an emotional, real place. My voice sounds so different to me now. I finally feel like I have my own voice, and it expresses exactly what I need it to express.

7. What has been the best experience so far, as an artist?

Probably Live Earth at Wembley Stadium. I played my song 'Say It's Possible' in front of 80,000 people. By myself, alone on that giant stage, with my guitar. It was insane!!! Definitely the experience of a lifetime. I was the only new artist playing Live Earth. I didn't even have an album out! So it was pretty surreal and strange and terrifying, really! I was so scared before I walked on stage, but once I played the first few notes on my guitar I felt totally at ease and so thrilled to be there.

8. What can you tell us about your current projects?

I am about to start recording my next album! I have all the songs and I'm ready to go. Just figuring out some of the funding because I'm leaving Island Records and making this album on my own. I'm also about to launch my new website, which I designed. I want everything I do to reflect my art and my music - whether it's my album or my website or my merchandise - I want it to look and sound and feel like me. Not like the ideas of a marketing person at a big label. That's one of the reasons I'm leaving Island/Universal. I'm also working on a web show with writer/director James Gunn. I'm as excited about that as I am about the album, actually!

9. And what are you aspiring to in the future, what do you want to achieve?

I want to feel like I have done everything I want to do creatively, whatever that means!! I have so many ideas, new things every day, and I feel like there is not enough time to do it all! I want to write all the songs in my head, and the stories and blogs and books, if that's where it all leads - i want to create all the art and put it out there into the world and see what happens. I want to tour A LOT. I'm getting restless and can't wait til my album is recorded and I can go back on the road for a while.
The opening line of that song I mentioned earlier - "You For Me" - "I wanna make enough money to run my life from the top of a mountain in the dead of night, it'll be you and me and a couple of dogs, and the rest of the world can just move on...." I also want that.

10. With whom would you like to go on tour?

There are a ton of artists I would love to tour with, but some of them are way too cool for me. I think it would be fun to tour with some of the amazing female artists out now, like Sia. She's awesome and so nice. I met her on a plane from LA to NYC. I would like to tour with anyone, really - I've opened for all kinds of bands, from pop to punk rock, and I love all kinds of music. Someone like Ray Lamontagne would be amazing to listen to night after night, so I would love to tour with him. And the Foo Fighters are one of the best live acts I've ever seen, so I would love to open for them. The Hotel Cafe tour would be fun, because it's a bunch of people I like on a bus together, playing music every night, and that really appeals to me, but for some reason they never ask me to play any shows on their tours! haha oh well. I guess I'm not cool enough.

11. What record would we find in your CD-player right now?

It's a mix CD made by my boyfriend. He has fantastic taste in music, and has introduced me to so many incredible songs and artists. My favorite songs at the moment are 'Tripped at Every Step' by Elvis Costello and this song called 'Gemini (Birthday Song)' by a band called Why?

12. What do you think, as artists, about platforms like MySpace?

I love it. It's direct communication with people who love music, and what could be better than that?

13. myFanbase is a website that is devoted to American television shows. Do you have a favorite show?

Yes! My favorite show (at least at the moment) is Dexter. I love it. And when my new web show comes out, I will change my answer to that question!!

Sandra G. - myFanbase