Interviews

INTERVIEW | Annie O’Malley Premieres ‘Golden’ Debut EP

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At nineteen years old, Annie O’Malley is already a prolific songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. After releasing her first single “Chase Me Down” independently last year, O’Malley started working with producer Johnny K (Plain White T’s) on what would become her debut record. Wise beyond her years, the artist’s sound is already very mature and confident, tackling topics such as loneliness, self-empowerment, and love.

Through her upbeat pop sound, the Chicago-native aims to be a positive influence and mentor for her generation, through the challenging times we’re facing and beyond.

We sat down with O’Malley to chat about her debut EP Golden, that’s available today on all streaming platforms!

Your debut EP Golden came out today! We loved it! A debut is always quite a big deal. How do you feel?

Thank you so much!! I am excited, obviously as a songwriter I am constantly writing new music, so I have a million ideas and projects circulating through my head. So, when things come out it’s really great seeing it come to life.

What inspired the EP? Can you work us through the creative process (writing, recording, etc)?

This EP was a lot of my songs that I have written over the years, so there’s a lot of growth and different perspectives and beliefs. There’s love, heartache, good karma, doing the wrong things, and making mistakes, and learning to love being alone.

Did you approach any obstacles during the creation? Such as running out of inspiration to create new art or anything like that? If so, how did you get back on track?

I think an obstacle is when songs are almost done being produced because you don’t know if they are done or what to change. So you ask people around you and overthink it, so its important to just do what’s honest.

Is there a specific song on the EP that you feel most connected to?

On this EP, all the songs are special in their own way, but I am really obsessed with “Mrs. Nice.” I wrote it more recently and it’s about what life would be if I just lived by trial and error rather than being so focused on what people think and what looks good.

Your EP was produced by Johnny K. How was it working with him, knowing his experience? 

Johnny K is such an awesome mentor and artist to look up to and its always so fun working together.

You’re pretty young, yet you already tackle sensible subjects like loneliness. Why is it important for you to speak out about these issues? 

As a songwriter and musician, I think the most important thing for me is writing about real subjects that people actually go through on the daily. I have always been very observant, and I like to listen to people talk about their feelings and experiences, knowledge is so important. I touched on feeling alone because that’s something that a lot of people feel and I wanted to stress that being alone is not bad, you have to learn to love being with just yourself because it’s the only person you truly have with you forever.

Speaking of loneliness, how are you coping with quarantine? How do you keep busy?

Quarantine has been hard in a lot of ways, but I have made sure to read and focus on the facts and not get so consumed in other things. It’s important to stay educated, but not get lost in everything that is happening. You have to do what makes you happy and for me, that’s music, so that has been the focus.

What can we expect from you in 2020? Post-quarantine that is!

It sounds cliché but I’m gonna live my life to the absolute fullest and write a million songs about it the whole way. Lots of new music and projects and hopefully soon some shows! 🙂

 

Connect with Annie O’Malley:

Website | Instagram | Facebook

30-year-old writer, photographer and design editor located in Bordeaux, France. I bring queer content everywhere I go :) Inquiries at lex@stagerightsecrets.com