ANNIE OMALLEY TALKS KLOSE THE DOOR

Interviewed by Culture Coast Talks editor Daniel John. Interview transcripts might have been edited for length and clarity.

Since your debut, which is now starting to become a good while ago, you’ve been writing and releasing pretty much non-stop. What is it that puts pen to paper, for you. Why is it that you write music. With life happening all around you, is your songwriting there to katch you and make sense of it?

Ever since a very young age, whenever things would happen in life whether they were minor or major, my instinct has always been documenting it and writing about it. It's kind of like if I’m going to experience this and feel this deeply I migh as well keep the memory of it in the way I want it to be remembered and hopefully others will relate to it. I started writing so young that there wasn’t a time when I didn’t use writing to make sense of what I was feeling. I feel so blessed every day that I found writing so young and was drawn to it so quickly.

Songwriting definitely helps me make sense of it all but also just being in a constant state of curiosity and wonder allows the ideas to come to me and to be heard.

Even before you knew how to spell, music was a language you had in you, starting to write when you were just a little kid. How early on was it that really you just knew you had to write music?

I remember writing songs at about six or seven. At that age I usually would just make them up and then remember them and perform them for my family. I started playing guitar at eight years old and I would write on the guitar. But I wasn’t a prodigy, I say this a lot, I just was obsessed, I didn’t love learning the chords on the guitar because it hurt my fingers but I loved performing. I felt alive when I would sing for people and would always imagine being on a huge stage. The first time I wrote and performed an original I was nine. For my choir I got to write a Christmas song and the choir sang the chorus with me in front of eight-hundred people. It’s pretty crazy to think about how young and fearless I was.

Your mom got to help you out a bit at first, at least with all the spelling. Did she ever “katch the bug” by helping you out?

I have a ton of pieces of paper that are children’s lyrics but my moms handwriting. My mom always encouraged me to dream big and still to this day always says to me, “Why not yew?”. She use to write when she was young and loved the arts but she had stage fright and was too scared to perform. I think that's partly why she encouraged me because she didn’t experience that encouragement when she was young.

Do you still write together sometimes?

We don’t write together now but on my debut album 'skrapbook' I have a voice recording of her giving me relationship advice in the beginning of the song, it is one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written.

What inspired you to write this song. What was it you could not klose the door on?

Truthfully I wrote ‘klose the door’ about a lot of things. It touches on talking to someone that is much older and the overthinking that comes with that. Whether it's the younger person trying to rush their growth to keep up with them, or the older person not having the patience to deal with the traits they have grown out of. It touches on a situationship that has gone back and forth and how it's time to get off the carousel that's going round and round. I also wrote about realizing that if the person you talk to is always okay with you coming and going, it's not that they’re understanding, it's that they don’t really care.

And it’s also a message to my self to not settle for mediocracy, to know that there is someone out there for me and it won’t feel like a candy land board.

It only took the weekend for this song to pass 40k streams. You are in a weird yet also beautiful position to share your music with so many people. I’d imagine that must be such a special feeling. What would the little girl who just wanted to make music say if you could turn back time and say “Told yew so“?

I learned a lot from this release, I really let go and let the fans decide if this was something they wanted. So far it’s been my biggest solo release ever which is really exciting and I can’t wait to show everyone what’s next. If I’m being completely honest that little girl believed she could fly so she would probably be like, “Um why are yew not the biggest artist in the world yet?” (laughs) But she doesn’t understand how important it was for me to take my time and find a love for music that could never be taken away.

Would she just say you were chasing clowds?

I love all these music references yew're making in these questions. I really appreciate yew taking the time to research and listen to my other songs.

The reality of songwriting is still that it is such an introspective process. Even releasing it to the world, there'll be a distance between you and everyone, this despite you being in their ears. With that, what do you feel being on stage and being as transparent with an audience as when it was you alone in your room?

It's extremely introspective, you can’t really hide or avoid your feelings when yewre writing. I think the strongest people in the world are the most vulnerable ones. They live knowing that everything can change and they can be burned but they still lead with their hearts. As someone who has always been extremely sensitive I was really afraid of that part of me for years. I would write extremely vulnerable things but then I would add too much production or talk less about the songs that were really heavy out of fear. I now see the power of sitting in emotions like embarrassment, rejection, failure, or insecurity. People want realness and they want to be heard and understood, the least I could do as a songwriter is sit in the mud with them and be honest about my experiences.

When I am on stage and I can see people resonating or enjoying the songs with me, I get a rush of energy and joy that is beyond me. It brings tears to my eyes and makes me want to hysterically laugh because it feels so right, it feels like I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.

When I’m in my room I’m really experiencing the emotion in the present.

When I’m on stage I can let go of the attachment to the story and see the bigger picture of the lesson I had to learn.

You’ve been here in Europe this summer. When will we see you around here in Sweden?

Yes! I was in Europe this summer for a couple weeks. It was amazing. Taking a break from my day to day life put in perspective what was important and what wasn’t and not to be dramatic but I feel like a new person. A lot has changed in the last couple of weeks, all for the better. Hopefully I will be in Sweden soon, I've always wanted to go there.

This new single is the first one of your upcoming second album, following up last years ‘skrapbook’ which to re-confirm the non-stop pace at which you create did not even release a year ago, and you even gave us a full EP in between. What might this single tell about the album at large?

‘Skrapbook’ was released and the chapter was finished, I wrote the first song for album two the next morning. And not to get ahead of myself but when I realized I was completely done with album two I had a whole day where I felt so content with that project that I wrote a song for what could potentially be album three that night. I am an oversharer but I really appreciate yew asking and I am so in love with what I do I never wanna stop talking about it. I will say that this album is all about reuniting with my inner child and confronting all the things that skare me.