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singer-songwriter
Jamie has been writing songs ever since he took up playing guitar. Some say the reason is that he was unable to tune his first
(four-string, rusty, broken-machine-head) guitar and therefore unable to reproduce the songs he loved that were written by others.
But he looks further back to even younger days when he wrote poetry and short stories; moving on to songs was but a short step for
him. "I think I can express thoughts and ideas in the space of a few lines."
Songwriting has always provided a relief, a way of easing pressure. But although the songs often appear personal, as he says in
the liner notes to Chasing Ghosts, "I have a vivid imagination". Something real - a situation, an event, a relationship -
triggers a thought process and what comes out, after reworking, bending, twisting and revamping, in the end bears little
relationship to the truth!
Some songs have survived from those early days - "You Only Wish", which is featured on the album Chasing Ghosts, is one such
song - and are still included in his day-to-day repertoire. Others are more recent works - but all of them have a relevance today.
He writes alone or collaborates with friends, sometimes providing the lyrics, sometimes the melodies and sometimes a bit of
both. Some of his songs have been written specifically for other musicians to perform and some appear as different, unrelated
versions.
Jamie stopped appearing as a solo musician in public in his 20s. He turned more and more to collaborations: with Ogron, Jenny
Ford, the Lower Band, the Right Hand Band, Medicinal Purpose and others. While working on a project with singer Aoife Clancy, she
suggested he should add solo performances to his calendar. Soon after, singer and guitarist Gerry O'Beirne made the same comment.
Jamie began to believe this might be a new direction to explore. It was during a tour with Grammy winner George Kahumoku
Jr. that George encouraged him to take solo spots on stage and a new world opened up: Jamie O'Brien, solo performer and writer of
his own material.
"Not many people realize this," says Jamie, "But I'm extremely shy. I kind of over-compensate by acting the clown on stage. But
people like George and Aoife and Gerry made me realize it's the music that really counts. I'm not the greatest singer or guitarist,
but I choose what I do really carefully - the songs have to mean a lot to me and I have to know them perfectly before I start to
perform them. So I guess there's a lot of 'soul' in what I do. And that connects with audiences. I still clown around and say
dumb things, but the music means so much.
"I remember singing I think it was "Didn't Have A Clue" and afterwards, a woman came up to me, mentioned the song and burst out
crying. 'You poor man', she sobbed, 'How could she do it to you?' Hey, it was just a song, but it connected with her and she
thought it was absolutely real. I love that, when things take on a meaning for people. It means what I'm doing is working."
Jamie O'Brien
"Wasn't It Me?" - Jamie O'Brien & Friends