Feature Interview: Terra Naomi

Terra Naomi has an impossibly beautiful voice and writes lyrics with astounding rawness. One way or another, Ms. Naomi is sure to pull on your heart. Her intense honesty makes her refreshing and relatable. It is hard to imagine anyone not falling in love with Terra.

Terra Naomi took the internet by storm one night when she recorded herself playing her song Say It’s Possible, inspired by the movie An Inconvenient Truth and uploaded it to YouTube. As I type this, that video has been viewed 3,843,019 times. In March of 2007, she received one of the inaugural YouTube Video Awards for the music video category. In July of 2007 she performed at Live Earth at Wembley Stadium in London in front of 80,000 people. After a stint with a major label, Terra is now contract free and working on a new album, powered by herself. To quote Ms. Naomi’s twitter: “Is there anything I can’t do? I’m beginning to think the answer might be no.”

Those inspired and touched by Terra Naomi via YouTube now span the globe, myself included. I couldn’t believe it when I saw that Ms. Naomi was scheduled to perform at the Pride Fest in Colorado Springs, a mere seventy miles from my home, when I was sure I would have to travel to Los Angeles. In person, Terra is just as sweet and genuine as a fan of her music would think. She is so warm, so kind, so friendly, and so candid. She was all smiles and honestly loves what she does and the people who support her. After watching Terra perform, we made our way to the edge of the festival grounds to have a talk that left me all smiles.

How are you enjoying Colorado?


I love it. I love Colorado. I’ve spent quite a bit of time here, actually. Both of my brothers went to university here and my cousins live here.

How did you end up playing this show?


My friend Arlan called me and she was going to be MCing today and asked if I would do it because I played San Diego Pride a couple years ago and had such a good time. She said, “Will you be able to come in this weekend?” I was like, “Yeah, definitely.” I was really excited and honored.

You’ve got a couple of new releases coming up soon. Tell me about those.


I’ve been working on my album for the last couple months, but I have an acoustic version that I’m going to put out first, [This is available online now and at Terra’s shows.] and there will also eventually be an EP.

Tell me about The Vicodin Song.


It’s the song that was a hidden track on my Island Records release and it’s always been one of my favorite songs. I felt like it didn’t really get a chance to be out there in the world, so when it came time to pick the songs for this album, I wanted to include a couple of songs like that, that I felt hadn’t had a chance to really shine in my past recording experience. So we decided to record that one. We made the website getfreevicodin.com as just sort of a fun, promotional thing. We were giving away the song for awhile and now it is available on iTunes as well. I made a little pharmaceutical company commercial for The Vicodin Song and that was really fun. It’s on my YouTube page and my website.

What have been the benefits for you in working outside of a label?


Creative freedom is the biggest benefit. Also ownership of my masters because usually what happens is that you record for a major label and then they own everything and they control everything. This way I own the licenses for all of my songs and I own all the recordings and if someone wants to use it for whatever and I want to approve the use of that, it is all up to me. So I don’t have to go through all of the various steps that I had to go through in the past: calling my publisher, calling my label, “Can we use it for this?” The world of music is very fast right now because it’s all online. The whole point of a record label, they’re great if you need a quick million and a half dollars or something, they’re very good at dumping money into projects that they want to dump money into, but most artists won’t ever see that kind of promotion from a major label. The other thing that happens for many artists like myself is that you go in and do something on your own and do well with it then you turn stuff over to someone else to take care of and maybe they get it right and maybe they don’t. This way I’m putting all the people in place around me, the same sort of people that record labels would put around me – marketing, promo, if you’re getting a licensing person involved to try to get songs placed in TV and film, all the things that a label can provide, I’m now able to put in place myself, while retaining ownership of my masters. Also saying, “I want to produce my own album” which is what I did because I want it to sound like me. When you’re working with a major label they can be amazing, but in order for them to make any money and in order for their investment to pay off, you have to sell millions. You’ve got to be on the radio and stuff. And for many artists who are really successful, radio is not the best path for them. There are all kinds of artists doing interesting things with big touring careers, whose songs will never be played on the radio. My stuff probably isn’t going to be next to Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus, because it’s got another audience. The major labels are really good at the first kinds of audience, the radio audience, but not so good at the more organic, slow build artists like myself.

That was a really long winded answer for me, but I have so much to say on that because I’ve been thinking so much about it. I’ve had major labels approach me about this album and they’re interested, so I’m like, “Uh…what do I do?” because it’s tempting. I think signing with Island was a definite misstep for me, even though it was a good experience. I learned a lot. But I strayed from a path that was really working well. I disconnected from my fans and that didn’t make me happy. I don’t want to sound like everybody else and that’s how I felt. I love the songs on my album, but I felt like it made me sound like anybody and I think what makes me special and unique is the rawness of what I do and being able to really hear my voice.

What has been the high point of your career thus far?


It’s hard to beat playing for 80,000 people at Live Earth. That was awesome. That’s a tough experience to measure up to. That was definitely one of the high points. The early stages, though, too. When my video was discovered on YouTube and winning the YouTube award before I moved over to London and released my studio album. Seeing the reaction from real people all over the world after kind of knocking on doors of the music industry and being told, “Well, you’re not Britney Spears, what are you? Where do you fit?” And I don’t know where I fit. I just make good music and people like it. Then all of a sudden the tables completely turned and I had all these people calling me and saying, “How can we get involved in this?” All these labels. It was sort of like, “See?” They saw the physical results of millions of views on my video and hundreds and thousands of people emailing me, writing to me, commenting on my videos, and being moved by what I do. That was so satisfying. I try not to look outside for validation, because that’s a losing battle. I don’t want to be dependent on that. I think now I’m able to say that I don’t care as much, but three years ago after touring the country myself for years and years and not getting the kind of support from the industry that I was hoping for, that felt pretty damn good.

How did you get started in music?


I’ve been singing since I was a baby. I started singing when I was about eight months old. I could sing before I could talk. I was making little melodies and my parents were very freaked out because I was an eight month old baby with a wobbly head and I was singing. So it was a little bit weird. Do eight month old babies still have wobbly heads? I think they do a little bit.

I honestly know nothing about babies.


I don’t know anything about babies, either. But if eight month old babies have wobbly heads, then I did. Anyway, I started playing piano and French horn, then I went to school for opera. I went to music camp in the summer. I started writing songs. In college I met a bunch of people that were in bands and I was like, “Hey I don’t want to do opera, I want to be a singer/songwriter.” I think at the time I was like, “I want to be a punk rock singer!” because my friends were all into cool post grunge and this big indie underground band scene. I had all these friends that were in indie bands and I’m like, “This is cool. I want to do that.” I’m way more mainstream, though. I fought the fact that I actually write pop songs. I was like, “I don’t want to be someone who writes pop songs!” but I kind of am and now I’ve embraced it.

You’ve got a very prominent internet presence. How did you get started with that?


That really kind of happened after YouTube. I had stuff on MySpace and I had a decent online following, but after YouTube it kind of blew up for me. Say It’s Possible was featured and then became really popular, and that’s where most of my online fan base is from. Because of the international nature of YouTube – of the Internet in general but especially YouTube, my fans are spread out all over the world. It makes touring a little bit harder. We did a live online broadcast last week and I’m going to do them every Thursday night at 7pm Pacific Time. There were people that were up at 5:00 in the morning in Romania and people from Australia and Spain and all over England and everywhere in all these different time zones. I was like, “This is absolutely crazy! How do I tour?” The way the Internet changed that is that traditionally, an artist would have fans wherever the record label released their album and wherever radio was playing their album, but now with internet, you have fans anywhere anyone can watch you. It’s cool. It’s definitely a good thing.

Do you ever get nervous before performing?


I was nervous at Wembley. I thought I was going to pass out and I kept going over every option for myself in my head and I’m like, “Okay, if I pass out on stage who is going to drag me off? If I forget all the words…” I was going through all the worst case scenario type things. Now I don’t get that nervous. I get a little uptight sometimes when things aren’t going right, like if I don’t get a proper soundcheck and I don’t know how the sound is going to be, but I’m able to let that go now. I think it comes with experience. I know that whatever happens on stage, even if everything fails – my instruments and the sound, it will all be ok because it just sort of is what it is. I try not to have any expectations when I get up on stage other than to be there, really take in the experience, and give everyone who’s there the best experience that I can give them. It’s all part of the show. Stuff goes wrong from time to time; it’s just live music. And that’s what’s great about live music. You never know exactly what’s going to happen.

What do you enjoy doing with your time other than music?


I’ve recently discovered that I love having friends. I know it sounds totally strange, but for most of my life, I’ve just been a loner and when I’m not alone, I’m with a boyfriend or whatever. I just ended a relationship and it was really hard, but what it made me do, what it made made me realize is that I have this incredible group of friends and I love spending my time with them and I value them so much now. So I hang out with my friends. I sound like a teenager a now, but I’m just discovering that it’s really cool to have friends. I like to cook. I play with my dog a lot. I go to the beach a lot. I live right off the beach in Venice, California. That’s one of my favorite things. I love traveling, and I go into the desert or go into the woods or go into the mountains any chance I get. I love experiencing different places and different types of surroundings. I guess I’m pretty lame. I don’t really party; I go to sleep early, I wake up at six and walk on the beach. And I like to read. I read a lot.

What kind of dog do you have?


He’s a Pomeranian. But I’m told he’s not a typical Pomerian because he’s very calm and he’s very loving and warm. He’s this loving presence of a dog and I am in love with him.

What kind of books do you like to read?


I like fiction and I also like new journalism. The last new journalism type book that I read was Under the Banner of Heaven, which is about Mormons. It was really fascinating. I love nonfiction that reads like a novel. I’ve been reading a lot of self help books lately, too. It’s kind of embarrassing, but after I had the last breakup, my brother came into my room – we have an apartment together, my brother and I – he came into my room one night and I was sitting on my bed with a pile of books like It’s Called A Break Up Because It’s Broken and Women Who Love Too Much and Loving and Letting Go. He just came in and looked at me, propped up on pillows with this stack of books and was like, “Oh my god. What has happened to you? Are you okay? This is pathetic.” I said, “Yeah I know, just let me read them for like a week and I’ll be fine.” But I actually have read some really interesting and informative books. I like learning about the human condition. Everyone has this whole existential issue and all these questions that we absolutely can’t answer and all these other sorts of issues as well like, “Why didn’t he want to be with me?” Things like that. It’s so interesting to read about other people’s experiences and then be able to help other people with stuff that I learn.

What is some of your favorite music?


I really love a lot of the classic singer/songwriters. Some of them I guess would be considered country, but I consider them singer/songwriters, like Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard. I like Willie Nelson. I love Dolly Parton. I love Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, David Bowie, and Lou Reed. It’s hard for me to find current music. I like this band out of Sweden called The Second Band, they’re pretty cool. They’re great. I really love Elliott Smith. I love Patty Griffin. I covered one of her songs tonight. I love her.

Terra Naomi – Vicodin

Terra is about to embark on a U.S. tour. Make sure to be there! Check the dates and locations here. Visit TerraNaomi.com for all things Terra Naomi.