The C2C Sit Down with Harper O'Neill
After first capturing the attention of the UK audience last year on tours with Ashley McBryde and Lainey Wilson, Dallas-born, Nashville-based singer-songwriter Harper O’Neill returns to Europe for this year’s C2C: Country to Country festival in March where she will be performing at the events in London, Berlin, Rotterdam and Glasgow.
Her debut album “Dark Bar Daisy” which was produced by Jake Gear was released in October 2023 and whilst ostensibly a country record, it’s one that explores and celebrates the genre’s relationship with rock, pop, soul and indie music. More recently O’Neill has begun to roll out new music with her latest track “My Love, My Love” being released at the end of January and has continued to build on her enviable live reputation for her own headline shows and has quickly become your favourite artist’s favourite artist. Ahead of the trip over to Europe, we jumped on Zoom with Harper to look ahead to the upcoming festival and talk about her plans for the rest of 2025.
Her debut album “Dark Bar Daisy” which was produced by Jake Gear was released in October 2023 and whilst ostensibly a country record, it’s one that explores and celebrates the genre’s relationship with rock, pop, soul and indie music. More recently O’Neill has begun to roll out new music with her latest track “My Love, My Love” being released at the end of January and has continued to build on her enviable live reputation for her own headline shows and has quickly become your favourite artist’s favourite artist. Ahead of the trip over to Europe, we jumped on Zoom with Harper to look ahead to the upcoming festival and talk about her plans for the rest of 2025.
Hey Harper, thanks for taking the time to hang, looking forward to seeing you next week as I’m heading to C2C Germany in Berlin as well as here in London. I think I first got to know who you were when you came over with Ashley (McBryde) of last year and then you were back opening for Lainey (Wilson) so how did you find it on those two tours being an opener coming over here compared to when are on the road and opening up for people in the States?
“Well, I will say that being across the pond, the travel for some reason is a bit more glamorous, I think because we're so foreign to the situation so, I think I found myself enjoying some things that I probably wouldn't have enjoyed over here. Just the hustle and the bustle of getting around and seeing everything. As far as crowds go, I remember that being first of three with Ashley was super intimidating because it was it was just me up there solo but I found the crowds to be really sweet and encouraging and they listened quite a bit. Then going back with Lainey was wild because that was the beginning of her sort of rocket ship. I remember being really kind of intimidated by the fandom of Lainey Wilson over there, Ashley has great fans too as she's been going over there for so many years, but they sort of seemed like they knew what to expect and they're just diehard fans of Ashley whereas I feel like Lainey all of something going on, it's crazy.”
“Dark Bar Daisy” came out at the back end of 2023 and we have had a couple of tracks drop since then, a couple of collaborations but two of your own so, where are we with those two? Are they starting to build towards the next larger Harper O’Neill project?
“Absolutely. After these two songs that are out there's going to be one more in the next month or so and that will just sort of roll into this EP that just exists with those three. Then I've been writing towards the next full length that's going to have similar themes and lyrically, I feel like these three songs were really an artistic experiment to sort of dive deeper to find a new sound and expand on what country music can be, look like and feel like. That’s been kind of me just throwing pain at the wall, trying to figure out sonically what's next and then we're going to dive in, I think almost right after I get back from Europe I’ll start recording another full length.”
“My Love, My Love” is the latest of them which you wrote with Ed Williams and Jason Nix, who will also be in Germany as well.
“I know, I’m so excited, it’s going to be wild to see him over there.”
He’s playing some writers round shows with two really good buddies of mine: Kenny Foster and Tyler Sjöström, so that will be cool to see but tell us about that track in terms of when you wrote it and where the idea came from.
“Well, I will say that being across the pond, the travel for some reason is a bit more glamorous, I think because we're so foreign to the situation so, I think I found myself enjoying some things that I probably wouldn't have enjoyed over here. Just the hustle and the bustle of getting around and seeing everything. As far as crowds go, I remember that being first of three with Ashley was super intimidating because it was it was just me up there solo but I found the crowds to be really sweet and encouraging and they listened quite a bit. Then going back with Lainey was wild because that was the beginning of her sort of rocket ship. I remember being really kind of intimidated by the fandom of Lainey Wilson over there, Ashley has great fans too as she's been going over there for so many years, but they sort of seemed like they knew what to expect and they're just diehard fans of Ashley whereas I feel like Lainey all of something going on, it's crazy.”
“Dark Bar Daisy” came out at the back end of 2023 and we have had a couple of tracks drop since then, a couple of collaborations but two of your own so, where are we with those two? Are they starting to build towards the next larger Harper O’Neill project?
“Absolutely. After these two songs that are out there's going to be one more in the next month or so and that will just sort of roll into this EP that just exists with those three. Then I've been writing towards the next full length that's going to have similar themes and lyrically, I feel like these three songs were really an artistic experiment to sort of dive deeper to find a new sound and expand on what country music can be, look like and feel like. That’s been kind of me just throwing pain at the wall, trying to figure out sonically what's next and then we're going to dive in, I think almost right after I get back from Europe I’ll start recording another full length.”
“My Love, My Love” is the latest of them which you wrote with Ed Williams and Jason Nix, who will also be in Germany as well.
“I know, I’m so excited, it’s going to be wild to see him over there.”
He’s playing some writers round shows with two really good buddies of mine: Kenny Foster and Tyler Sjöström, so that will be cool to see but tell us about that track in terms of when you wrote it and where the idea came from.
“Usually, our writes are three to four hours and I think that one took us about eight hours because we just wanted to make sure it did what we thought it was gonna do. At the time I was listening to a lot of old Fleetwood stuff and not just the hits, but really kind of diving in and obviously one of the big themes between her (Stevie Nicks) and Lindsey Buckingham is sort of their intense chaotic love affair that they have throughout. There’s that iconic line where she says “you'll never get away from the sound of a woman that loves you” and I really just wanted to explore that line in a larger theme of a song. The beginning lyrically is very sweet and it's very like, I'll always be there when you need me or when you call me, my love will always be with you. Then by the end, as the key changes make the track sort of fall apart, you know, the singer, me, I'm saying I'm going to rip my heart out if we're not going to be together and it's me or nobody. All of sudden it becomes kind of threatening and an interesting way that we really enjoyed bringing to life with that rise and energy on those key changes. It's something I've always wanted to do, I love that music from the 60s and the 70s where what they did that was you know, by force, really was straight to tape. You couldn't go back and be like, well, I didn't sing that note right or the drums are a little off here and I really wanted to honour the integrity of the music that was made during that time. Everything we did was live, I think there was one keyboard over dub way later that we did, but the rest of it, my vocal and the main band was tracked live, just straight down, so it was just a wild musical experiment.”
Another track that you put out since the record was “Thelma & Louise” which has Meg McRee on there with you. Piecing things together from both of your stories, I'm guessing you both moved to Nashville around about the same sort of time but how did the two of you first meet and what was it that brought an instant click where you knew that the two of you were going to be best friends forever?
“That's just one of the powers of the universe I play. It was a wild a thing, I had decided to move down to Nashville sort of on a whim. I was in Texas and I was playing gigs on the weekends but I had my corporate job and I was in my cube doing my thing, then one day I was just like I can't do this anymore so, I found random roommates on Facebook and drove out there and never came back. Once I got there, I didn't know anybody, I didn't know a single person in town. I thought I'd take my guitar down to Demonbreun where they do the songwriter nights and just sort of wait for someone to be like, hey you, play a song, you know? I was sitting there waiting one day and I'm about to get up then I see this young strawberry blonde just kind of stomp over and she just said, I've been checking you out online and I think we're going to be great friends! I was just like, hell yeah, I need a friend, this is great. We wrote the next day and I'm going to be a bridesmaid at her wedding next month so we've been inseparable ever since.”
Another track that you put out since the record was “Thelma & Louise” which has Meg McRee on there with you. Piecing things together from both of your stories, I'm guessing you both moved to Nashville around about the same sort of time but how did the two of you first meet and what was it that brought an instant click where you knew that the two of you were going to be best friends forever?
“That's just one of the powers of the universe I play. It was a wild a thing, I had decided to move down to Nashville sort of on a whim. I was in Texas and I was playing gigs on the weekends but I had my corporate job and I was in my cube doing my thing, then one day I was just like I can't do this anymore so, I found random roommates on Facebook and drove out there and never came back. Once I got there, I didn't know anybody, I didn't know a single person in town. I thought I'd take my guitar down to Demonbreun where they do the songwriter nights and just sort of wait for someone to be like, hey you, play a song, you know? I was sitting there waiting one day and I'm about to get up then I see this young strawberry blonde just kind of stomp over and she just said, I've been checking you out online and I think we're going to be great friends! I was just like, hell yeah, I need a friend, this is great. We wrote the next day and I'm going to be a bridesmaid at her wedding next month so we've been inseparable ever since.”
Oh, that's amazing! Lasty, being from Dallas, the Texas scene is very different to Nashville. Musically, I would say that whilst obviously you are a Texan but you now live in Nashville, what you do is a closer fit to that Texas style. Your sound is not as polished as the typical Nashville sound, if you know what I mean and that is the beauty of this Texas country slash Americana or Texicana being that buzzword which people are throwing around. Do you feel that these two styles of “country music” are coming together, particularly with artists like Zach Bryan and Tyler Childers exposing it to more people?
“Absolutely and I think keeping my sound unpolished has been a very deliberate choice. There have been lots of wonderful incredible producers that I've made demos up with and we've kind of just experimented then seen what it was, but I never felt like that sound really honoured what I fell in love with music about and the real humanness of it. It is great to see artists like Zach Bryan, Tyler Childers, Sierra Ferrell, Margo Price, Maggie Rose and all these really powerful voices, in my opinion, keeping it really real. I think the unpolished sound is actually just sound and the polished sound is sort of that altered post back in and mask put on it.”
Harper, this has been fun! Can’t wait to see you in Berlin, have some beers with you and give you a big hug, then see you again back in London.
Harper O’Neill will be appearing at C2C: Country to Country in Berlin on Friday 7th March where she will be performing on the Alex and Holler Stages (further Berlin details on their WEBSITE or on INSTAGRAM & FACEBOOK) and also performing at the festival in Rotterdam on Sunday 9th March before heading to play the Spotlight stage in Glasgow on Saturday 15th March and finally heading to London on Sunday 16th Match where she will be performing on the CMA Spotlight and BBC Radio 2 stages. Full festival details and ticket information are available on the WEBSITE or socials (FACEBOOK INSTAGRAM X)
The new single “My Love, My Love” from Harper O’Neill is out now and is available HERE. To learn more about Harper and all that she is up to you can check out her WEBSITE or follow her socially on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK X & FACEBOOK
“Absolutely and I think keeping my sound unpolished has been a very deliberate choice. There have been lots of wonderful incredible producers that I've made demos up with and we've kind of just experimented then seen what it was, but I never felt like that sound really honoured what I fell in love with music about and the real humanness of it. It is great to see artists like Zach Bryan, Tyler Childers, Sierra Ferrell, Margo Price, Maggie Rose and all these really powerful voices, in my opinion, keeping it really real. I think the unpolished sound is actually just sound and the polished sound is sort of that altered post back in and mask put on it.”
Harper, this has been fun! Can’t wait to see you in Berlin, have some beers with you and give you a big hug, then see you again back in London.
Harper O’Neill will be appearing at C2C: Country to Country in Berlin on Friday 7th March where she will be performing on the Alex and Holler Stages (further Berlin details on their WEBSITE or on INSTAGRAM & FACEBOOK) and also performing at the festival in Rotterdam on Sunday 9th March before heading to play the Spotlight stage in Glasgow on Saturday 15th March and finally heading to London on Sunday 16th Match where she will be performing on the CMA Spotlight and BBC Radio 2 stages. Full festival details and ticket information are available on the WEBSITE or socials (FACEBOOK INSTAGRAM X)
The new single “My Love, My Love” from Harper O’Neill is out now and is available HERE. To learn more about Harper and all that she is up to you can check out her WEBSITE or follow her socially on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK X & FACEBOOK
