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Interview with Harper O’Neill, Winner of the American Songwriter Song Contest 2022

harper interview

Winner of the American Songwriter Song Contest 2022

Play MPE is pleased to share a candid interview with Harper O’Neill, the Winner of the American Songwriter Song Contest 2022.  

Having won first place with her song “Somebody”, Harper has gone on to do some pretty amazing things, which she shares in this candid chat with Play MPE’s very own Adam T. 

Play MPE is very proud to have provided International music promotion distribution for Harper’s debut LP, Dark Bar Daisy, as part of the winner’s prize package. Harper’s music has been sent to thousands of music industry decision-makers in radio, media, curation, A&R, and more in her specific music genre and radio formats and already charted on Play MPE’s Top Country Downloads. 

Harper honed her musical chops in Nashville

Learn more about this incredible emerging crossover artist with a powerful new voice that music industry pros, tastemakers, and top artists have touted as very worthy of time spent in your ears! The Dallas-born, Nashville-based singer-songwriter has always favored following her intuition over trends, and that innate authenticity is evident as she shines in her navigation of a saturated industry. She found her way onto Music Row’s radar by allowing her drive and considerable talent to guide her. Which also ultimately helped her get noticed when she entered the American Songwriter Song Contest. 

Check out the interview!

Winning the American Songwriter Song Contest 2022

“To win anything always feels wonderful, I think specifically with this, having those judges be so renowned and respected, by not only industry, but by me. I take all those as just a sign to keep going. There are so many signs that you feel like, you should stop, you should quit, you should give up. And so that anytime you get one of these that just says you’re on the right track, we’re seeing what you’re doing, we love what you’re doing, keep going. Those can sometimes just shine even brighter. That was really one of the biggest gifts of this whole experience. Was really just, that – keep going nod.”

Being discovered by her publisher on Tik Tok

“I threw like three videos up and one of them was like, my hair was wet and I was in my bathrobe jamming my song, and that happened to be the one that got, hundreds of thousands of views. Jody found it, and not a week later he had signed me and I was writing for Jody Wiliams (Jody Williams Songs).” 

Harper’s debut LP Dark Bar Daisy

While Harper already had a stockpile of songs ready to go, she didn’t feel strongly enough about the material to use it for her debut LP, so she started from scratch. That decision led to Dark Bar Daisy which is a bold, brassy statement, with an unusually singular vision for a debut. Produced by Jake Gear (Hailey Whitters), Dark Bar Daisy is, at its heart, a country record, but one that explores and celebrates the genre’s intersection points with rock, pop, soul and even indie music. Replete with complex, larger-than-life arrangements, Dark Bar Daisy is a striking statement from one of country music’s most exciting new voices.

To learn more about Harper head here, and for more information about the American Songwriters Song Contest go here

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