Sharon O’Neill
Sharon O’Neill is a New Zealand-born singer-songwriter who grew up in Nelson. She sang with Christchurch band Chapta in the mid 1970s, before launching a successful solo career in 1979. She wrote songs for Dragon and British singer Robert Palmer, composed the score to 1981 film Smash Palace, and toured to Japan and the United States. Now in her sixties, O’Neill is married to former Dragon keyboard player Alan Mansfield and has lived in Sydney since 1981. I spend a lot of time writing songs at home in Sydney, and I’m also what I call a ‘‘weddings, parties, anything’’ girl. I just love playing live, so I often find myself on the bill with a lot of acts from the 80s, playing songs like Maxine, Words and Asian Paradise. There might be 10 acts, and I’m there with people from Dragon, Eurogliders, The Choirboys, The Church, Rose Tattoo. People all join in and sing along, and the audience brings their kids along now.
What are you listening to yourself these days?
I listen to a lot of contemporary singersongwriters, and also a lot of older country music, but not the really down-home stuff. I like Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, The Eagles … those cross-over things with some elegant simplicity to them. I love my old favourite Steely Dan albums, too.
What sorts of things do you like to read?
I read a lot of music biographies. I read Linda Ronstadt’s last year and Carly Simon’s. I read Burt Bacharach’s more recently. His daughter committed suicide and I’m sure that pain found I would have liked to get involved with journalism. I love words and I’ve helped edit a few books for friends. I’m an avid crossword puzzle fan and there’s always trouble if I’m in a town where I can’t find a New York Times crossword book. I love flicking through the dictionary and learning words and, of course, I’m a songwriter, which is a very condensed and specific sort of writing in itself.
Charting the rise of local pop music from the 1950s until the present day,
VOLUME: Making Music In Aotearoa
shows at the Auckland War Memorial Museum until May, 2017.