Tim O'Connell Perspective on I've Got a Song in My Heart

My name is Tim O'Connell.  I'm a songwriter and artist.

When I was growing up, everybody listened to Top 40 radio.  Later on, it became fashionable to put down Top 40, but for me, most of the songs that were Top 40 hits were just really fun and made you glad to be alive.  I wanted to capture that feeling with this song.

We had an old cabinet-style record player and just a couple of records.  I used to listen to "Here Comes Peter Cottontail" and "The Littlest Cowboy" on that record player.  I was probably three years old.

When I was eighteen, I worked in a plastics factory, and it was work that required no thought whatsoever.  My mind was free to wander for eight hours every day.  That's when I started writing songs, and it became my life's ambition to put out an album of my own songs.  I've done that seven times now.

Pop music.

I don't think it has changed much.

Having fun, being in love, falling out of love, doing what's right.

It's American music that includes influences from all of the different styles of popular American music.

I would like to see Merle Haggard because I never saw him when he was alive.  He was supposed to have had a great band.

NRBQ because I think their fans would appreciate my music.

I don't have a favorite artist.  I like a lot of different people.

Smokey Robinson.  He was the first songwriter I started paying attention to, and he's still going.

Amanda Anne Platt because I think she might be the best songwriter working today.  Aretha Franklin because she made so many beautiful records.  Bob Dylan because I would never run out of great songs to listen to.

Intelligent.  Fun.  Versatile.

One time an emcee introduced me as a hipster combination of John Mayall and Maynard G. Krebs.

I want them to feel totally alive in the moment.

One time I went to play a harmonica solo in a club and had the harmonica upside down.

Animal health technician, wildlife specialist, park ranger.

Through recorded music.

I practice for what I have coming up.  I used to practice every day just for the fun of it.

An artist needs to make the best art that he's capable of.  

Yes, but at this point, I'm used to being lonely.  I don't do anything to counteract it.

Irises by Vincent Van Gogh, with "My Favorite Things" by John Coltrane a close second.

Bruce Springsteen.  Bob Dylan.  Paul Simon.

Even when you do your very best work, there will be someone who doesn't like it.

"Give 'em Hugs" because of its message.

I keep doing it because I enjoy it.

To write the best songs that I can.

Music, literature.