Singer-Songwriter & Composer Greg O'Connor: "I Never Gave Myself Permission To Do This Before"

DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley

Dennis connects via Zoom with musician Greg O'Connor to talk about his debut album The Place I've Never Been and what it's been like to venture out as a solo artist after decades of writing songs and scores for TV and movies. Greg talks about what inspired him to take such a big swing in his mid-50's, the artists that inspired him like Toto, The Beach Boys, Steely Dan and Bleu, finding collaborators on Facebook and Instagram and posing on a hillside with a piano and live bull for the album's striking cover art. Greg also talks about the real-life experiences that inspired the album and videos, like being ghosted by someone he'd been dating for a while and subsequently falling in love with his fiancé, photographer Kevin Sikorski after meeting on Hinge. He also talks about his extensive work in TV and film, writing music for recent films My Home Unknown and Baby Boomer Yearbook (directed by Grease's Randal Kleiser) and TV shows like The Ben Stiller Show, The Big Gay Sketch Show and MadTV, for which he won an Emmy. Other topics include: falling in love with music at four, writing the viral song "Laura Dern" for the Independent Spirit Awards a few years back, shooting two music videos in one day in Capetown, South Africa and being closeted at USC and waiting in line outside of the Mother Lode bar in West Hollywood and being terrified someone would drive by and see him.

www.GregOConnor.com