We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nikki O’Neill a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Nikki, appreciate you joining us today. Risk taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

Risks have been an integral part of my life, and I need to name a few from my past before getting to the main one for this story, because they’re all interconnected. Note: life events are rarely simplistic, but in order to keep things short and easy to read here, I’m skipping the more complex details:

I was born in LA, but moved to Stockholm, Sweden when I was seven, and lived there until I was 27.

I left Sweden, where I had been a timid writer, hopeful musician and rescuer of troubled parents and boyfriends, to move to New York City and start my life over. Taking this risk got me work as a freelance music journalist for the major newspapers and national public radio in Sweden. It was hard financially, but no work day was ever monotonous. But most important, I really developed my sense of self, which eventually would transform my relationship dynamics and my life.

During one of my artist interviews, I met Neil Young. I don’t know if he usually does this, but he decided to light some incense before our interview. We began by talking about his new album and then got into the “ugly” vs. “beautiful” aesthetics of guitar playing, Thelonius Monk, and the movements and counter-movements of music. Afterwards, he gave me his famously intense look and said “great questions!” That conversation made me think that it was time for me to create music and not just interview other musicians about it.

I quit most of my freelance journalism work in 2001 to pursue making music. In order to pay my NYC rent and bills, I had been writing some stories about music celebrities and other topics for a tabloid newspaper, and maybe I was too much of an idealist, but I was fed up with the trivial shallowness of it. After taking that leap and struggling with various non-creative jobs, I applied to The New School and begun a bachelor’s degree in music in my 30’s, and also got into teaching music.

At one point, I was invited to attend the NAMM music trade show in Anaheim, CA. I was broke, but scrambled together enough money for the flight and hotel. At NAMM, I met my future husband, who plays music and works on the business side of the music industry.

The risk of flying out to LA again and moving in with him after six months of long-distance dating, led me to our now 17 years together/14 years of marriage. While in LA, I became a published author of a groundbreaking guitar instruction book, and an active performing artist and band leader. At age 49, I got signed to Blackbird Record Label as one of their artists, releasing my second solo record which got many great reviews in the U.S. and Europe.

Which leads me to the next big risk — this time taken by me and my husband.

We had often thought of leaving LA to move to Chicago (his hometown) and buy our first house. The real-estate prices in California just seemed hopeless, but my husband didn’t have the courage to move back: he loved the beach lifestyle and the freedom that CA had represented to him when he had left the suburban Midwest. And so we stayed, while the prices for houses and condos kept going up.

It was in the Covid year of 2020 that we finally decided to leave. After doing a virtual album release party of my album on our birthday (we both share an Oct 16 birthday), we got in my little car and made the cross-country drive from LA to Chicago — in the midst of the pandemic lockdown, before vaccines.

Once the pandemic went into a different phase where vaccines just started to become available and we could cautiously meet people outdoors, I really needed to find work. I dreamed of writing for the Chicago Tribune, teaching at the Old Town School of Folk Music (the largest community arts school in the U.S.), and getting paid work as a performing artist with my own music. So I sent my resumes out with links to my writing portfolio and/or music.

A reply from the Chicago Tribune’s music editor came with the question: “could you cover the Pitchfork Music Festival”? None of the other writers felt comfortable doing it because of the pandemic. After some inner debating, I agreed to do it. Getting and signing the freelance agreement papers was one of the happiest moments for me — back in the game at my age in a new city, and to write for an American newspaper!

Since then, I’ve gotten to write several stories for the Tribune on music and food. I also teach at the Old Town School of Folk Music, and my husband and I bought our first home that same year in 2021. Having written several stories for Guitar Player Magazine, I wrote my first cover story for them in 2022. My husband and I perform actively around Chicago with my 5-piece band, getting much more work than we did in LA, and I’m working on my next album.

It’s not a financially lucrative life — I still have a day job as a translator to afford the mortgage and the costs of being a bandleader and making albums. Not having kids, I keep busy as a performer/writer/teacher on weeknights and weekends while others might relax in front of the TV or at the bar. But I live a very full and richly rewarding life.

A friend of mine once said something that really resonated with me, and that I live by:

“There is no luck. There is only hard work towards who you know you are and believing in that vision. When you are truly ready not when u think you are things will fall in the right place. Your only duty is to work hard and never give up.”

Nikki, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m an Americana singer-songwriter and guitar player, who’s really into soul music, rhythm & blues, and gospel. I’m signed to Blackbird Record Label (an indie label based in Los Angeles), and my latest album is called World is Waiting.

I’m also a freelance music and food writer for the Chicago Tribune, and a guitar instructor at the Old Town of Folk Music in Chicago. I live with my husband in Chicago.

Music website: nikkioneill.com
Writer portfolio: nikkioneill.journoportfolio.com

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Please see the story I shared about taking risks — it’s also a story about tenacity and resilience.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Please see the story I shared about taking risks, as it’s also a story about pivoting.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://nikkioneill.com
• Linkedin: https://nikkioneill.journoportfolio.com

Image Credits
Deb Morrison-Littell Jay Bennett Rich Lackowski