Nikki O’Neill Photo credit: Justina Lee
Nikki O’Neill wrote Stories I Only Tell My Friends in 2023-2024, three years after she relocated to Chicago from Los Angeles. Some of the songs revolve around exclusion, uprooting and her personal experiences with migration, while others describe the struggles of staying creative and maintaining a quiet sense of wonder in a fast-paced information-driven society. There are also songs that are pure celebrations of love.
The soul-inspired Americana sound that permeates the album is very much a joint creation of O’Neill and the members of her band: Rich Lackowski (drums, percussion, harmony vocals), Chris Corsale (most lead guitars, harmony vocals) and Teddy Myers (organ, piano, Wurlitzer and Rhodes), along with John Abbey and Chris Stanford on bass. O’Neill played rhythm guitar, all acoustic guitars.
Of “Newcomer Blues,” O’Neill says:
“This acoustic folk-blues song ends the album and it’s based on my own experiences with migration and constant moving as a child. I also thought of children I see outside of stores here in Chicago, who have escaped from Central and South American countries on foot, and how some people don’t see them as human, but as a sociopolitical condition. The recording you’re hearing is the first and only take of the song.”
“The video was shot, directed and edited by Don Tinsley, who I had never worked with before. It’s a very personal song, but we focused on the work of making this story visual, and I think he did a beautiful job.”
Nikki O’Neill website
Nikki O’Neill on Instagram
Nikki O’Neill on Bandcamp
Nikki O’Neill on Spotify
