Carly Hennessy: Blowing America's Mind

Carly Hennessy walks through life with a permanent grin. She has charm, warmth, and a sense of assurance that wins people over. Her Irish accent gives her a regal presence despite her chosen wardrobe of skintight jeans, cropped t-shirt, and a wild mane of red hair that literally screams "rebel." As the daughter of a top Irish model she's also beautiful, but it's her exuberance that makes you like her.

Carly's already famous in Ireland but for those of us who don't know her, Carly is a pop singer about to make her mark on the North American music scene. Her album Ultimate High comes out in October and features the single I Wanna Blow Your Mind.

TeenMusic.com met Carly prior to a promotional concert in Calgary, Canada. Carly arrived eager to talk despite the fact that she'd just arrived from the airport and rush hour traffic.

Hi Carly, let's talk about your album, Ultimate High.

Carly: Yeah, Ultimate High, it's called that because music is basically the ultimate high. We were in my friend's studio and writing a song called Beautiful You. I was thinking of a line about how amazing the world is and I thought that the only thing amazing to me is music. Music is the ultimate high, and she says, "that's the name of the record."

I said, "I can't name it Ultimate High, people are going to think I'm on drugs or something," but she said, "No, it's the perfect thing because it is kind of controversial so people will ask about it and then we can explain." The whole idea is that music is the ultimate high.

You released your first album in Ireland when you were nine. How did you get your start in music?

Carly: My mom was a model in Ireland so we were always used to the entertainment industry. She was one of Ireland's top models so when I was born all the photographers wanted to take pictures of me. I grew up and got to go to work with her so all the photographers knew me. Auditions would come for different advertisements and the photographers would say, "Oh, we'll just use Carly." It was insane; I'd be on four commercials at a time around Dublin. So I was very well known growing up.

The singing just came naturally from when I was about three; it was just something that I always loved to do. At home we lived in the middle of nowhere and I'd just scream and shout and it wouldn't matter. Eventually I met different people in the music industry and people began approaching my parents to make a record. So I flew to London, made the record, and it came out on my ninth birthday.

We had a career day at school and I said I wanted to be an architect or a singer. My teacher said she could get the architecture one but she couldn't get the singing one. So I went home and I was really upset and told my dad they wouldn't let me be a singer. My dad says, "Ok, I'll deal with it," and I went to bed. I woke up the next day and said, "Mom, where's dad?" and she says, "Oh he went to LA to get you a record deal." He met some musicians who played in bars and eventually met an attorney at MCA Records. He gave him my demo tape and then went home. The record company basically flew me in two days later.

I have a big voice and the company wasn't sure what they wanted to do with me. They said, "What do you want to be like?" and I said, "Completely different, I'm not sure what it is yet but I want to be different."

Tell me about recording I'm Gonna Blow Your Mind.

Carly:I'm Gonna Blow Your Mind was written already. It was the first song we recorded for the album and everything just fell into place after that.

What have you had to work hardest at as a performer?

Carly: The traveling. Other than that I'm having a blast. I love this. I've seen so many cities and have met so many people. There's not really anything that hard about it. That's why I feel so blessed to be in this industry. I guess it's just the travel and having to get up really early when you don't want to, having to keep to a schedule that isn't made by you.

How do you like living in LA?

Carly: I love LA. At the start I didn't have any friends there and things like that but I've met so many people on the road that I now have loads of friends in LA.

What's something you've always wanted to do but have never been able to do yet, whether it's music or some other aspect of your life?

Carly: I want to get into acting in the future and I also want to get into music producing. Right now I have to focus on the music but in the future that's something that I'd like to do.

Why does producing appeal to you?

Carly: Just the whole idea of starting from scratch and creating a ball of sound. The studio to me is just like heaven. I love the studio. I didn't want to go home in the evenings, they were throwing me out the door, it was pretty funny.

Tell me about your experience with fans. Do you enjoy the attention?

Carly: I love seeing the fans. It's really cool when you can look at the audience and people know the words to your songs. I'm like, "Omigod, I'm in a city I've never been in before, I don't know you, how do you know my song?," that sort of thing. And afterwards there's always little ten year-olds going "I like you so much," and I'll say, "Oh I love you too," because they have little t-shirts and stuff. Oh, they're so cute.

Tell me about the video concept for I'm Gonna Blow Your Mind.

Carly: Well, at first I wasn't sure that the video people were interpreting the song in the right way. In one of the treatments I was in the desert with material flowing all over, so I was like, "Huh? This is a party song."

So I went to the arts supply store and I got a bunch of paint and all sorts and then went home and wrote out about five pages of treatment and I drew the storyboard. I came back the next day and they went for it! They said, "That's exactly what we want the video to be like."

The story line is that I'm in my bedroom and I'm bored watching TV. Then my girl friends come in through the bedroom window and we go to a party. They've set it up so this guy is a DJ at a club and I'm hung up over him and I don't know that he's going to be there.

It was insane. I arrived on the set in downtown LA and I was looking around and going, "Omigod, this is my picture, I drew this in my room." They had the set (my picture) down, there were fish in the corner in a bowl, books on the shelf. I drew these books on a shelf and I coloured the spines for them. They found those exact book colours and placed them on the shelf. It was bizarre.

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The most interesting part of our conversation with Carly Hennessy happened after the tape recorder was turned off. Gathering my gear and about to leave, I casually asked Carly, "Who's the biggest music star you've ever met?" That question launched into a five-minute story about when Carly met one of the biggest rock stars in the world.

Carly's interesting experience happened to her recently in Los Angeles. She had arrived at her studio to find that her producer was uncharacteristically dressed up. Questioning the make-up and dress, Carly's producer responded that a big-time singer was dropping by the studio that night; playfully she wouldn't tell Carly who it was.

Recording began and the session was uneventful. Later Carly was taking a break watching TV in the recreation room when a barrage of security personnel walked in. Carly sat up in excitement to see who the big star was. When "Steven Tyler" of Aerosmith walked in Carly was disappointed (I guess Aerosmith isn't as big in Europe as they are here, I think most people would be pretty excited to meet Steven Tyler). Anyhow, the singer sits down and asks Carly in an English accent if he can switch the channel because a football game was on another station. The English accent and request to watch a football (soccer) game ruffled Carly, who thought "Steven Tyler" was making fun of her Irish accent. Carly says something like, "I'm not English, I'm Irish, you don't have to make fun of my accent." The singer must have looked a little shocked. After a moment's silence he leans closer to Carly and says, "Do you know who I am?" "Yeah," says Carly, "You're Steven Tyler from Aerosmith." The singer laughed and shook his head. "No," he says, "My name is Mick Jagger, I sing with the Rolling Stones. Have you heard of our music?" Carly's jaw dropped to the floor. She had just met a music legend.