HEAR HERE

PAUSE & PLAY: How is your album doing?

CONRAD: "Actually, it's wonderful how things with 'More' have been taking off. I'm not sure if it's 'cause I'm getting better at 'letting go' and 'letting' things happen, but ... After spending so much focused time and energy making this album, and then releasing it at the same time I was having my first solo photo show, I found I needed to take a minute to catch my breath before jumping into promoting it. And it was during that in-between time that I started getting interest in it from all kinds of directions - from getting requests from writers at some very cool publications for their consideration to review it, to interest from radio ... Namely in getting it in rotation at mainstream AC radio. Our good friend, (Pause & Play contributor) Jef Fazekas, had recently sent 'More' to a friend of his who, among many things, is a great record promoter who, very soon after receiving it, was on the phone to me to discuss breaking Track #7 'I Can Leave' as my debut single at mainstream radio. And that's when my 'wow!' began. The second week into the promotion, on the New Music Weekly Charts, 'I Can Leave' made it to #1 on the AC/Hot AC 'Up & Coming' chart, #19 on the AC/Hot AC Top 30 Indie Chart, #98 Hot 100 Chart Debut, and Top 100 Chart Debut FMQB/ACQB! And at Week 15, it's just made it to #1 on the AC40/Hot AC Main Chart/NMW! Not to mention, it's now five weeks at #1 on the AC/Hot AC Top 30 Indie Chart/NMW, up to #20 on the Hot 100 Chart/NMW, and Top 100 Chart FMQB/ACQB! Needless to say, I've been in a constant state of 'Wow!'

"I mean it feels huge just to have completed this album! But to know that radio is responding so positively to the debut single, that's it's doing so well on the New Music Weekly Charts - that it's getting heard nationwide. Well, that's indescribable. And it's creating a momentum that, through Larry Weir, the manager who's been promoting it, has been opening up new opportunities for me - like performing live at Backstage Café in Beverly Hills and getting my music to new people, making connections I'd never have made otherwise ... connections that are leading to more amazing opportunities ... as we're now thinking about a follow-up single."

PAUSE & PLAY: How have you progressed between the two albums?

CONRAD: "From the get-go, everything about making my debut CD 'Ghosts That Aren't Mine' was a new experience for me. Before that, the only time I'd been to a full-on recording session was a fluke that happened during the 1980s. I've no recollection of whose session it was, only of not wanting to get in anyone's way. So now I'm back in a recording studio, 10-plus-plus years later, recently back from one-and-a-half years in Nashville, Tenn., with the intention of recording a few original songs I'd written since returning to L.A., that I could eventually pitch, for other artists to cover ... songs I wasn't even sure mine would be the voice singing on. That it evolved into my debut CD of 10 original songs, a CD I ended up co-producing ... it really underscores the changes I went through during the whole process.

"One of the biggest differences about starting production on my current CD release 'More' is that I was consciously going into it knowing what my intention was - to make my follow-up album. And I think that that - being intentional - kinda rubbed off on every aspect of 'More.' I'd learned on 'Ghosts That Aren't Mine' to listen to my gut creative instincts, despite the insecurities and self-doubts. And I'm pretty sure the fact that the CD received such great reviews and got people to take notice - really helped give me more confidence in recording my music, in being involved hands-on in the production of 'More.'

"During 'More,' I found myself turning to those instincts all the time, relying on them to the point of trusting them. And I started taking creative chances ... making impromptu, fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants choices ... and I learned to believe more in what I was hearing in my head, that it could somehow translate into tracks that captured what I was aiming for. I was able to comfortably think several steps ahead, so I could anticipate what I'd need to focus on next. And I had a better understanding of why 'taking the extra time now to get it to where I'm happy with it' is so worth it. 'Cause once it's done, it's done. I had more faith in trying new things, unconventional things, even if that's not the way it's usually done. Sometimes because that's not the way it's usually done. I felt more comfortable saying, 'It might suck, but let's try it anyway, 'cause what if it sounds great?' "

PAUSE & PLAY: What have you learned from being an indie artist?

CONRAD: "That anything is possible: It can happen. And also that nothing is impossible. That I haven't needed a record company behind me first, to decide whether my songs were good enough to be recorded, or to decide whether or not an album of my songs would ever be recorded and released. Just the fact that the technology exists, for artists to independently produce and release their own albums, opens so many doors that, 20 years ago, were all but closed to those without major label record deals. Not to say it's been smooth sailing or that the money has been readily available: It hasn't been. But on the flip side of that coin, working alongside an ace recording engineer and with ace musicians, I've had real creative freedom in the studio to get the album recorded and mixed as close as I could to what I was hearing in my head. I've had the freedom to follow my instincts ... or to redo something so it sounds better. I've had the freedom to make my records, as opposed to making records to sound like whatever other band or artist a label might think it should sound like - which'd feel like cheating, anyway. And in the past 11-plus years since I've been doing this, it seems that, more and more, the industry is open to giving indie artists a chance, to taking indie artists more seriously. You can see evidence of it on the music charts, like the New Music Weekly Charts. And in other opportunities that, even five years ago, I'd've been hard-pressed to believe I'd ever have a shot at as an indie artist. Like performing at Backstage Café - framed photos of some of my favorite recording artists (who've most likely all jammed there), so many of them musical legends, and gold records lining the walls. It was pretty amazing. It feels like a good time right now, to be an indie artist."

PAUSE & PLAY: Who is your musical hero?

CONRAD: "I'd have to say Joni Mitchell. And there's no one like her still."

PAUSE & PLAY: Out-of-left-field question: What's your guilty-pleasure TV show to watch?

CONRAD: "You know, I never thought I'd be saying this, but every now and then, almost against my will, I'll indulge myself with an episode (or two or three) of 'South Park.' And it's not because one of the main characters is named Wendy!"

PAUSE & PLAY: What was the first record you ever bought?

CONRAD: "It was one or the other of two albums I have by Jim Croce: 'I Got a Name' or 'You Don't Mess Around With Jim.' I can't remember which came first. So I'll just say both. I'd recently started taking guitar lessons from a great teacher who'd make chord charts to all the best songs they were playing on the radio, and then he'd focus the lessons around those songs. And every Jim Croce song he'd make charts for, I learned to play - 'Time In a Bottle,' 'Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels),' 'I Got a Name,'' 'I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song' - and among the many things he taught me were the finger-picking patterns Jim Croce played, even the harmonics. The other Croce songs I learned to play on guitar, I had a sweet guitar-playing boyfriend at the time who wrote out the chords to 'Lover's Cross' ... which I actually came across not too long ago. o both albums figured heavily into my musical beginnings, and my life really.

"I still have both albums, as well as Croce's 'I Got a Name' songbook, which I go back to from time to time to strum and pick a few of my favorites. And any finger-picking I do - the styles as well as my improvising and experimenting with it on certain songs I write - is in large part thanks to Jim Croce. He's a major musical influence of mine.

"Now, I have no way of explaining how this next circumstance came about but through Providence, and I feel it's worth mentioning here: Fast-forward a few decades and, literally, days after I received the 'More' CDs back from the manufacturer, I had a rare opportunity to finally express my gratitude to Jim Croce, by way of his cousin, Steve Angelucci, who I'd just received an e-mail from regarding an interview he'd done. It appears that some things are meant to defy explanation - like how my e-mail address found its way onto Jim Croce's cousin's e-mail list in the first place. But it's something I'll accept with a debt of huge gratitude."

PAUSE & PLAY: What was the first concert you ever went to?

CONRAD: "Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Reunion Tour - their first reunion ... which I emphasize only to avoid confusion, as I recently heard their upcoming Reunion Tour being announced! We saw them from third row, center seats at Capitol Center in D.C. - and they were amazing! Everyone was so excited to see them all together again! And I remember it was a pretty big deal. It was the same year that, every Friday night, 15-20 friends would come to my house for guitar-playing-everyone-singing music jams that were never complete without at least one CSNY song, almost always 'Teach Your Children.' "

PAUSE & PLAY: What's the worst job you've ever had?

CONRAD: "I've had a few. Probably the worst was this one temp job I had sorting what I remember as being file or data cards. It was torture for me. It felt like death. After a few interminable days, I was outta there. Working as a Christmas ornament engraver during college break one year for anyone who bought these small metal ornaments, and offering to spray perfume samples on passing customers in the fragrance department at Bullock's another, were like prizes compared to that temp job."