naomiland

an open letter to amy winehouse

because i simply can't resist passing on some of my knowledge to this rising young revolving door rehab superstar....

dearest amy,

as you begin what looks to be a long journey to that semi-well, never quite sober, but not as bad as it used to be place where most musicians land after multiple stints in rehab, and being a young, dark-haired, tattooed jewess myself, also on island records, sharing a (now in the past) penchant for similar substances, perhaps i can offer some useful bits of information based on my own time spent recovering from "exhaustion."

in no real order, just sort of thrown together in a scattered list, which is (judging by my own experience) all you will be able to comprehend for a long while anyway, here are some tips:

1. never let a fellow rehab inmate give you a haircut. (and that's not some sort of fancy prison-speak for some other nasty thing - i honestly mean it - don't let your roommate cut your hair. shaky hands make for really bad style. trust.)

2. scientology is not a religion.

3. when two men start to lace up their shoes, or say something like "don't make me lace up my shoes," that means they are about to beat each other into bloody pulp, or at least talk about doing that while two large male nurses hold them back. (though your rehab is probably a lot more posh than mine, so maybe that doesn't happen. and if it does, it's probably your husband who started it.)

4. ping pong can be a really fun game.

5. you don't have to do the arts and crafts if you don't want to. they can't make you. no matter what they say.

6. suddenly eating giant amounts of fried foods and macaroni and cheese and cake and starchy shit and chocolate (which they'll tell you is a great replacement for heroin as it - ya right - creates a similar feeling in the brain) will make you gain a whole lot of weight. not necessarily a bad thing, but be forewarned. what you eat in rehab does actually count. no one told me and i came out super fat.

7. the people you meet there will probably not end up being your friends for life, sisters, BFFs, closest confidants, no matter what you all decide in the middle of the night when it's you against the nurses. (and damn those nurses for trying to help save your fucking life.)

8. being forced to go on welfare so the hospital can make as much money as possible in some insurance scam is really humiliating. (again, maybe not something you will encounter being that you are already a celebrity and i was just a junkie.)

9. same thing with the half-fare bus card for the disabled and elderly. anyone who happens to see it as you board the bus will stare at you, trying to figure out if you're handicapped or retarded or both.

10. church can be fun and it's a good way to get out into the real world for a while. after a few rounds of gospel choir sing-alongs you'll be belting it out like jennifer hudson.

11. oh - and another church thing - when they pass around the collection baskets, don't take the money. even though it seems like a funny thing to do. people are really weird and touchy about that.

12. don't threaten other patients with your "connections" to organized crime families when they do or say something you might not like. it never makes you look cool and everyone knows you're full of shit.

13. oh - and next time you make an escape, maybe try something more subtle than a helicopter. just a thought.

hope that helps! i'll pass along any other useful tips as they come to mind. i also have some good pointers for halfway houses, should they become relevant.

xo
terra

personality bling

it's amazing what can happen when a person reveals another side of his/herself.

in a shocking discovery, we found out today that singer/songwriter terra naomi has more than ONE SIDE to her personality. stop the press.

wait. i thought she writes acoustic songs about saving the world!?

no - she writes songs about being a drug addicted pill head!

hold on - isn't she the one who wrote that song about being who she is and telling the world to fuck off if they don't approve?

how do we deal with....so....much.....life.......too...many...different....sides....can...not....compute....

sorry people, but if you want one-sided robotic music go listen to american top 40 radio. and guess what - i will continue to write the songs i have always written, long before i played them for any of you!! songs about love and death and fucking and sleeping and drugs and my mom and all sorts of stuff which you may or may not know is in there when you listen to my music, as i choose to present it to the world.

again, it is time to take a step back and from this online world, i think. because when i read some of the things people write, i just get disappointed. our inability to let something be what it is - the need to categorize things and put things into a neat little box - and what the hell will we do if the linear, two dinemsional thing we think we know because we see it on front of us in a little 2" box on our computer monitor - what will we do if that thing does something we don't expect. clearly we know all about that thing which likes to think of itself as a person. clearly, we know best. so we'd better let that thing know that we don't approve of its obviously pressured "decision" to change itself into something it most certainly is NOT.

i understand. really, i do. and it's not just the general public: for as long as i've been a dark-haired female singer, i've found comparisons to artists i sound nothing like. i can name 10 other artists i sound more similar to than some of the artists i'm compared to - and i look for the similarity with those artists....and all i see if something on the outside. and maybe female anger. like someone in the last 10 years came up with that concept. there was recently an article in an italian magazine which compared me to "aretha franklin meets radiohead." now, while i can't say i completely understand that comparison, at least the writer was thinking of something when he/she came up with that.

and now i've gone and written a song about stealing someone's boyfriend. and it's the first single from the album. oh.......i'm venting tonight. i've got to. but please do not start writing to me, telling me why it's ok that i have a multi-faceted personality, because i already know that and really don't want to hear it. i don't know why i write a blog sometimes - because i obviously know that people are going to read it. it's almost like my little attempt to strike back some nights, and other nights it's simply to share what's going on....it's like my non-biased truth-reporting online news source, amidst a sea of speculation and agendas. i can state the truth, directly from my brain, and in saying so i remember what my truth actually is. it is not what someone decides to write after seeing my show for 30 minutes and sizing me up. it is not what someone writes after watching my video for 3 minutes and 30 seconds (obviously a time engineered by the record label evil empire in their attempts to force a radio single out of this once innocent songwriter) in one dress with one hairstyle on one day in one month in one year of this one part of my life.

and again, i remind myself that i do the same thing sometimes.

but here, on my computer, i can remind myself of the truth and a few people can read it. maybe not as many people as will read the reviews or listen to the comments, good, bad, indifferent, whatever those comments may be.....but a few people will know what really goes on, and that gives me some sense of peace, in a really simple, passive-aggressive kind of way.

make sense of that and you win the prize. but like i said, please don't let me know about it.

oh - and have you ever had the experience of seeing yourself on a video from a time right after your relationship fell apart and you look at yourself and the way you carried yourself and the way you didn't look after your appearance because you were so freaked out and depressed but maybe you started to look like that and feel like that long before it was actually over and you finally understand why he completely lost interest in you in every way possible? it's quite the epiphany, let me tell you. and then you burn the tape, right? or do you save it somewhere for future torment?

not that i know anything about that. it was a hypothetical sitaution. a daily poll. (but, remember, please don't answer it in an email to me.)

i can't keep up with the emails. not complaining, just letting you know. i will no longer be answering my youtube messages. at least not for a while. answered a whole bunch of myspace messages today and i think that caught me up on about 5% of the unanswered mail sitting online waiting for me...looming large.

managed to write a new song which i really dig. might play it sometime soon. probably not at the album release, but who knows.

on a positive note, i'm so excited for everything coming up in the next few months. hopefully that will include a really cool tour of the UK and or europe. not sure where, when, with whom, how, etc etc, but i'm putting it out there because i know it will happen.

on another positive note, 'not sorry' is climbing the charts here in the UK. was in the 70's last week, when it first went to radio, and this week went into the 50's, making a 20 point jump in one week. i'm told that's pretty good, so i'm happy. can't wait to see it in the teens and then to #1. will be neat. all i can do is continue to play shows, write songs, do interviews....the song is out there and worrying about it will not help at all. stations will play it  or they won't and people will buy the album or they won't. of course, i believe they will. so we shall see.

ok, more later. later meaning not now, as opposed to later tonight. cuz i'm going to sleep!
xo

this week

is exciting already.

we have added a fantastic guitarist named pete to the current line up of ben on bass and alex on drums. my producer paul fox arrived on sunday night to whip us into shape for our upcoming shows supporting martha wainwright this week and then v fest this weekend. of course, i caught a cold in rome over the weekend, but it takes much more than that to keep me down. this girl does not like to cancel shows, nor have i in as long as i can remember...no, no, no...hehe...i remember playing a week of shows down south a couple of years back...had a ridiculously high fever and some sort of flu, and sweat through my clothes on stage every night, and somehow managed to make it through. it's a weird experience - to barely remember playing a show as soon as i left the stage...wondering "how the hell did i just pull that off?"  and that was without any alcohol or drugs. just a high fever. might i suggest it for a wacky time?

anyway - i'm nowhere near that sick this time, just a little bit sick. and i'll be fine tomorrow. and i'm really excited. i love the way the band sounds now and i can't wait to see martha's show. i think she's fantastic. tomorrow's show is in a church in brighton, and it will definitely be interesting to sing 'up here' in that setting. maybe martha feels the same about some of her songs? last time i sang in a church i was singing choir music with a bunch of other kids. this time i'm singing 'up here.'

my how we change.

and friday's show in london should be a great experience as well. one of my favorite venues - shepherd's bush empire. i saw mika and mrs. amy winehouse there a couple months back...it is a great place to play and i'm really looking forward to it.  with any luck my nose and ears will de-congest and i will be able to hear something more than the inside of my head. it sounds weird in here. i don't think i like it.

then v fest. woohoo. we were moved to a bigger stage and a better time slot and i can't wait. the lineup is amazing. and it's a festival. and we all know how i feel about festivals. best thing ever.

oh - and i've just learned that due to visa issues i will have to leave the country again for a few days next week. bummer. travel is such a chore. those immigration people are so mean. making me take another holiday. hehe. actually, it won't be a holiday - i think we will use that time to visit some people who will be working on album when it's released in other countries. and that will be really cool! i'm also about to do a radio tour - will travel to a few different places in the UK and play some music, do an interview, breakdance - whatever they tell me to do. it's all good. i get to ride in a car, play music, stay in hotels and see new places. four of my favorite things that make me happy to be alive.

i guess things are going really well. if you live in london you can hear 'not sorry' on radio 2 this week. it's the 'record of the week' and that's really cool.

and there's lots more to tell you, but i'm tired now and i'm going to sleep.
more next time.
xo

tonight...

i wrote a new song. i think it's going to be a good one and i think people will like it a lot. and it felt great to write! i've been doing so much video and photo stuff, and other business stuff, and haven't had as much writing time as i would like.

my friend just sent me this link to some videos i did for a yahoo live thing back in may or june:
terra on yahoo music
i don't know how he found it because i had a difficult time finding it myself, but figured i'd post it for you guys. videos are in the "videos" section. go figure.

what else....tomorrow i work on album cover art. that will be fun. it's all coming together. i think we will reveal the album art sometime next week. and hopefully the new website!

and i think that's all for tonight. going to play my new song one more time and then go to sleep.

very excited to open for martha wainwright next week in brighton and london, and then playing v festival next weekend. i was just moved from the opening slot on the smallest stage to a much better slot on one of the much bigger stages, which is really good news. not sure of the lineup, but it's going to be an amazing weekend. festivals are now my new favorite thing. i can't believe i've gone my whole life without that experience. i've got lots to make up for.....

night night

updates and i will be better at this....

i know it's been forever.
the last month feels like one big blur of video filming and photo shoots and shows and showcases and band rehearsals and a few nights out....

the video for 'not sorry' is now on mtv flux. i don't know when it's going to be on the regular mtv playlist, but hopefully that will happen soon here in the UK. a good way to insure that it does happen would be to go to the MTV FLUX website
and vote for it! i just checked and it appears we are now at #2. that's pretty cool. and 'say it's possible' is back up in the charts as well....yay! that's awesome. thank you to all who voted!

one of my big dreams for the coming weeks is that radio embraces 'not sorry' and plays the hell out of it. i will post radio request line #'s and email addresses as soon as i have that information.

the official website is almost finished. many apologies for the message board problems - we are working on getting it back up and running on the new site, and will hopefully have it up even before the new website is finished. it's been really frustrating not being able to access it. :(

what else....oh - as many of you may know, my new favorite show is 'peepshow.' it's brilliant comedy, and the only show i sit in bed and watch on my laptop. (there's a website which streams every episode of every tv show ever created! it's probably not legal, so i won't list it here.) i'm on season 2, episode 4 at the moment. it's a nightly routine. i usually have to watch each episode twice, as i'm so exhausted by the time i actually finish work and get into bed, and i fall asleep midway through.

so - the night before last night i was in a pub in north london with some friends...and my favorite character, one of the two main guys, was sitting at a table with 2 of his friends. to make a long story short, i did approach him. first time i've ever done that! i never even recognize people from tv or film or radio, let alone go up and talk to them. but i did. much to the amusement of my friends. and his. i did talk a lot. i did scare him a few times, i think. i did admit to sitting in bed and watching his show on my laptop. i did give way too much information. and, on my way out, i did approach him again, apparently having lost the ability to keep my mouth shut. i will admit that what came out of my mouth was quite funny (at least in my twisted mind) and i'm glad i talked to him. or talked at him. no, he said a few words. mostly looked kind of confused. bemused. something like that.

and that was the highlight of my weekend. maybe next weekend i'll approach another tv star. maybe i can embarrass myself with a musician next time. or a theater actor? a chat show host? the possibilities are endless, really.

signing off for now. need to design my "i love mark" t-shirt.
xo