JEEN O'BRIEN :: OFFICIAL SITE

News
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March, 12th 2007
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...Okay, new year...yeah it's three months in, but Chinese New year just happened a couple weeks ago... that's where I'm setting my calender from now on, for real...spring is coming/here?... that's cool, and I'm hoping to make a video for the song Spider (check myspace) in the next couple months...it's going to be "in cartoon" and done by an awesome animator named Robert Waterworth, I can't wait...HAVE to make a new record this year, I'm praying sooner than later...oh yeah, new website!!!! Thanks GIGO!!!!!...check back soon, cheers...JEEN.

November, 1st 2006
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alright...going to get out to B.C. for shows early Dec...and the forum? real soon I swear/pray. Check myspace (in links or at the top)...my epk is pretty up to date too. Lots of demos, gunna make a new record...rock, JEEN.

January, 30th 2006
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The album is done!...If you are interested in buying the Sixties album it can be puchased on line at www.sonicunyon.com. Or for god sake e-mail me and I'll mail you one!! ( it's also in a lot of record stores…just ask your friendly clerk. With the new year came a lot of changes for me…like trying desperately to update my own website for example ( sorry for the spelling mistakes or screw ups haven't figured out how to do much correcting…soon though my friends...thanks Todd L.!) Finished a west coast tour playing mostly at Chapters and various record stores, starting in B.C. and ending back in TOR…Just want to get back out as soon as possible, trying to figure some crap out and hopefully I will be back in your lovely city soon. Been writing lots of new songs and I'm hoping to get a forum thing going on this sight…anyone interested?...I've got a couple of songs in the running for the International Songwriting Competition, so keep your fingers crossed for me…My video for Sing this Song ( Sixties) should be getting released to muchmusic pretty soon…I'll keep you posted…Thanks to videofact, Blink and the lovely Annie Bradley for her direction…Come over to my "myspace" page and say hello if you get a second. I have a couple home demos up there temporarily so check them out…Okay I must go now and see if I can use my very limited computer skills to get this on the website with out blowing the whole thing up…and I need a smoke…JEEN.

Wednesday, August 30, 2005
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We are putting the final touches on the art work and getting ready to release Jeen’s full Length CD entitled "Sixties" and produced by Canada’s own Hawksley Workman ... The release date is set for Oct 2005, and will be distributed through Sonic Unyon. We’ll keep you posted on the exact release date, and the release party, which will be held at the Ravioli here in Toronto, once the dates are all firm.

The first Single is "Sing This Song" and was release to radio on July 25 '05, please call your local and favorite radio station to request it, if they tell you they don’t have it, please let us know and we’ll make sure that they get another copy ASAP. Help us climb the charts so that the rest of the world will get to hear this fabulous rising star.

The Video for "Sing this Song", which was graciously awarded a grant by VideoFACT, is complete and ready for servicing, this will be done within the next couple of weeks, in early September ... We’ll keep you posted on where you can request it, to help us get more exposure through the various video outlets ... And it will also soon be posted on the site, so you can see how amazing Jeen looks and what a fabulous job Annie Bradley did directing it, spectacular job Marcus ?(Hill, find out from Annie what Marcus’ last name is) did as the DOP, and the amazing job Blink Pictures did as the production team behind the scenes.

As a Songwriter Jeen accomplished a lot in 2005 ... She was part of the writing team for the 2nd Season of Instant Star, the new hit TV Series, which was just picked up by a US network ... Jeen has also been asked to be part of the writing team for this years upcoming winners of Canadian Idol which will take place at Phase One here in Toronto in September 2005.

With Song Placement, Jeen’s "Sailing by Me" will appear in the first episode of Degrassi, The New Generation ... Jeen also has a cut on the upcoming Res CD, a US recording artist on MCA Records, scheduled to be released in the 1st quarter of 2006, and was co-written by Graph Nobel, Martin “Doc” McKinney and ReS herself ... Billy Klippard and Jeen also collaborated recently, and Billy and his team have high hopes for this new tune!

Stay tuned as there is lots more to come by this fabulous new artist ... Jeen O’Brien ... Soon to be a house hold name ... Be there first!

Tuesday, June 21, 2005
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There are some new MP3's up from the EP in the music section! Also be sure to check out Jeen's upcoming single entitled 'Sing This Song' from the much anticipated album "Sixties" produced by the amazing Hawksley Workman.

Sunday, June 12, 2005
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CORRECTION. Jeen is playing the Horseshoe on Tuesday, June 14th...NOT the 9th!!! See you there :)

Friday, June 3, 2005
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Some new shows have been added to the "shows" section. Be sure to check out Jeen's NXNE showcase at Clinton's Thursday, June 9th! Bring some friends!

Sunday, April 3, 2005
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Well, since CMW 2005 things have been rolling for Jeen O’Brien. She won the Mix 99.9 songwriting competition here in Toronto, and this week they announced the winners of the ISC contest 2005 where Jeen was a finalist, and she came in 2nd Place! for “Sailing by me”, out of thousands of entries from all around the globe, fantastic news! Congratulations to Jeen for such an amazing achievement with regards to her songwriting.

“Sailing by me” was released to radio on March 14th, and we are working on getting Jeen added to all Hot A/C stations across the country ... If you are a fan and want to help Jeen get to the next level, please call your local radio station and request it. The following are the Stations that have been serviced ...

Hot AC Radio
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ON CIGL-FM Mix 97 (613) 969-5555
ON CIMJ-FM Magic 106 (519) 824-7000
ON CHUM-FM 104.5 Chum Fm (416) 926-4067
BC CKZZ-FM Z 95 (604) 241-0953
ON CFHK-FM Energy 103 (519) 931-6000
ON CISS-FM Kiss 105.3 (613) 736-2001
NS CIOO-FM C100 (902) 493-2790
NB CIBX-FM Fox (504) 450-7660
ON CFCA-FM Kool Fm (519) 844-4470
BC CHSU-FM/ Sun Fm (250) 860-8600
ON CKFM Mix 99.9 (416 922-9999
BC CKIZ Kiss FM (250 545-2141
SK CFMC-FM C95 (306) 934-2222
BC CKBZ-FM B 100 (250) 372-3322
BC CKRV-FM The River (250) 372-2197
BC CICF-FM Sun Fm (250) 860-8600
QC CJFM-FM Mix 96 (514) 989-2536
MB CHIQ-FM Q94 (204) 477-5120
SK CIZL-FM Z99 (306) 525-0000
ON CIQB-FM B101 (705) 726-1011
NF CHOZ-FM Oz Fm (709) 273-2000
BC The Zone (250) 475-6611
NB The Wave

Also BIG BIG news is that the video for “Sailing by me” was also serviced to Much More Music and they have added it into a light rotation! This is an amazing feat for an indie artist, and we need your help in bumping it up to a higher rotation and in helping keep it on the airwaves for as long as we can so that people across the country get the chance to see it. It begins airing the Week starting April 4th and the first couple of weeks is where they determine it’s longevity so please tell everyone you know and here is the link where you can go on line and request it from Much More Music ... Again you can go to the discography page on this site to view the video also, but it’s imparitive that you request it at Much, so you can make it like your morning coffee, and do it once a day if you like!

Request the video; Jeen O’Brien “Sailing by me” @ Much More Music ... www.muchmoremusic.com

Friday, March 18, 2005
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It's official!! Jeen's much anticipated album entitled "Sixties" (produced by the amazing Hawksley Workman) is slated for a Fall 2005 release! In the meantime you can listen to some of the tracks online at her myspace page!

Friday, February 4, 2005
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Jeen's "Sailing By Me" video directed by the amazing Annie Bradley has been posted in the discography section. Let us know what you think! Also check out the shows section for an updated list of Jeen's upcoming gigs!

Saturday, January 15, 2005
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GROUNDBREAKING NEWS!!!

We are pleased to announce that Jeen O’Brien has been selected out of thousands as a finalist in the Rock genre for the 2004 International Songwriting Competition (ISC). The winners will be announced in March 2005 and it is up to the people to make that decision! As of January 31st, 2005, YOU will be able to go online at ISC's Official Site and VOTE for “Sailing By Me”! Pass this information along to your friends and spread the hype!!

In other news, at 9:00 pm on January 15th, Mix 99.9 FM announced the regional top 10, for the Annual MIX Songwriting Competition and Jeen was selected as the #1 track and winner! “Sailing By Me”’ was played on the radio and was immediately entered into the National Songwriting Competition, a showcase to be held during CMW 2005 on March 5th. The National winner will be announced at that time!

Don’t forget that Jeen will be playing her own showcase for Canadian Music Week at Rancho Relaxo on Friday, March 4th @10pm! Let everyone you know about this show and COME OUT and support this rising new talent!

Stay tuned for Jeen O’Brien’s full length record, produced by the amazing Hawksley Workman, slated for release in the spring of 2005!! Take care, Spread the word and visit us online at www.jeenobrien.com! Also check out Jeen's MySpace Page! Reply to this message to get added to our mailing list!

-THE TEAM jeenobrien@hotmail.com

Thursday, December 30, 2004
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Jeen will be playing a CMW showcase on Friday, March 4th, 2005 at Rancho Relaxo! Doors open at 8:30 pm...Tell all your friends and come on out!! You can also catch Jeen's MySpace Music profile on the globe's hottest online music scene right now! Join and let us know what you think! www.myspace.com/jeenobrien

Friday, November 19, 2004
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Jeen has a few shows planned in the coming weeks! We'd love to see you come out...Tell all your friends.

Sunday, October 17, 2004
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Jeen O’Brien has just finished an exciting new video for the current single “Sailing by Me” ... Soon to be released, and it was directed by Annie Bradley and produced by Blink Pictures ... We were able to make this video Thanx to VideoFACT, and we are really happy and excited about how it turned out ... Plans to release it are in the works and we will keep you posted on that ... Please check the discography for updates, and maybe a sneak preview will be up soon ...

In other exciting news regarding what’s happening with Jeen O’Brien ... She is currently up in Huntsville at The Schoolhouse recording her full length record, Thanx to FACTOR ... The Schoolhouse is Hawksley Workman’s studio and the two of them have teamed up for this highly anticipated project ... And we will keep you posted on the progress of that ... Hawksley and Jeen will no doubt be one dynamic duo and I’m sure that with Jeen’s amazing songwriting and Hawksley’s brilliance in producing it, it will be sure to open a whole new chapter with Jeen ...

Jeen’s also been doing a lot of co-writing and we’ll keep you posted with the records she has cuts on as their releases become available to the public ... And also keep watch on the live show portion as we take Jeen outside Toronto and perhaps to a town near you ...

Until next time, all the best ... And Thanx for checking in ...

Monday, September 26, 2004
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Hello! Jeen has officially completed her music video for "Sailing By Me". There are also a few shows coming up including one in Ottawa! Check the shows section for information. Jeen O'Brien's CD "Can't Get It Out of My Head" is now available at Soundscapes and Edward's Record World...go out and get a few copies for you and your friends!!

Saturday, August 7, 2004
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Lots happening with Jeen including an upcoming music video and shows! Check the shows section for information on Jeen's upcoming gigs! More news to come :)

Wednesday, June 9, 2004
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There have been a lot of new developements with Jeen in the New Year! Jeen will be heading into studio to record a new record to be produced by the amazingly talented Canadian musician Hawksley Workman. A video will also be released in the later part of the summer for the song "Sailing By Me" off of the 'Can't Get It Out Of My Head' EP (thank-you VideoFACT!). Finally, Jeen will be playing two sets at this year's North By Northeast festival. There will be a matinee at the registration on Friday followed by a 9 o'clock performance at Holy Joe's later that night. For more info, check out the 'shows' section. We'll see you there!

More to come.

Working Class Hero Jeen O'Brien
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Biography Words: Knapp
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Jeen O'Brien is a gifted singer, blessed with a unique voice capable of tremendous range and power, but also, gentleness and intimacy. She is a respected songwriter and sought after collaborator. She is an intense and professional performer. But what sets her apart from countless other gifted singer songwriters is a quality that cannot be bought, sold, polished or produced. The girl's got soul. Jeen first appeared in the spotlight in the early nineties, as front woman for Toronto based band Lilith. She was "discovered" at the tender age of sixteen, busking on Toronto's Queen Street West. A diminutive figure with a powerful voice she soon caught the ear of local industry types. Before long she and her band were awarded a management and recording deal on the strength of her curb-side showcases. Lilith released one self titled independent album. The band toured extensively, both headlining and in support of some of the biggest Canadian bands of the time. Lilith were a favored act of Toronto's indie rock scene and received critical acclaim, both in Canada and stateside, but the band failed to live up to their own high expectations and disbanded in 1998. It wasn't long before Jeen was back at work, this time as a solo artist. Her first release, 2003's, Can't Get it Out of My Head, found her enjoying a freedom of expression that is not easily accessed when working within the constraints of a band. The six song E.P, produced by Mark Makoway (Moist) and Byron Wong, contained personal and emotional songs, (Mama), radio ready anthems, (American Dream), as well as the track Sailing by Me, for which she received second place honors in the rock category of the 2004 International Songwriters Competition (ISC). The video for Sailing by Me also received substantial rotation on Much Music and Much More Music. For Jeen, music is a full time job. She is a consistent and prolific songsmith, who enjoys writing for and collaborating with artists of all genres. She has penned tracks with soul artists ReS (MCA) and Toronto based Graph Nobel, while also lending her talents to more commercial artists, such as Billy Klippart, and Serena Ryder (Maple Music). More recently, her original composition "God" was recorded by Shaye (EMI), and will appear on their sophomore release. Jeen's solid reputation has also landed her work in television. She has also contributed songs to teen drama, Instant Star and was employed as a staff writer for the 2005 season of an immensely popular prime time reality show and talent search. Although Jeen enjoys the experience of collaborating with such a diverse group of talented artists, she finds fulfillment when writing, recording and performing her own material. In 2005, Jeen headed back into the studio to record tracks for her second release, entitled Sixties. This time she recruited, talented, multi-instrumentalists, performer/producer Hawksley Workman to produce the album. The result is a fully realized, intimate and highly personal recording. Sixties was well received by both fans and the media. Stand out tracks include the previously released, but freshly produced, and highly infectious single, Sing this Song, Guilty as Gold, the albums most passionate performance, and Fish, a quirky little song that highlights Jeen's skilled and distinctive finger picking style. Although still performing in support of Sixties, Jeen is focused on the future. She has begun writing songs for her next album and demos of new songs can be heard online on this website or at www.myspace.com/jeenobrien. In performance Jeen shines. Whether accompanying herself on guitar, backed by a band, or performing as a duo with husband and drummer, Stephan Szczesniak, her live show is a magical experience. She is a professional and experienced performer who harnesses remarkable energy. In concert, she is sweet and sensitive, soulful and sometimes, scary. She touches an audience in a way few can. She is simply captivating. Jeen O'Brien has faced life and the music industry on her own terms. Having left school, to pursue her calling in music before completing the tenth grade, Jeen has not once considered making a living in any other way. In an age of fads and fashion, she is refreshingly authentic. Jeen has talent, integrity, style and above all an uncompromising work ethic. Like luminaries of our time, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young, Jeen O'Brien is a national treasure.

Jeen O’Brien - A Biography
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“I will sing this song until I hear somebody sing along/I will sing until I have saved everyone.” — Jeen O’Brien, “Sing This Song”

The line, taken from the first single on her Hawksley Workman-produced solo album, Sixties, is meant in a “Coca-Cola” sense, not Jeen’s determination to save the world.

“I will sing until I hear them one by one is more my point. I’ll sing until they’re all singing it. The ‘save’ was more of a filler lyrics to tell you the truth,” Jeen laughs. “I think one of the stronger lyrics is ‘to gather someone else’s greatness only to shatter mine.’ I don’t know if it’s too dramatic for the bio?”

Jeen is a strong, confident songwriter, a skill she has honed since she made a name for herself in the rock band Lilith more than a decade ago, but in a single laugh or comment she makes it seem like this ability fell from the sky. She’ll say she can’t remember writing something or calls the chorus of the love song “Fish” cute, or even points out what is throwaway in a song and what she deems important. She seems to have a perspective on the songwriting process and then none at all.

She can’t, however, shake this insatiable desire to compose. “If I don’t do it for a few days, I get bitchy,” she says. “I can’t stop.”

For this young woman who dropped out of school in grade 10 to pursue music, it is her calling. She moved out of her parents’ house, relocated from Bowmanville, Ontario to Oshawa, and finally Toronto, all in the name of rock ‘n’ roll — and never looked back. Today, she plays solo and with a band, and, on the side, has co-written songs for such blatant commercial pursuits as the talent search Canadian Idol and television series Instant Star.

“I do my own writing for myself which enables me to write for other people because my integrity is taken care of,” explains Jeen. “I don’t mind writing something different from what I would normally write because I have the things that are important and cool to me, in my own songs. I love co-writing situations because I’m not as conscious of that.”

What is her own and can be heard on Sixties is her unique vocal style, country tinged on one song, cool and raspy rock on another. It is almost as if she is in character. “I don’t think it’s so much a thought as it is a feeling that’s suited for it,” she says. “I don’t think, ‘Okay, I’m going to sing my country twang on or I’m going to sing softer.’ The different tones, I don’t consciously think of it at all.”

It’s a freedom that came when she did leave Lilith after releasing one self-titled indie album. Backed by a rock band, there was little room to move around vocally. As a solo artist, she can, whether she has accompanists to flesh out a song or is simply performing by herself on guitar.

For the follow-up to her 2003 debut solo EP, Can’t Get It Out Of My Head, Jeen demoed all the songs herself, then brought them to Hawksley’s home studio, situated in a school house in Huntsville, ON. “We had to live there for three weeks in this little cabin beside his studio and we camped there basically,” she says with a laugh.

“The basis of the recording came from the demos, but a lot grew afterwards. The drums were played to the demos, and the vocals and the harmonies pretty much stayed the same, but all the guitars and a lot of the strings were done after. The strings weren’t written by Hawksley, but he was a part of deciding that that would be a good idea. And Hawskley also played rhythm and lead on electric guitar and I played acoustic and electric.”

Not surprisingly, Jeen, a constant writer, feels like she has the next record ready, but with all the attention Sixties is getting, it might be a while before she can get back in the studio. In addition, she has written with MCA artist ReS; Billy Klippard recorded her co-write “It’s Killing Me;” and “Shaye is covering her song “God” on its sophomore album. More recently, she wrote with Serena Ryder and Kalan Porter.

“I guess that’s the way it is with any sort of job or business, the more you do it, the more efficient you become if you’re meant to be doing it,” says Jeen. “Things have never fallen in my lap, ever, in music, and I just can’t quit. It’s almost like a curse in a way. I don’t know what else to do. I mean, there’s other things that I enjoy doing, but I think music is the best thing I can do. If I’m going to succeed at something, I think I will be the most successful at this.”
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For more information, contact:
jeenobrien@hotmail.com

For Management & Bookings
Jeen or Stephan 416 691 3919

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Dale Peters / Promotion
Dale1@dalespeaking.com
416-504-8084