Naomi Striemer

She's never tried meat.
She spent her first decade on a hobby farm.
She reads psychology books for entertainment.
With her blond hair, riveting green eyes and slim figure, Naomi Striemer might otherwise strike the casual observer as a typical young adult; in fact, this New York born, Canadian-bred, singer-songwriter-producer is uncommon by all accounts.

Naomi Striemer quickly dispels any prejudices associated with her age, or hair color. With a keen eye, she vocalizes the uncertainty of life and articulates the frustrations of love, beauty, loss and loneliness with a controlled chaos, while seeing the silver lining behind each cloud. To a world of popstars prepackaged for easy consumption, Naomi Striemer offers a refreshing departure, navigating through happiness and longing, fitting in (or not), and unrestrained affection, all the while using her smooth, acrobatic voice to traverse the terrain between cutting edge and mainstream.

Naomi's life has always been in contrast to everyone else's. On the hobby farm in Nova Scotia where she grew up, there were no newspapers, radios or televisions, yet hers was a house filled with song. "My parents are trained missionaries, but before that, they worked at an entertainment magazine, and my dad managed bands," says the mostly home-schooled singer. "So music has always been a part of our lives." Having no outside musical influences other than her parents and the church they attended, Naomi began writing classical songs on the piano before she was a teenager, and joined the adult off-Broadway musical group even earlier. "I was the only child allowed to sing " she bashfully admits. "We'd travel, sing, and do plays to sold-out crowds." Since then, Naomi has always felt at home performing on stage.

When the family moved to Manitoba, life was less about feeding the sheep and horses than about trying to fit into the Ninth Grade. "I didn't care about being popular. I mean, I had lots of friends, but school wasn't everything." True enough, by age 13, Naomi was working with her father as a booking agent to get her gigs, she was also busy recording a religious album. "It was pretty folky," she says of the record, which included some of her own classical compositions. "We probably sold just 500 copies but it was a pretty big deal in Manitoba." However Naomi always felt her true calling was in the mainstream marketplace.

Right about then, Naomi was discovering popular musicians, like Celine Dion, Toni Braxton, Bush, and of course, the Backstreet Boys. "I did some research and realized that many new artists were coming out of Orlando," she says. "So I sent my demo to the people down there." Naomi convinced her parents to sell their 30-acre homestead and relocate to Florida. A few months later, she was offered a development deal, but after considering her options and the control she wanted over her career, she declined their offer.

A London-based songwriter/producer Michael Scherchen, who had heard about Naomi contacted her through her website, with an offer to collaborate. Although Naomi was only 16 and without a lawyer or manager, she organized a trip to London. "A British entertainment group was trying to sign me, so I was already planning to go over to England," she says, of her meeting with Scherchen. Before Naomi took off for London, the pair built the backbone to a song via email and MP3 exchange, and then finalized the track in Michael's home studio. The result was overwhelming. After returning to the States, she begged her parents to find the means to send her back to London. Naomi continued to write via e-mail with Michael and convinced her folks that with a few more songs, she could land the recording deal of her dreams.

With her parents' support Naomi quickly made her way back to London. On this second trip, Michael, Naomi and a team of two others wrote and recorded eight songs in just two and a half weeks, mostly working for 15-hour stretches. "The energy between all of us was incredible," she says of the late hours that produced "Radio On." "Being in a studio is like being in a session with a shrink. It gets personal very quickly." She jokes, "Our only contact with the outside world was opening the window to look at the passerbys on the streets below."

Through regular shows at the House of Blues and Hard Rock Live in Orlando, Naomi perfected her new songs, and suddenly, that proverbial ball was rolling. It seemed now everyone wanted to help the young songbird; Peter Lewit became her devoted lawyer; and Naomi was taking meetings with several record labels in New York. Naomi felt a great rapport with Epic's Jim Welch and chose to make her home at the label which had so successfully launched great individualistic female artists like Celine Dion, Sade, Macy Gray and Shakira.

A week after signing with Epic in April 2001, Naomi was already working with producers and writers from her "wish list" (" I've always been a student, looking at the back of albums, reading articles and finding out who's behind songs I love, right down to who mixed and mastered it" she notes.) Those she chose: Marius Devries (Bjork, Madonna, U2, Moulin Rouge), Cameron McVey (Massive Attack, All Saints, Neneh Cherry), Matt Rowe (Spice Girls), and Peter Zizzo (Avril Lavigne, Celine Dion). After a summer of writing and recording all over the Continent, Naomi narrowed the 50 co-written songs to those selected for what was meant to be her debut record. "I never decided that I wanted to become a singer," says the ambitious songwriter. "I just always felt that I was one". Here first record was a reflection of that. Naomi forms a picture of a young artist with a timeless voice -- a thinking-woman's pop singer-songwriter.

When turmoil struck the Epic environment in 2003, Naomi chose, after months of thought, it would be best to leave the label and pursue other opportunities. The change boded well for Naomi. Knowing she had to start writing on her own and pushing further then she had gone before, she rose to the challenge. For the first time composing songs entirely on her own. She went back to her original teammate, Michael Scherchen. Together they produced the new record, which showed a tremendous growth on all counts for Naomi. Her writing found it's way to being more mature, the production grew stronger and her voice had entered a new realm. This is the Naomi Striemer we've been waiting for.

Naomi doesn't pretend to be anything less than delighted with the cards she's been dealt. "The things that really affect me are those that are universal. I try to find the beauty, love and inspiration in all things, even things that might be painful. I like to find the light in the darkness," notes the optimistic, yet thoughtful young woman.

Although her story may be different from other young artists, Naomi Striemer's ability to express complex emotions, and her effortless talent for crafting songs, strike a universal chord. She captures the image of a compelling songwriter, a transcendent voice, an accessible, individual style -- an outsider who is certainly no stranger.