From time to time, I encounter an unsigned artist who really stands out from the crowd. Not necessarily for any one reason - sometimes, the music isn't even to my particular taste - but because I can recognise that the singer has that extra something that will appeal to a wide range of listeners. And when I do come across such an artist, I am only too pleased to spread the word and hope that they suddenly get noticed by all the record company people who have so far been putting their CV to the bottom of the pile without reading it.
And so we come to Naomi Carmack, an artist who actually has her own fan pages on the Internet and yet has never been commercially discovered. What's wrong with this picture, as my American friends would say?
21-year-old Naomi is from Edmonton, Canada, and states her frustration at something which most unsigned artists will empathise with - the virtual impossibility of being spotted in the crowd by record companies. Of course Edmonton is one of a cluster of cities dotted across Canada, and it might not be the first place worldwide talent scouts would look - but with the Internet as it is today, this could all easily change.
From the range of tracks on her site, it is clear that Naomi Carmack is not stuck in any one Genre. In fact, her musical portfolio covers everything from the eighties teen sound to her cover of "Ironic" - and since this is most of the sounds I've known since being a teenager myself, I can appreciate the amount of talent required to pull it off!
At the age of 11, Naomi made her first tentative steps into the music world when she formed a local singing group called "New Release" with some friends - but, as with most of us at that age, the mind wandered and the band vanished as quickly as it had appeared. However, Naomi was far more serious about her music than some of the other band members, and she went on to produce her first solo dance track a year later. With a $200 budget, she recorded the song in a single night - joining forces with a rap artist who had happened by the studio and was impressed with what he heard. Unexpectedly, "Be My Baby" changed from a pure dance track into a mix of dance/hip-hop - and the results were far better than anybody had expected.
Unfortunately, Naomi now had the age-old problem of promotion. With not a penny left to spread the word about her music (No modern internet, back then!), and a mounting collection of letters from record companies saying that they didn't accept unsolicited material, "Be My Baby" gathered dust in the attic, so to speak, for two years. Then, in 1993, Naomi got her first break when a US top 40 radio station ran a contest for new talent and she came third, ending up on a local compilation CD.
In 1995, Naomi was nominated for Best Dance/Rap artist in the Alberta Recording Industry Awards, one of her proudest moments. By now, her voice had matured from her early sound and she was recording both original material and covers on her own equipment from home, sending letters to record companies and hoping that somebody would notice her.
At 21, Naomi Carmack has unfortunately missed the boat on the teen-pop fad that occasionally rises to take the world by storm - but I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing. Teenage idols (Debbie Gibson, Tiffany, Kylie) usually have a tendency to vanish overnight and never be heard of again - whereas singers with the more mature sound that Naomi displays now have much more potential to stick.
Personally, I think it is a real shame that Miss Carmack is not more widely known. All it requires is for somebody to give her studio time and some real financial backing and she could easily be one of the next big names. There are masses of tracks on her personal web site - http://naomicarmack.cjb.net and at her MP3 site - http://www.iuma.com/IUMA/Bands/Naomi_Carmack, including some great covers that really show how her voice has matured. Unfortunately, with the exception of "Be My Baby" - the original professionally recorded track - they are all self recorded. Of all the tracks on the site, "Be My Baby" is the first you should listen to, precisely because it is professionally made - then try to imagine the more mature sound of the home-recorded tracks with professional backing. With talent like this going to waste, it is almost a crime - it just needs somebody in the record industry to give her a chance, and Naomi Carmack could be the name on everybody's lips tomorrow!!!
