Bree Sharp: The most challenging thing for me about songwriting is being honest. I find that the best art is the art that is most sincere and honest, but sometimes it's very hard to be honest with your art because you know others will be judging it. But it also gives you the best possibility for making your best work. So it's a constant challenge to make sure I am doing that.

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OnlineHost: Welcome to AOL Live, Bree Sharp!

Bree Sharp: Hey, everyone, how's it going?

AOLiveMC13: Let's start with this audience question: When did you first realize that you had a musical talent, and when did you first make the decision to pursue it as a career?

Bree Sharp: It's hard to say that I realized I had a talent. It's almost elegant to say that. I started to realize it when people started to tell me. I picked up the guitar when I was 15 and started writing songs in college after my heart was broken. :( It was then that I was told that I had something, which is really nice, but I didn't think much of it at the time. I was studying theater then, and had been for all my life; I had always wanted to be an actress. It was when I was about to graduate that a lot of musical opportunities made themselves known. At the time it seemed like the arrows of life were pointing me down that path, and I thought, who am I to go against them, and decided to see what was down the road.

Question: What do you find most rewarding and challenging about songwriting?

Bree Sharp: Two things that are most rewarding about songwriting is the nature of songwriting, giving voice to something you are going through or thinking or feeling, in somewhat of a different language than you would use everyday. When you nail that feeling, there's nothing more exciting than that. One of the reasons music is so powerful is that it is so immediate. Music you just understand immediately. So when you really nail it, you get that feedback from yourself, and it's quite exciting.

Bree Sharp: The other rewarding thing that I discovered is when someone you don't know, or you do know, comes up to you and says, I really know what you are talking about, or that song had an impact on me. It's the difference between singing for yourself and making art which is meant for the public. But you never know how the public will respond, and when they respond favorably and you have made a personal connection, it's an amazing feeling.

Bree Sharp: The most challenging thing for me about songwriting is being honest. I find that the best art is the art that is most sincere and honest, but sometimes it's very hard to be honest with your art because you know others will be judging it. But it also gives you the best possibility for making your best work. So it's a constant challenge to make sure I am doing that.

Question: How can we see your new video?

Bree Sharp: I don't have my own video out right now. There is an underground version of the cast and crew of "The X-Files" listening to "David Duchovny" that was not meant for the public, but I have been told you can find it somewhere on the Internet. Hopefully, I will have my own video soon enough, as soon as the record label gets on the ball.

Question: Why do you feel there has been such an explosion of talented female singer-songwriters in the '90s?

Bree Sharp: I don't have a great answer for why that happened at this particular time.

Question: Who are some of the writers who have had the greatest impact on your lyric-writing style?

Bree Sharp: The two main ones are Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello. They have a way of manipulating language with words and sound. They can really paint pictures, and I always aspire to them. Also, they both share a contempt for the hypocrites, and I find that intriguing and necessary from an artist. Dylan is very careful, when he points a finger, to include himself, so he never stands on a soapbox, and that's the greatest reference I have from him.

Bree Sharp: What have you found most intriguing about the process of putting out your first record and becoming known by the public?

Bree Sharp: I have to say that, as a kid, growing up thinking about what the life of someone in the public's eye, what their life would be like, is very different from what it really is. For better or for worse, this is a business that happens to be about me, I guess, not a music form that employs business, but rather a business that happens to be about music. Though the compromises that go with this are very different and, in a way, more mundane than what I thought it would be. I don't know that it is intriguing, just different. It's a machine, and you try to use it to the best way to your advantage. Aside from that, I have to say that it's been really great to meet so many different people who have listened to and been inspired by my record.

Question: Bree, what is your favorite "X-Files" episode? -- Theresa

Bree Sharp: I don't have a favorite, I do have a favorite outfit. I love Mulder when he is in his street clothes, that is, jeans, tight T-shirt and work boots. Yummy!

Question: Why did you call your CD "A Cheap and Evil Girl"?

Bree Sharp: That was inspired from pulp fiction books from the ‘50s and ‘60s. All the titles are so dramatic and hyperbolic, everyone is hyped up on drugs and sex. I can't do that in my everyday life, so I'm doing it with my music. The words paint an instant picture.

Question: Do you feel that artists have a responsibility to be role models, or is their responsibility just to create the best art they can?

Bree Sharp: I have mixed feelings about that. There are times when I feel very strongly that it is not the responsibility of the artist to be the conscience or parent figure of society and that society's ills cannot be blamed on the artist. After all, as the saying goes, art imitates life, not the other way around. On the other hand, there are times when I feel, I won't say completely the opposite of that, but I can't deny it makes me feel good and proud when a well-known artist steps forward to publicly embrace a worthy cause, such as the problems facing our ecological system or the poverty in this country. It's an important distinction to me when someone famous does that, the same as when a non-famous person does.

Question: You started playing guitar at 15; when did you start writing songs?

Bree Sharp: I was about 19.

AOLiveMC13: Had you written poetry before you wrote songs?

Bree Sharp: Yes, but not the way you would imagine, I assume. Most of the poetry I had written was silly birthday cards, limericks and the like. But I have always enjoyed poetry.

Question: Did you help create the video "X-Files" did for their Christmas show?

Bree Sharp: Except for writing the song, I didn't create the video. It ended up being a Christmas present for me, I enjoyed it so much.

Question: Hi, Bree! I saw you in concert on August 27 at Pier 17 in NYC! I just wanted to say it was the best! Are you planning any upcoming tours that us fans can go to? -- Laura

Bree Sharp: Hi, Laura! I'm so glad you got to see a show. Right now I am mostly doing a promotional tour, which what you saw was part of. As for my own tour, it has not been planned yet, but hopefully within the coming year. The best thing to do is stay posted on my website through Trauma records, www.traumarecords.com. It should be on the record, I think.

AOLiveMC13: The time has really slipped by. We have time for one final question: Who are your biggest influences on your sound?

Bree Sharp: It's very hard for me to have any critical distance with my own work. I'm not really sure how my sound is influenced, I can only say I am inspired by Patti Smith, Patty Griffin, Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello. Those are the main ones, after that there are a slew of others, like Paul Simon, Sinead O'Connor, Tory Amos, and so on and so on.

AOLiveMC13: Many thanks for being with us and taking our questions, Bree Sharp.

Bree Sharp: Well, this has been a blast. I'm sorry it went so quickly, I can only say, more than you might know, I appreciate all the support I have gotten, and I wish you all a very safe and happy holiday season, and I look forward to meeting more of you as my time continues, performing and such. As always.

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