Jennifer O’Connor’s fifth album, I Want What You Want, almost didn’t get made.



After parting ways with Matador Records in the spring of 2009 after two albums (“Over The Mountain, Across The Valley, and Back to the Stars” in 2006, and “Here With Me” in 2008), O’Connor was discouraged, broke and exhausted from several years of non-stop touring. She put music on the back burner and worked a series of odd jobs: bartender on Broadway, freelance writer, transcriptionist, personal assistant, eBay seller, etc. Occasionally she would pick up her guitar and write a song about the confusing place she found herself in.



“I’ve always written about my life and the people close to me,” O’Connor said. “During the years I wrote this album, I was struggling and doing a lot of questioning about where I was and where I wanted to go moving forward. For a while, I wasn’t really sure if I would keep playing music.”



But O’Connor kept writing songs in fits and starts and eventually returned to the studio in November of 2010 to record a new song. “Swan Song (for Bella)” is an ode to perseverance, acceptance and starting over (all of which are overriding themes on I Want What You Want ) and has come to serve as the album’s centerpiece.



”I enjoyed the process of recording that song so much, that it made me want to record the others songs I had, which led to me writing more and eventually it was clear that I was making an album,” O’Connor said.



I Want What You Want was recorded with O’Connor’s longtime rhythm section of Jon Langmead (drums) and Michael Brodlieb (bass). Select songs feature Tim Foljahn (Two Dollar Guitar, Cat Power, Townes Van Zandt) on guitar, Amy Bezunartea on backing vocals, guitar and harmonica, Richard Baluyut (Versus) on guitar and backing vocals, Kendall Meade (Mascott, Helium, Sparklehorse) on electric piano, Tom Beaujour on guitar and Kirsten McCord on cello.



In the three years since her last record came out, O’Connor has spent a great deal of time working her label Kiam Records (who is releasing I Want What You Want) and on other Kiam releases from Amy Bezunartea, Choo Choo la Rouge, Clint Michigan and Dump. She also spent time collaborating with other artists, including Chris Brokaw, Charles Bissell of The Wrens and Laura Cantrell in her songwriter’s series Tower Of Song, a monthly (but now on hiatus) show held at The Rock Shop in Brooklyn. She’s also been a recurring guest on the monthly cabaret show Our Hit Parade hosted by Kenny Mellman, Bridget Everett and Neal Medlyn at Joe’s Pub.



Since her career began, O’Connor has toured the United States many times over, playing alongside bands such as Wilco, Cass McCombs, Silver Jews, The Mountain Goats, Damien Jurado, Feist, and Yo La Tengo. Her songs have appeared in numerous television shows and films such as Sons of Anarchy, Parenthood, Private Practice, The Ghost Whisperer, The Strangers and Think Like A Man.



I Want What You Want was released digitally on November 8, 2011 and on vinyl and cd on March 6, 2012. Jennifer is currently at work on her sixth album which will see release in the fall of 2013.

Chris Brokaw was born in New York City and raised in the outlying suburbs. He attended Oberlin College, where he took exactly two music-related classes: Multi-track Recording and Steel Drumming. In 1986 he moved to Boston, Massachusetts; and in 2011 relocated to Seattle, Washington.
Chris is perhaps best known for his work as the drummer in CODEINE and the guitarist in COME, who made several albums in the 1990's for the labels Sub Pop and Matador that are considered landmarks in American independent rock music.
Since 2001, Chris has focused primarily on his work as a solo artist, making numerous albums of vocal and instrumental music. This has ranged from full on rock ("Red Cities", "Incredible Love") to explorations of the 6-string and 12-string acoustic guitars ("Canaris", "VDSQ Solo Acoustic Volume 3") to the experimental and abstract ("Tundra", "Gracias, Ghost of the Future"). Throughout, Chris has maintained an active solo touring schedule in the US, UK, Europe, Canada, Australia and Russia.
He has composed original music for the following films: "I Was Born, But" (Roddy Bogawa, 2004), "Road" (Leslie McCleave, 2005, which received the award for Best Original Score at the Brooklyn International Film Festival); "Sospira" (Lana Z. Caplan, 2011); "Taken By Storm" (Roddy Bogawa, 2011); and "Now, Forager" (Julia Halperin/Jason Cortlund, 2012). The latter two films screened in 2012 at MOMA in New York City.
Chris has also performed and recorded as an accompanist to Thurston Moore, Evan Dando, Christina Rosenvinge, Jennifer O'Connor, Rhys Chatham, Steve Wynn, Alan Licht, GG Allin, and Johnny Depp.
He has composed music for the Dagdha Dance Company (Limerick, Ireland) and Kino Dance (Boston); collaborated with playwright Rinde Eckert and director Robert Woodruff on the new opera "Highway Ulysses" (2002, American Repertory Theater, Cambridge, Mass.); performed as one of 77 drummers in the Boredoms' "77 Boadrum" in New York; and performed as one of 200 guitarists in Rhys Chatham's "A Crimson Grail" at Lincoln Center, New York. His band Dirtmusic (with Chris Eckman and Hugo Race) performed at the Festival In The Desert, in Essakane, Mali, and collaborated with the Touareg band Tamikrest on an album recorded in Bamako, Mali.
Currently, Chris plays in the bands Wrekmeister Harmonies, The New Year, and The Empty House Cooperative, all of whom have new albums in the works for 2012 and 2013. He also plays in a duo with Geoff Farina (ex-Karate), netting two albums ("The Angel's Message To Me" and "The Boarder's Door"), and in a new duo with Stephen O'Malley (Sunn O))) ) called The Catamites.
2012 will see the release of "Gambler's Ecstasy", a rock solo album five years in the making. Chris will do an extensive US tour in September and October, performing solo, opening for the Japanese band Mono; and will tour further in 2012 and 2013 with a bassist and drummer.