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OConnor on finding talent: 1/10th of 1 percent of the musical population really
has a competitve edge in one area of discipline whether it be songwriting, singing,
arranging, musicianship, even talent spotting. The way OConnor found his first staff writer
Leslie Pearl who had 4 hits in a row and had Motown banging down his door was found in
one day ....As OConnor remembers: "I made 30 phone calls in a row to every recording studio in Los Angeles asking the chief engineer if he had recently heard a prodigy. Sound City recordings gave me a referral to a young artist who had just recently recorded there, Leslie Pearl. I met her on a Sunday heard one song and offered a staff deal - She got Berry Gordy of Motown to offer a huge deal to me based on the songs I developed with her over the first 5 years"
The moral of the story - Ask anyone who has anything to do with the music business if they've seen or come across a prodigy whether it be a singer, songwriter, or musician. Track that person down....become their best friend. When you develop a family of great talent around you it gives you a competitive edge in breaking into the music business. | 
OConnor on why he likes love songs: “The public falls in love, loses at love and wins at love. A songwriter is like a 3 minute musical therapist. We put into words emotions from the heart that makes the listener get a little more insight into why they love or why they hurt. We all have these emotional squirrels that live in our heart and when love allows them to escape they chew through the logic circuits of our brain. As biological computers we either have a brain glitch or a meltdown. Songwriter’s are like a circuit breaker that allows us to let a song absorb our pain or lift our spirits. Songs are like bandaids on an open wound…or poems to soothe our soul”. 
