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Emily Osment is no stranger to the limelight.
At the young age of six, she had already played a major role in "Sarah Plain and Tall" alongside Glenn Close and Christopher Walken. But by 2006, Emily Osment landed the coveted role of Lily Truscott in Disney’s hit TV show "Hannah Montana."
Recently, 17-year-old Osment chose to take a different path – towards music.
“I’ve been writing and recording for a long time,” Osment said in Toronto recently. “Two years ago I decided, ‘Hmm I should probably release this at some point.’”
"All the Right Wrongs" was released last fall and she just completed a tour in Canada.
During a visit to Toronto, Osment took the time to answer questions about her new album, her role in Hannah Montana (which ends its run next year), competing with a brother who saw dead people in "Sixth Sense," and why she admires Alanis Morrisette.
You went from acting, and then moved over to singing. What made you decide to do that?
My mom is an English teacher and so I grew up writing and my brother is a musician as well... I have a huge binder of all this stuff and I just threw it at them and just said, 'Let’s go! Let’s write an album.' And it worked out. It's been a long process - it wasn't so much like 'Oh I want to be a singer now.'
What is the difference between you and your character Lily Truscott on Hannah Montana?
Everything about her is different from me. I mean, she's very strange, very goofy, very silly, just kinda ditsy. She doesn't know what's going on until she's inside of it and lives her life through Miley. She's obsessed with being Hannah Montana’s best friend and is extremely loyal but at the same time she's very entertaining.
As for me, I'm really laid back. It’s funny because on the show, it helps me get out all the energy that I have. That’s kind of my outlet - which acting should be. Everyone has their outlet, and that’s what it is for me.
Do you feel like people are associating you more with the character?
That happens. Little kids are going to call me Lilly for the rest of my life. That’s just going to happen, but that’s great. That means they watch the show – so it's perfect.
Do you and your brother (Haley Joel Osment) ever compete with each other?
He’s four years older than me, and he’s a guy, so we’ve never had anything where we have to compete for something because we’re in completely different circles. I feel like just because we’re kids, and we’re brother and sister, we don’t really talk about it.
We’re brother and sister so of course they’re going to compare us. But I don’t really see it as a bad thing or a good thing - it’s just going happen.
You’ve just released your debut album, so who's your target audience?
My fans. They’re the reason I do this; they’re the reason I’m able to put out an album and be able to play these morning shows and go on tour. If nobody cared about the album or if we did a bad job promoting it, I wouldn’t be going on tour right now.
Do you feel restricted to guidelines? Is there anything you want to release but don’t think people will listen to?
That’s why I went with Wind-up because they’re the biggest indie label there is and they let me do what I want, which is great.
Growing up, what musicians were you a fan of?
I listened to the Beatles and the Monkees growing up. I listened to a lot of Beck when I was in middle school.
If you could work on a song or album with anyone dead or alive, who would it be?
I’d love to work with Alanis Morrisette. She was a big inspiration for the album.
Have you ever met her?
I haven’t. She’s with the same agency though. So maybe, I don’t know, we’ll see. She doesn’t care about what anyone says. She’s angry and emotional and just really great.
Does that reflect you?
I can definitely relate to that. You have to have emotions to write good music. I’ve always been into music and I’ve always had this passion for creating my own stuff. I’m not here to be like everybody else - I just want to do my own thing.
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