After taking a step away from performing for the better part of a decade, Illinois mutli-instrumentalist Ryan O’Neal, better known as Sleeping At Last, took the stage in 2024. But he wasn’t alone — he was backed by the Chicago Philharmonic.
This weekend, O’Neal will join the orchestral ensemble again for a one-night holiday show featuring original music and holiday covers. This comes after a pair of 2024 concerts with the Philharmonic sold out.
With his other brother, Chad O’Neal, and friend Dan Perdue, Ryan O’Neal started Sleeping at Last in 1999 as a teenager in Wheaton. By 2011 it had whittled down to a solo project.
O’Neal’s original music and covers have been featured in TV shows such as “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Private Practice,” “Bones” and “The Vampire Diaries.” But his catapult to commercial success arrived when his original song was selected for the 2011 “Twilight” film “Breaking Dawn – Part 1.” The song, “Turning Page,” was inspired by the franchise’s love story and his own relationship with his wife. It currently has more than 300 million streams on Spotify.
O’Neal recently stopped by Vocalo’s studios to talk about his Saturday performance with the Chicago Philharmonic and the lasting impact of “Turning Page.”
“I was certain it was not going to get in,” O’Neal said of the song in a recent interview with Vocalo’s Nudia Hernandez. “It means a lot to hear that song continues to be a part of people’s weddings … [and] welcoming their newborns into the world, too. That’s such a compliment and such a gift.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Nudia Hernandez: You’ve always put out a lot of music. Why do you think you didn’t really go on tour?
Ryan O’Neal: If I’m being completely honest, the reason is I’m a perfectionist, and I’m a nervous person. Live performance is this vulnerability that felt very scary. I toured extensively for many, many years, and then kind of got to the point where I’m like, “Maybe I just like recording and writing better.”
A couple years ago, I was starting to think, “Why don’t I play out live anymore?” The only reasons that I found were insecurities: “What if it didn’t sound right? What if I messed up?” All the things that should not matter at all and don’t have anything to do with the magic of live music.
I always think of it as sort of like an ice sculpture; it’s something in the room that happens, and then it goes away. Only the people there got to experience it. Over these last couple years, I’ve had the huge honor of reevaluating that question and rethinking why I don’t play live. When I decided that I wanted to do it again and push myself, I got to do it with the Chicago Philharmonic — which is a dream of mine, to get to play with a full orchestra. I’ve been very spoiled coming back to playing shows.
Whose idea was that?
I went to a concert that the Chicago Philharmonic was playing with an artist named Kishi Bashi. It was just this really beautiful experience. My family was there, and there was at one point during the show that I looked around, and I saw everyone on the edge of their seats and fully swept up in live music. I left that show thinking, “Oh my gosh, if I ever played live again, that’s how I want to do it. I want to do it with a full orchestra.”
I actually sent Terell [Johnson], the executive director of the Chicago Philharmonic, a DM on Instagram, and said, “It was such a beautiful show. I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed it.” He responded and said, “Hey, I would love to meet up.” We had lunch. I think halfway through, he was like, “So, have you thought about what songs you want to play?” I was like, “Wait, what?” I mean, I was hoping that I could eventually play with the Chicago Philharmonic. But he was just so warm and has been such an incredible support. That led to thinking through what that was going to look like. Then we played a handful of sold-out shows last fall. It was a really special thing to return to live performance in this way.
I feel like you’re someone who stays working. It feels like your projects have never been cut off. They’re like long stories.
They are. It’s been many, many years since I’ve done a traditional album. I do these series or collections of songs. I have three primary projects that I like to make music in, and this is kind of my little elevator pitch of them. One of them is called “Astronomy.” Anytime something interesting happens in the observable space above us, if it’s an astronomical discovery or event, I will try to write a little musical score for that moment. I think of that as my telescope.
I also do this project called “Atoms,” which are these little, tiny pieces of music that are inspired by something beautiful that I see — whether it’s the way light is hitting the wall or how water is moving. I’ll take these little, tiny videos, and then write a little score for that moment. That’s my microscope.
Then “Atlas” is where all my lyrical writing is. That’s the human experience, between my telescope and my microscope.
It seems like visuals are also a huge part of your music.
Yeah, it’s a big deal. There’s a painter that I get the absolute privilege of working with. Her name is Elicia Edijanto, and she is in Indonesia. She is this incredible painter that paints all of the watercolor paintings for each individual song that I come out with in my “Atlas” project. All the main songs that have been on “Grey’s Anatomy” and things like that are mostly from that “Atlas” project, that middle human experience. I think I’m a visual writer as well. Lyrics only kind of make sense when I can picture them, so I write that way. I think that that is why visuals always have a huge pull for me.
Could you give me your top three Christmas songs you enjoy performing? What’s the top three you can warm up for the show?
I would say my favorite Christmas song probably ever is “O Holy Night.” I would say a couple songs that I’m really excited to perform at the show, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” and I wrote an original Christmas song. I’m not going to include it as one of my favorite songs, but I am going to include it as a song that I’m really looking forward to playing. It’s called “Snow.” That will be the first time I get to hear that with a full orchestra, which I’m very much looking forward to.
I feel like [“Turning Page”] is one of the most beautifully written, composed and performed songs of my time. How did it all happen?
A friend of mine suggested, “Have you ever thought about trying to write a song for the ‘Twilight’ series?” And I was like, “Yeah, hasn’t everyone?” Those soundtracks were so cool, and it felt like a very, very big swing to even try to write a submission for it. I went home and I watched all the movies leading up to “Breaking Dawn: Part 1.” I could kind of tell, “Alright, there’s this love story. It’s definitely heading toward a wedding.” I sat down at the piano for a few days and was very superstitious that it wouldn’t get into the movie. If it doesn’t get into the movie, I need to make sure that I believe it, and I own it and it’s a personal song, not just a song about vampires. Because if it doesn’t, I’m going to have this song about “Twilight” that never happened.
Which is crazy you didn’t think it would get in.
Oh my gosh, I was certain it was not going to get in. I wrote it for my wife. She will argue that significantly — she’s like, “That is for Bella.” Like, no, I swear! It’s a love story, and I know that kind of love because of her. I wanted to bend that toward the story of Edward and Bella, and so I did.
When I found out that the song was going to be in the film, and in the film twice, it was a really huge moment in my musical life. It was really special. I got to go to the premiere and see it with the cast and crew. It was really special. It means a lot to hear that song continues to be a part of people’s weddings. Over the last few years, I’ve noticed that people are using it a lot toward welcoming their newborns into the world too. That’s such a compliment and such a gift.
It was in the two most anticipated scenes of the movie — the wedding and the honeymoon. How did you feel when you first saw it?
You never know how it’s going to get used with any sort of film and TV. You’ll get like one little paragraph because they also don’t want anybody to spill the beans on what’s happening in the story. I think it was something like, “Bella wears her dress.” I didn’t know if it was going to be a 10-second background moment or if it was going to be the full song. Once the wedding scene happened, I was like, “Well, that was incredible.” I had no idea it was going to be in the honeymoon scene as well. I was blown away. I was very, very honored.
You grew up in Wheaton. What was that like?
Quiet. It’s a nice suburb, I enjoyed it. I was homeschooled, so I had a very different experience than probably a lot of people did. My mom kept our world very big — we traveled a lot. Wheaton is where I fell in love with music. I’m grateful for the thousands of hours of sitting in my room playing guitar.