Interview - Olivver
During one of the most anticipated tours of the year, a co-headliner from Halsey and Young Rising Sons, we got a chance to sit down with the American Youth's opening act, Olivver.
CS: Welcome to DC! How do you like it so far? How do you feel about your first show here as a solo act?
Olivver: It's been great! We did, like, all like the touristy stuff! We went to Lincoln Memorial, The White House. I remember playing here before! I think it was three years ago with The Neighbourhood and we were open for somebody and I totally forgot who it was, but it was great!
CS: What inspired to do what you love instead sticking with the path you were already on?
Olivver: I subscribe to the theory that you only Have one chance, one life. I am not religious, so I want to look back when I'm old before I die and think that I gave it the best shot but I could with the time that I was allowed and do exactly what I wanted to do without any regrets. I always had the songs, and I was I was going to do release them one way or another. So, rather than waiting a couple of years, I was like "Why not start now just start now and rip the band out and off quickly rather than prolonging it over an amount of time?"
CS: As a writer, I understand that there are just some things really sacred to you that you can't express to anyone. Do you think your Tumblr has become less of a sacred outlet and more of a platform since your audience has grown over the years. And if so, where can you find that complete solidarity?
Olivver: I don't think anything is sacred really. I talk about some really personal stuff with my uncle, my grandfather, and in older works with my father. I don't think anything is to secret to touch. Tumblr, for me, was an outlet for stuff that never became songs. Like, ideas the never became anything, or short thoughts that I had in the car. I'd pull over to the side of the road and write something down and say "Well, alright. I don't know what to do with that so I'll put it on Tumblr." I still plan to do that, I've just been using everything I've been writing lately so that's why haven't been posting stuff. I'd write something and want to use it, so people hear it eventually.
CS: If you could rerelease on track from Catharsis what would it be?
Olivver: I wouldn't want to release Blue because I think that's how it should be. I think probably Long Lost Love Song. I would just re-do it completely because it was like, two chords back to back the entire song, then we had a production. I was in a really Erykah Badu mood, it has bongos on it and stuff. But I would try to make it a little more of my current sound because I love the lyrical content of what I'm saying in that song.
CS: It seems you are more of a writer before you are a singer. How do you know which pieces of writing you want to make a song, or does it usually appear as a song before it does as a poem?
Olivver: It kind of depends. I wrote this piece called "We Are Not One Thing" that I put on Tumblr and then I wrote "Not Going Home" and I used a lot of that in the song. Sometimes I will write a piece of poetry and it will stay like that, sometimes alright I'll write a song first. Lot of times and I'm writing a song on the tar it's literally the first and then comes into my head. I'll be sitting there I'll strum a chord that'll make me feel someway. It'll make me feel like I want to talk about how I felt in high school, or it makes me feel like want to talk about this girl, or makes me feel like I want to talk about my grandma. It's completely vibe based.
CS: You always seem to have your own opinion and are not afraid to go against the grain. How do you feel about the backlash that you get for speaking on what you personally think is right?
Olivver: If I had a full-time PR person, they would tell me the same things they tell Kanye West or John Mayer, which is "don't say anything!" I don't want to be that person, it's who I am to say my opinions. A part of my identity as an artist is that I'm not above anyone else. I'm the same person that we all are. Everybody has opinions, and everybody doesn't word them correctly on social media, and everybody has mistakes that they make. I think that if something strikes me at the right moment, I'm going to comment on it. People will take it however. I made a joke that other day, someone said "how do you feel about seen leaving one direction?" and I was like "Oh, I'm going to take his spot and he's gonna play drums in The Neighbourhood." I knew immediately that a lot of people are going to get it, and then 15 or 20 people are going to be like "stay in your lane!" I'm sure some people thought I was serious. Tone is really important, and you can include tone in text.
CS: Do you think people are too heavily influenced by social media's mass standards of what's acceptable, especially with the undertones of discrimination, misogyny and racism?
Olivver: No. We live in an age now where people getting more media van they never gone before. When a social injustice happened in the 70s or the 80s, some people never heard about it. A lot of people didn't know what was going on because they were not being used paper yet. Now I think it's almost like he can't get away from anything. The minute that something happens, I know about it instantly as a social media. So, I think it's good. We are coming into an age where politically, socially, able are more more involved in life. I think it's good to do that rather than just live in ignorance.
CS: What's next for you? An album? Headline tour?
Olivver: No other tours are booked yet. I have a couple shows but when I get back to Los Angeles with JMSN on the 24th in Santa Barbara. I have a plan for project, but it's on the album. I think I'm going to wait for an album until there is the proper backing for that. I think a lot of times when you make that many songs, and you put them out and you don't have the distribution then major-label artist have, stuff tends to get lost in the shuffle. Track seven never really gets head or track 10 never really gets heard, rather than just releasing individual songs on short EP's. I think until that day comes I'll probably work on EP's or just single releases.I think I'm just going to do a small project, which I already have the songs for, but I talk to the overhaul. I got the idea on the store so I'll get into it when I get back home.
Follow Olivver on Twitter, Tumblr, and Soundcloud.