In life, perspective is everything.
It was quite a cloudy day in San Diego, perhaps some may even say the weather was a little gloomy. When most people think of San Diego, they almost automatically imagine a perfect day at the beach with crystal clear skies. Meanwhile in New York, snow is covering the ground, and Olive Louise is a happy camper. “I’m obsessed with it,” she dished. Besides being a multi-talented artist, she also instantly revealed that she’s a skiing enthusiast. “I love skiing, but I haven’t been able to go this year because of the pandemic.”
Truthfully, I’ve only walked through snow once in my life. While I’ve seen snow covered mountains in the distance, I’ve never made the trek to Mammoth, Big Bear, or even Mountain High. Throughout my childhood until now, I’ve seen countless photos and videos of friends enjoying themselves in the snow. The experience is something I’ve always longed for, but never got around to actually doing.
There’s actually quite a long list of things I didn’t experience as a kid or teen that I longed for. For example: Seeing the Jonas Brothers on their “Burnin’ Up” tour, staying at Excalibur in Las Vegas and spending the whole day at Circus Circus, meeting up with friends at Universal Studios’ CityWalk and the Santa Monica Pier for birthdays, frequent trips to Disneyland, riding the train into LA and spending the day partaking in stereotypical 2014-15 YouTube and Vine shenanigans, I can go on. But as time passed, a few of those experiences I wanted so badly came to life in some way shape or form. Some didn’t seem as glamorous as I thought they would be when I was younger, and others remained missed opportunities.
Everyone has their own list of things they long to do, although some of those dreams and plans may be on hold due to the pandemic. Giving it thought can be extremely discouraging at times, but through my conversation with Olive, I realized that it will discourage you only if you allow it to. As a creative, you can certainly take a break and wait for this storm to pass. After all, it can be hard to focus when there’s a ton of commotion. You can also certainly work through the storm, while finding inspiration and comfort along the way by knowing that you’re not the only one doing just that.
“Sometimes I struggle with what’s keeping the momentum,” Olive confessed. “There’s certain days where you feel down, but what gets me going is honestly having goals that I want to meet. I also really see life like, I’m only here once (that I’m aware of) and I don’t want to waste my life. I want to treat the people I love well, and I want to show up. I literally won’t get this time back, like this convo you and I are having, this we won’t get back. So why would I not make the most out of everything?”
Since releasing her debut single “Fool” in 2019, Olive has surely been showing up by releasing the best music she can. Olive grew up in Kings Point, New York, and started playing the piano and violin at an early age. Her mother was the lead pianist of the Long Island Philharmonic Orchestra, and would often show Olive the ins and outs of the craft. But after the tragic passing of both of her parents, Olive decided to turn to songwriting as a way to process all of her emotions. Not a single moment that could be spent writing was wasted, and it helped shape Olive into the artist she is today.
“I remember at the time when I wrote ‘Fool,’ I was obviously going out and seeing people,” she shared. “And it’s totally different now. The things that were a priority to me (and I think most other people) are so much more real. Seeing your friends, hugging people that you love, being able to have family dinners, I miss all those sort of things. That’s what’s taking up most of my head now, rather than some of the other things I was focused on at that time.”
As we grow, many of the things that were once priorities can easily get shuffled around like a deck of cards. Things just aren’t the same as they were in 2019, and for many, those cards have inevitably been shuffled yet again over the course of the past year. As Olive’s latest single “Nothing’s The Same” took shape, she realized that many of the sentiments the song held were also being moved around.
“Nothing’s The Same” was drawn from experiences Olive had growing up, but she admitted that the pandemic helped add yet another layer of depth to the song that wasn’t already there. She spilled, “I love this song, but at first when the pandemic happened and I was like, I’m writing a song called ‘Nothing’s the Same,’ it felt very trivial. As time went on with producing with (Anwar Sawyer) and recording vocals with Harrison, I sort of got this feeling that I needed some happiness right now. The second verse came together during the pandemic, and it was just like ‘it’s a good day, we’re going to have a good day’ because it just felt like nothing was going on. Then it became a song that I felt was positive, and not as small as I was making it out to be.”
“When I started writing it, it had nothing to do with the pandemic,” she further explained. “But I think it’s sort of strange how it ended up being finished during the pandemic.”
To help bring her visions to life with this song, Olive collaborated with Roc Nation’s Anwar Sawyer and engineer Harrison. She sees this stormy season as a perfect opportunity to reach out to others, or simply try out new things on your own. “A lot of people are learning that they’re more capable than they think they are,” she noted. “I feel like through the pandemic, everybody was so much more open to connecting with people that they hadn’t met before or didn’t know… especially in the music industry. Everyone’s like okay, we want to create, we have to be doing something. So I was able to create with people I had always wanting to work with!”
As Olive prepares to release more music this year, she hopes that “Nothing’s The Same” will help listeners cherish their days. It’s one of those songs that feels like a warm blanket, or a message from a friend that wants to remind you that better days are ahead. It would be amazing if as humans, we had the ability to turn back time. We may not be able to time travel and re-live certain experiences or seize missed opportunities, but we have the power to create new ones – no matter where we’re at, and no matter the situation.
The storm will be over soon.
Stream “Nothing’s The Same” below!
If you enjoyed my chat with Olive Louise, be sure to say hi to her yourself on Instagram @olivelouise!
