Olivia Rox is a 23-year-old singer/songwriter/musical mastermind who wants to make sure everything she does… rocks! In fact, it’s been her mission ever since she was a kid. From a very early age, Olivia was writing her own songs and taking the stage. She has had lead roles in musicals, competed in America’s Got Talent, and became a Top 10 finalist on Season 15 of American Idol.
Olivia just dropped the music video for her latest single “Been This Way B4,” a vibrant 50s-inspired project that allowed her to push her creative skills to the max. She spilled some stories about how it all came together, and how she strives to be as authentic as possible!
First things first, let’s talk about how the song in itself came together!
I wrote the song actually before I had ever been in a relationship… which is kind of ironic. It was sort of about all of these fictitious things that I would see on TV, like the guys really being a jerk to the girls. I sort of made a promise to myself to never let that happen in future relationships, but it was always inspired by this 1950’s style. From the very creation of the song, I heard that clap that we have throughout the whole song, and that really drove the track for me. It was so much fun to write!
I think the video was inspired by that ‘50s vibe that was already in the song from its creation.
I was gonna say, the music video has a really fun retro diner theme, and I wanted to know how that came about! It was kinda destined to happen, I guess.
I’m sort of a sucker for vintage things, and I absolutely love history. I’m horrible at the dates of when historical things happen, I just love the story elements of history. You see that a lot in my videos… I’ll do historical references, or put my own spin on it… like I did a song called Galileo, which is all about Galileo Galilei. I played Galileo, which was very fun! I put a fake beard on and was around all these men. For Been This Way B4, my mom and I write all the videos together, and we’re a really tight production team in that sense. (She directs all the videos.) When we were figuring out the concept for this, it was sort of a natural transition from the song because the song was (as I was saying) very much inspired by that 1950s beat. When we were doing the video, we always had these visuals… the guy is cheating on me. There’s a classic car, it’s in a diner, we want the drive-in movie scene, we want the rocking out on the bar, we’re standing over him and he’s saying, “WHAT! What did I do wrong?” He’s totally oblivious to it.
When we were working with our production team, our location scout was bringing us all of these diners. Some of them were like three hours away, some were a full day away and we’d have to fly there. Finally, the last one he brought us was this property called Cadillac Jack’s. The moment we stepped foot on that property, we knew it was the place for us. It was MAGICAL. It was like stepping in a time machine and going back to the 1950s. Everything was pristine… the red leather booths, and the amazing little fake milkshake, which is kinda funny because when you’re trying doing a take, you really want that milkshake to be real. This property was incredible! They even had… okay, do you know the horror film Christine? They had the car from Christine there. It was so cool! They’ve filmed so many different videos and movies there, most notably Cee Lo Green’s “Forget You.” It was a magical experience.
And the car… everybody wanted to drive that car, by the way. It was really comical. On set, everyone was like, “I’m gonna drive that car!” The kinda funny thing was, it didn’t run very well. It was an old car… BUT that car actually inspired me to get into classic cars myself.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Yes! I recently bought my first classic car, which is a 1957 Thunderbird.
I’m jealous!
Oh my gosh, it’s beautiful. It’s my prized possession, I love it so much!
Do you think we’re gonna see more classic cars in future music videos?
Yes. Definitely. I can say yes to that. Maybe even my own, now that I have this one. It’s like this beautiful Creamsicle color, and I’ll just drive around the neighborhood blasting my tunes.
Throughout your childhood, you were in a handful of musicals. Do you feel as though that background in theater helped you shine extra bright in this music video?
I think so. I think when you’re a part of a theater production, it’s a family. You really get into the choreography so much that you’re almost not dancing… you’re just into it. I did a run of Annie for 75 shows, and by the end I could literally recite it backwards for you. You really get into your own, you figure out what the audience loves. It definitely trained me at nine years old, taught me good work ethic, and definitely inspired a lot of this video. It’s very musical inspired, almost like Happy Days meets Grease. That was also in part with our amazing choreographer, I have to shout her out. Mary Cebrian, she’s phenomenal. She’s worked with Madonna and Justin Timberlake, and she’s such a sweetheart. All the videos she’s worked on in the past are so epic, so it was really an honor being able to work with her.
That’s so amazing! All of your music videos, not just for “Been This Way B4” but literally all of them take viewers on a journey. They’re all like mini movies!
I never wanted to have a music video where it was just like, LOOK AT ME! I’m doing this in front of the camera, and now I’m in another outfit doing this in front of the camera! I always wanted the viewer to feel like they were invested in the story. If you’re gonna spend five minutes, it might as well be five minutes where you either learn something or have fun and just enjoy yourself! I think storytelling is a big aspect for me, and creating mini movies that take you on a journey.
Do you think the storytelling aspect of music videos is more important than ever, especially now in 2022 where we have all these things trying to pull our attention?
I think people really like to watch longer content. You can see now, even TikTok raised their lengths. People love being taken on a journey… they love comedy, and they love living vicariously through someone. It’s a cool thing to have, and I think it’s more important than ever. In the past, you’d watch a music video and that was your entertainment for the day. I feel like sometimes we get away from those, and it does become a little more flashy. Being able to be a storyteller and make an impact… like I did a song called “Go Vote.” That was super impactful, and I think that kinda shows the power of music. We were able to work with Global Citizen, HeadCount, the GRAMMYS, Spread The Vote, and we registered over 400,000 voters. It was just insane, and it shows the power of music! It shows that you can be an impactful artist and use your voice for good.
Do you have a mission statement as an artist?
I have a lot of mission statements as an artist! I think being authentic is probably the #1 priority for me in my music and life. I don’t use autotune or anything like that. I love imperfections, and I think that’s beautiful. We are human, we make mistakes, and we have epic love stories in our lives… it’s all about embracing that and being human.
If you could have ANY cartoon character from your childhood sing “Been This Way B4” as a musical number in their show, who would you want it to be?
I was such a sucker for Popeye…
YASSSS!
But also Betty Boop… see I feel like I’m aging myself.
It fits! It’s very fitting, you know?
Also… I mean they wouldn’t be very relevant in “Been This Way B4,” Betty Boop might be, but I also just love SpongeBob. I could see Patrick singing it.
I think Patrick could belt this one out pretty well. He’s an underrated singer, and he’s a star… so hey! And if there’s ONE place on Earth where you could have “Been This Way B4” on loop for a solid 24 hours, where would it be?
Maybe Times Square.
I could see it… and there’s little tables there, so you could just pretend it’s a diner!
Yesss! And everyone’s dancing down the street.
It could be like Footloose in a way.
I love it! Let’s do it. When are we doing this?
Hopefully tomorrow! BRB, gonna book a plane ticket.
You know what’s cool? For my last single, I found out that there were billboards in Times Square that had my face on it. I was so sad that I didn’t get to see it! It was epic! Someone was sending me photos and was like oh my gosh!!
Besides being able to see that in person hopefully very very soon, what’s another huge goal you have as an artist?
I have big dreams! I really want to play a stadium tour.
If you could invite any other artist to come take the stage with you there, who would it be?
I have so many artists that I love… they’d have to be either Carole King, or maybe Shawn Mendes or Harry Styles. It would all be very fun. Or maybe all three of them all at once.
Do you have any last words for everyone?
I hope that you love this video as much as I enjoyed making it. It was seriously one of the most fun shoots of my life. The entire cast and crew were incredible to work with… and so kind! That’s the biggest thing for me, surrounding yourself with people who motivate you to do better, are good people, and make you feel better when you’re together! I hope you love this video, dance along to it, we have a cool dance that you can do, and hopefully we’ll see some amazing dances come out of this.
Let’s bring out the poodle skirts and do this!
It’s so much fun to wear a poodle skirt, I highly recommend it.
Be sure to keep up with Olivia on Twitter + Instagram @OliviaRox!
