Spoiler alert: big Olivia Grace fan. The L.A. based artist just released a music video for the single “Safe,” a dreamy song (and visual) that I currently have on repeat.
Olivia Grace and I met up and chatted about the latest video, her music-making process, and where to see her next.
How would you describe your music style? What inspires you?
I’d say my style is left-of-center pop, and I’m inspired by everything— lately nature has been a big source of inspiration. I love reading classic poems; sometimes a single word can inspire an entire song. My own emotions, of course, drive a lot of my music.
As for musical inspirations, I listen to a lot of different styles! This past year I was really into bossa nova. Lately, I’ve been pretty obsessed with Ravyn Lenae, Claire Laffut, Daniel Caesar, and LÉON.
Who are you currently working with?
The main people I’m working with on my artist project are Dave Burris and Matt Doughtery, who are both amazingly talented producers/engineers. I’m always open to collaboration and working with new people on various projects though.
Tell me a bit about your songwriting process:
Every song has been written so differently. I started out writing Safe while laying in the park, with just the words and melody, and then later co-wrote the rest of it with Josh Wood. A lot of the music I’ve been writing lately has just been in my bedroom, starting out with chords on the piano, or I’ll be laying in bed and hear a melody in my head and go from there. Sometimes I’ll write a song in an hour and other times it’ll take months. It just depends on the moment and the song.
Okay, tell me about the video for “Safe.”
It was such an adventure. At first, my friend was going to direct/shoot/edit the video, and a few days before the shoot he no longer could. He connected me to one of the cinematographers I ended up shooting with, Celeste Barbosa, and she was able to shoot that weekend.
So I ended up scouting locations, writing a (loose) script, getting outfits for like $15 from thrift stores— the whole thing in just a couple days. I’d never produced or directed a video before, and it was the first music video I’ve ever done at all, so I had to learn a lot fast.
We went out to Joshua Tree and shot the entire video on super 8 film, but her camera actually ended up breaking, and we were only able to shoot half the video. I was then referred to Madeline Kann who was fortunately able to come on and shoot the rest of the video, and we went to the San Bernardino Mountains. I ended up editing the video together and Madeline colored it.
I didn’t intend for it to be primarily women working on it, but I think it’s really cool that it worked out that way, since both film and music are such male-dominated industries. Celeste and Madeline are both incredibly talented, so I’m lucky that they were excited about the project and were able to be a part of it.
I do have to give a shoutout to Ethan Mole though because he came on as our key grip when Madeline and I went out to the mountains and helped us out a lot
What’s next?
I’ll be playing a show in mid-November but I’m still getting all the details for it. I’m most active on Instagram and will definitely be posting about it there once it’s all confirmed!
The music video for Safe premiered on October 11th and is out everywhere October 19th! I have some new music in the works that I’ll be releasing in the coming months. Very excited to share it all!
Olivia Grace can be found on Instagram and at oliviagracemusic.com
