Olive Louise is the embodiment of ‘Don’t gild the Lily’. With production heavily laden in soaring strings and floating harmonies, her music has been associated with the dream pop, indie folk, and Americana genres. With a past like hers one might expect her to be less of an open book after losing both of her parents before the age of 15. Instead, Olive’s poetic lyrics feel so intimate it’s as though she is speaking directly to you. “My father used to tell me, “you don’t paint apples red or flowers more vibrant” and that is always in the forefront of my mind. I don’t want my imperfections washed out. You can be soft and have grit.” Sporting a Victorian-like disheveled “au natural” look, her visual world is eerily nostalgic. “The events in my life have forced me through so many huge changes. I never could have seen my life going the way it has. It’s had a profound effect on what I resonate with. I understand not fitting in and moving around and trying to make sense of things without time to, and so that’s the imagery I’m drawn to and the music I write reflects my lived experience.”
Her latest single “Special” was written about an amalgamation of experiences where she felt nervous and out of place and had wished she could feel comfortable as herself rather than instantly wishing to leave. Olive confides, “I created this character in the song, this perfect person, that comes along, understands how I’m feeling, and says “let’s go look at the view” because that’s what I had almost always wished for in those times.”
Olive’s music is haunting and heroic. Olive Louise is for the time traveler, the wanderer and those hungry for real storytelling and adventure.
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