In Conversation with Olivia Nelson | Music with feeling, personal growth and performing at Heathrow

0:00Are you looking for your new favourite pop R &B artist? Meet Olivia Nelson.

0:08You started releasing music near enough 10 years ago now. How has Olivia Nelson evolved over that period of time? Yeah, what's the new Olivia Nelson arc then?

0:19Olivia Nelson:Oh damn, that's a good question. We are here with the wonderful Olivia Nelson. Hi. We are at Grind Studios in partnership with Etch for Residency Takeover all week. So just let's get started. For anyone who doesn't know Olivia Nelson, introduce who you are, what you do and what you're about. OK, so my name is Olivia. I'm a singer songwriter from London and I make primarily R &B, kind of poppy, kind of this and that. And yeah, I just love writing and singing. So what are we working on today? Today, I'm going to be in here with my friend Latir, and we're just going to see what happens. I think we didn't really have too much of a plan.

1:03Olivia Nelson:He is better at producing than me, so we're just going to find some cool sounds, some samples of vibe, hopefully write something unique, and yeah, just kind of see what happens. I already told you, I'm a fan of Latir's as well, so two good artists and producers in the studio. It's going to be gold. It's going to be good. So I guess maybe a little insight into you. so your three full EPs yes deep one that's possibly touching that the longer side of an EP do you feel like the stuff you're working on the minute are we hinting towards a full LP a full album or where where are you at in your creative process well I took a break a bit of a break from um after my last project um for health reasons and now I'm back and I'm like gonna trickle out a few like um singles and i'm just excited because in that time i've like lived a lot of life and i feel like artists need to have time to live in between putting things out and i've definitely done that and i just feel like i've got like a fresh head and i'm just excited for what's to come and yeah i'd say there's lots of singles and then possibly another project don't know quite if it's going to be album or ep but um definitely more new music it's a quick question what do you classify as an EP an album and what does the difference mean to you I guess yeah from the outside it probably doesn't seem that different for people but for me it's like how much thought and conceptualization there's been behind it so for an EP I feel like it's maybe a shorter period of time and it's just like like yeah I think maybe less thought more of a more just putting songs together and it feeling like the right fit and then an album for me would be more of a conceptual thing like birthing something from the start and it's just more grand definitely more like money and time that's gone into it as well um yeah that's what i'd say i think something that's super important i think so often we can see artists like it's like album album run album and it's like quite relentless and i can't imagine like i've done a few like sort of not even tours but like stuff where you're busy day to day today and it's crazy so like I can't imagine how that would be so you started releasing music near enough 10 years ago now how has Olivia Nelson evolved over that period of time yeah what's what's the new Olivia Nelson arc then oh damn that's a good question um I feel like I have just not to sound like cheesy but I've just transitioned from like a girl to a woman like like I said so much life has happened and so many experiences and also like not even just outside experiences like you know how I feel towards myself and my own like identity and my own voice like everything I just feel more sure of myself and I think that that just comes with age but yeah definitely I feel like older more mature more sure does that get realized in your lyrics or would you say the production or is it the whole package it's just new and and more mature i would say it's like the types of decisions i'm making yeah within my writing and within like in the room with the producer um and i feel like i have more of a hand in the production now as well myself like i'm trying to produce more and just have more control over all of the aspects because I know how I want things to sound in my head now and I have a sound and I have a standard so I want to just maintain that and push that the standard thing is interesting because even from like your first release it's like I thought the standard was very high so it's interesting it's interesting to hear how like the thought process as you as the creator is like putting that out um in 2018 you did a little interview um and in that you said the advice that you would give to like aspiring artists would be to like make your own opportunities and that was obviously eight years ago now and I feel like the barriers to entry music are a lot lower now yeah would your advice to like young creators be the same now or how has like the last sort of eight years shaped what you might like give advice to people as I feel like social media was so different then versus now like back then obviously it was still really prevalent but I feel like now it really is the gateway to building a whole career it's like what like all the taste makers and everything they're all looking at A &R's labels they're all looking at socials and not that they weren't before but it's just different now it's like it's just more heavy on that um but that's something that I like struggle with as well because I feel like when you grow up with a certain era of music and you know and that's like the world as it is transitioning into the new like ways of doing things ways of doing things is hard but i feel like it is just the way it is now so i'd say yeah social media is the biggest uh biggest change that's happened in that time and i think um aspiring artists that is their thing that they should focus on obviously the music and all of that is the most important but But socials is like a huge part of it, as we all know.

6:25When you talk about social media kind of being at the forefront of everything and everything's now so data-driven, right? Like we'll check in your streaming numbers and stuff and see what I'm saying. And you've hit like 50 plus million streams and stuff. How do you balance worrying about the numbers and how to stream well to like making something personal and still being true to yourself you just can't even think about

6:52Olivia Nelson:the streaming numbers at all because I never did like even initially before that happened the whole thought process was always making something personal authentic that has a feeling I want people to listen to my music and feel something and that's always the key and then I think you just have to you can't think about the other stuff because then you'll just dig yourself into a hole and and it's just not good so I think leaving that side out of it and just going into it you can think about it afterwards maybe but like when you're doing it you can't think about it yeah I guess that's the the effect of you doing something so unique and personal if if it does well it means it's really speaking to people right so yeah the fan doesn't see the studio sessions the writing sessions the mixing the mastering the tweaking the oh my gosh I don't know if the distributors received it or it's gone live on the wrong profile so getting it out is the win man and then as lewis says like if it resonates with people all the better but you've at least done that for yourself which is sick 100 % and i'm trying to like i'm trying to remember that like that like just getting out like you said is the most important thing and yeah no one needs to worry about the before it's just once it's out it's out of my hands let the world have it what happens happens yeah so obviously we're here with etched times grind for this weekly residency and the whole premise of etched is protecting protecting your value but also allowing creativity to flow from the fact that it's anchored in like protection and so we wanted to ask you um what is something it doesn't have to be a song but what is something that you have created that is the most valuable thing to you or something that is of significant value it could even be like a relationship or a do you know i mean something something of value along that topic it's a think of that one isn't it yeah it is i've never been asked that question before so yeah that's really cool um i would say the relationship i have with my mum i love that and I feel like that's something that yeah it's just very special to me and it's very unique to me so yeah I'd say that.

9:06That's amazing have you always had a good relationship with her or has it grown?

9:08Olivia Nelson:Yeah yeah no it's we've always had a good relationship I think as I've got older it's just got better it's just me and her so like we're very close yeah it's sad when like parents get older and like I don't know I feel like I just don't want anyone to like get older i just want everything to stay the same um but yeah i love my mom and yeah do you guys have a good relationship with your parents are you yeah and it's always it's always nice to see like your relationship with your parents as you become an adult as well i think it changed from from a child and adult relation to adult and adult um you kind of you're not on the same level still your parents are always going to put it down but you feel at least a bit elevated which is always cool so yeah yeah that's a good answer that's a sick answer i respect that it's funny it was my dad's birthday the other day and we were there for dinner and i was like is it mad to you having a 30 year old son and he was like it's in it's mad it's insane because i was like it feels mad to tell you that i'm a 30 year old son and he's like yeah the fact that you are and i am like so mad yeah it's mental all right we're gonna change change topic completely but you have performed at heathrow airport which not many people can say what's that how did that happen please tell us okay so that was actually yeah it was actually really fun but it was the weirdest gig of my life i bet so it was with um so far sounds it was like a partnership with them and they basically asked a few artists if they wanted to do this collaboration with heath rowe um i guess to promote the airport and everything and they had yeah three artists we were in the departure lounge and uh there was like a little stage and me and my guitarist were there a couple of artists got up first and then we were just singing and there were so many people just looking like in awe some people so confused like naturally and then some people would just did not care they were literally like eating their prayer like looking at their phone like right when's my flight yeah um but it was honestly like such a fun experience because it's such a weird thing to have been a part of but it was like I love that it's such a unique thing and the fact I can say I've performed at Heathrow Airport like who can say that?

11:16Olivia Nelson:Yeah exactly One of the 0.0001 % probably people who don't say that That's sick Well that's probably it I think for Lewis and I it's been great speaking with you Yeah it's been that we've both been here since so very excited for what you're going to be cooking up and we'll definitely be watching the journey as you roll out this next batch of music. So all the very best. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. It's been good. Thank you to Etch and Grind for having us. And yeah, we'll let you crack on with your session. Amazing. And yeah, hope you make some good stuff we're able to do. Let's go.

11:53Olivia Nelson:Let's do this.