Interview: Olivia O'Brien on her upcoming debut album.

Having the spent the last few years experimenting with different sounds (from working with Blackbear on ‘Root Bear Float’, to releasing a remix of ‘RIP’ with G-Eazy), with her two latest singles ‘UDK’ and ‘I Don’t Exist’, Olivia O’Brien has a strong vision going into her debut album - with wise beyond-her-years commentary on society, friendship, and judgement, all tied together with her distinctively powerful vocals.

We caught up with O’Brien in Los Angeles ahead of her sold-out show at The Roxy to talk about the upcoming album, sharing empowering advice with her fans, and self-worth…

If you don’t respect yourself, no-one’s going to respect you, just like if you don’t love yourself, no-one’s going to be able to love you, because you’ll push them away.

COUP DE MAIN: We love your new song ‘UDK’, it touches really well on the way that people judge one another - especially with the line, “So how can you hate me before we've had a conversation?” Do you think the time/society we live in today makes it easier for people to judge each other, without knowing anything about them?
OLIVIA O’BRIEN: Definitely, I think that’s kind of one of the reasons that I wrote the song. The Internet allows everyone to pass judgements on people because they feel like they know you because they’ve seen photos of you or whatever. They look at it and they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, this is everything that makes up this person,’ but really it’s whatever the person chooses to show you. A lot of us don’t really take that into consideration when making judgements.

CDM: Why do you think judgement is such a big part of growing up today?
OLIVIA: I think everyone is a little bit insecure. My generation has the highest rate of mental illness ever in the history of the world. It’s also due to the Internet, because everyone wants to put on this image that they’re not insecure, and they’re not unhappy, and that their life is perfect. It makes everyone else look at these people that are pretending, then they feel like they have to pretend too. It just creates a spiral of insecurity and fakeness.

CDM: Is ‘UDK’ lifted from your upcoming debut album? What can you tell us about the album at the moment?
OLIVIA: Yeah, I’ve been working towards an album since I started, for about two years. In the past six months, I’d say, I really found my new sound - I’ve been working with people that I really clicked with, it just came together within the past few months. I’m really excited about it. I’m going to be releasing new songs every couple of months leading up to it, so there’ll be a lot more releases.

CDM: Is the album still called ‘Eventually’?
OLIVIA: I’m not sure. I’m definitely deciding between that and another name.

CDM: You’re playing five new songs at your show tonight! What can you tell us about them?
OLIVIA: I’m trying to think of how I would describe them. They’re definitely different. Some songs are a little retro, discoey, and some songs are more emotional, more similar to my older stuff. There’s a little bit of everything.

CDM: Last year in 'No Love' you sung about the fakeness of Los Angeles socialites and music industry posers, and Camila Cabello also touches on the same themes and feeling lonely in LA on a few songs on her album that came out this year. What is it about Los Angeles in particular that encourages such a 'fake' social scene?
OLIVIA: This is a city where a certain type of person is attracted to live here and move here - we’re all in entertainment, or social media, it’s all the same type of person. We’re all working towards a similar goal, and it creates a lot of competition. And also, the entertainment industry in general is very superficial, and a lot of people think the only way you can gain success is to bring other people down. They feel they have to be the best of the best - it’s a very toxic environment. But I’ve figured out ways to avoid that. All my friends are really amazing. You have to stop caring, you have to not care about that stuff, and focus on yourself. If you get caught up in the drama, you might get five minutes of fame for being dramatic and being problematic, but it’s not going to last. I would rather be known for my music just a little bit, than be super famous for something bad.

CDM: This week you tweeted some very inspirational advice: "u don’t need anyone who doesn’t care about u in your life! point blank period. they will not contribute to your life or wellbeing in any way. they are not a loss. don’t trip." Is it important to you to share empowering advice with your fans?
OLIVIA: Yeah. For a long time I was really depressed, all my tweets were really sad, and they [my fans] were like, ‘I relate to this.’ It made me sad to see people feeling the same way that I am, and now that I’m not feeling that way anymore, I want to help them get out of whatever they’re feeling. I think sharing any kind of advice that I have for people is beneficial to them.
CDM: It must have been nice for your fans to be on that journey with you.
OLIVIA: Yeah. It’s a good example, like, ‘If I can do it, you can do it too,’ because when you’re in your low points, you don’t feel like you’re ever going to get out of it. That’s the biggest problem, that you don’t want to get help because you don’t think it’s going to work. That’s how I felt for a very long time, and now that I’m not feeling that way, it’s really crazy, and I want people to know that it is possible.

CDM: When we did our first interview with you back in 2017, you told us about how you had written a poem which turned into a song. Is poetry still a big part of how your songwriting works?
OLIVIA: I actually wrote a poem the other day that I was thinking about putting into a song, but I feel like when I write poetry it’s less-- songs need the syllables to be really specific. When I write poetry, I’m kind of all over the place. So sometimes it gets changed into lyrics, the words will have to be flipped around, so it’s never an exact thing, but I definitely use inspiration from little words that I’ve written down that don’t have a melody, that could be technically a poem.

CDM: I see you’ve been doing more ‘freestyling’ with songwriting. Has that process been good for getting your thoughts out of your brain and into a song?
OLIVIA: You almost say things that you didn’t even know you were feeling. It literally happens. Whatever comes out of your brain is whatever is on your mind, it makes you realise stuff about yourself and how you’re feeling that you didn’t even know. It’s like when you go to therapy and you talk to your therapist and they’re like, ‘Maybe you feel this way,’ and you’re like, ‘Oh yeah, I do.’ It’s your brain doing it for you.

CDM: I really love the one you posted back in May, when you sung, “If i knew my worth i would never speak to u again.” Why do you think self-worth is such an important lesson for young people, and particularly young women, to learn?
OLIVIA: If you don’t respect yourself, no-one’s going to respect you, just like if you don’t love yourself, no-one’s going to be able to love you, because you’ll push them away. It’s all about not thinking that other people are better than you, because everyone is equal, everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses, we all deserve to feel happy and to let love into our lives and you can’t do that if you don’t know that you’re worthy of it.

CDM: We hung out with Finneas yesterday, and he mentioned you guys had worked on several songs together. Do you have plans to release any of these songs?
OLIVIA: Not on this next project, but I’m definitely saving a couple of them. We wrote this really amazing piano ballad that I love, but I want to save it for something else. It’s really special! He’s an amazing producer and writer and artist.

Olivia O’Brien’s single ‘I Don’t Exist’ is out now - click here to purchase, and listen via YouTube below…