about caffeinated corner:

Caffeinated Corner was created to replicate the feeling of chatting at coffee shops with new friends. From the warm taste of coffee, the slightly chaotic energy of the espresso machines, to the life stories shared, caffeinated corner aims to replicate this environment online. Join me as we talk with different artists about their favorite things, stories from their childhood, and new projects on the horizon.

Read and listen along to the interview here:

Laura

Here we go.

Okay, so we’re going to kind of talk about some of your favorite things right now. Whether it’s your favorite coffee order, your favorite TV show, your favorite song right now, a specific place that you’re going to, whether it’s like, you’re going to a plant place or something like that, or any activity you’re really addicted to right now. 

Olive

Oh, just anything?

Laura

Yeah.

Olive

Okay, so let me just I guess I’ll do my coffee order. My coffee order is at least in the winter.

Olive’s Coffee Order: oat milk latte with honey and cinnamon

It’s the best thing ever. It’s very simple, but a little bit of cinnamon and honey really adds something to it. That vanilla. I think whenever I put vanilla in coffee, it’s too sweet and kind of gross tasting to me. So I like honey instead. But I do need a little bit of sweeter. So that’s my coffee order. I drink a lot of coffee. That’s my ideal coffee order. 

But I will drink literally anything that’s put in front of me in the morning because I just need to wake up and favorite activity. Oh, my gosh. I don’t know. I’ve been cooking a lot more recently. I didn’t cook last year. I felt like I just barely ever cooked. I had a roommate, and I am really bad at remembering to do the dishes, but I just moved into a studio apartment, so I don’t feel bad leaving dishes out. So I’m like, now I can cook without feeling guilty be about leaving dishes out.

So I’ve been cooking a lot. I used to be a vegetarian. I’m not a vegetarian anymore. So I’m learning how to cook chicken without being scared, so that’s been really fun. And what did I cook? I cooked chicken curry. And that was really good. I took this fancy chicken lemon pasta thing, and that was really good. Yeah, that’s been cooking. 

That’s just an activity. I’ve been hiking more. I feel at the end of January, I had so many goals for myself, and I was going to do all these things. And that’s been nice because they’ve been trying to do things. One thing that I’m doing a lot more of is sunset hiking. There are so many places to hike in LA. 

And at least two times a week I’ve been going. And it’s just so beautiful. And I just can’t believe that I can live in one of the biggest cities in the world and they’ll have this open read listening. I think she is. I’ve been trying to get into crocheting because every singer songwriter is getting into crocheting, has all these projects that are finished, Ella Jane is selling her crochet tops online, and even, like, ODI had a bunch of knitting stuff here. And I’m just like, I cannot get into it. I can’t get good at it. I can’t focus on it. I’m also, like, I lose the cliche. What?

Laura

I can’t focus. I can’t focus for that long. My brain just can’t I can’t do that. 

Olive

I can’t focus for that long either. Yeah, I can’t do it. So that’s just a hobby that I’m leaving to other people. I’m going to just give up on crocheting. But I’ve had people crochet me things at shows and, give them to me. So I think that I think appreciating the work of other people is how I’m going to be involved in crocheting.

Laura

I get that because I can’t do it. Awesome. Those all sound great. Yeah, those all sound really great. Okay, now we’re going to work a little bit into how you started doing music.

Was there a specific moment when you realized you wanted to pursue music?

Olive

So I basically thought about doing music in college, but then I was like, no, I should do something practical like psychology. 

<break>

In 2019, but it was kind of just for fun, like I said I don’t I never really expected anything of it, but I was like, oh, cool. Like, I’m proud of myself for just releasing something and then I started posting stuff during the pandemic. I got fired from a job in, like, mid 2020, and I felt like I was kind of at rock bottom. And, like, the only thing I had was, like, my small following on TikTok. I was like, okay, this is the time I’m just going to really give music a go, because what do I have to lose? So that’s what I did. And here I am.

Laura

Yay.

Do you think you had certain friends that kind of helped you encourage you to get into music, or did you kind of do it solo and then earn friends along the way? 

Olive

Oh, yeah, I totally did have friends who really encouraged me. I remember in college, I had a friend named Anna who did a lot of her own poetry and art, and she really encouraged me. And she was like, you just got to give it go. You got to try it. And she’s kind of the first person who I played some of my songs for. And yeah, Anna, if you’re reading this, thanks for encouraging me. 

And then my dad has been my biggest, like, so cheesy. But my dad has been my biggest fan since day one. He’s always kind of been someone who encouraged me to do music. And even when I was in college, and I was like, oh, I want to be practical, he was like, I think you could make it as a musician. So he’s someone that has always been really encouraging, and he actually helped me make my first music video, which I released, like, a couple of weeks ago. So thank you, dad, for helping and encouraging me. 

And then I also had a friend that I did theater with as a kid named Jared, who is my first producer, and he produced my first EP and some of my first singles. And he messaged me out of the blue one day and was like, I just went to school for recording, and I’d love to record you. And we actually lived together in a communal house during the pandemic, and so I would just go downstairs and record with him whenever I was bored, so that was really fun. And he was super encouraging, too.

I think that he was the first person to actually helped me actualize those goals. So, yeah, shout out to Jared. He produced “Raining in June,” so that’s pretty cool. We recorded that at my parents house, so definitely those three people, I feel like, were some of my first and biggest encouragers. Is that a word?

Laura

Encouragers? Yeah. Supporters. Yeah. Awesome. Those all sound great. So when you were growing up, do you think–I know you just talked about your dad– 

Do you kind of incorporate some things from growing up into your writing, or is it more of stuff that goes on right now or in the past couple of years?  

Olive

Totally. Yeah. I think I definitely incorporate just, like I mean, we can’t really separate ourselves from our childhood, you know? And I think that I was definitely a kid who just didn’t want to–well, I don’t know if that’s true. But when I was a little kid, I was just obsessed with magic and nature, and I was just a very frolicky, imaginative, spacey little kid. I love to just make up stories and play pretend, and I feel like I was a kid who played pretend way later than it was normal to do. 

I remember my friends and I, this is so embarrassing, but whatever, I’ll share it. We genuinely thought we were witches. We were like, yeah, we are witches, and we convinced each other that it wasn’t a game. I think we were in third grade, and we were like, yeah, we are literally witches. We can literally do magic. And I remember going to my mom and being like, “Mom, I have to tell you something. I’m a witch. I’m not like you. I have magic power.” And she was like, “okay sweetie…” But, yeah, I think that, that really influenced the way that I make music. I feel a lot of some of the songs on this next album are very whimsical and nostalgic for childhood, and I’ve always just been a hoe for nostalgia. 

I love the feeling of nostalgia, and so I am excited to create that feeling for my listeners. And sometimes I totally judge myself. Why am I a 25-year-old writing about the magic of childhood? But you know what? I think it’s really beautiful and a really tender feeling to just kind of indulge in. 

And, yeah, I have two songs on the upcoming album that are very much childhood nostalgia songs. One of them is called “Casting Spells,” and it’s coming out in March? Yeah, in March. And it’s just kind of reflecting on all of the things that you used to believe in childhood but trying to take that magical outlook with you into being an adult.

And then I have a song that has a similar feeling, but it’s just like reflecting on a friendship that I had with my best friend when I was little and kind of how that fell apart when we got to high school, but just kind of basking in the nostalgia of an old friendship. And, yeah, I think that’s a big theme that comes up a lot for my music is nostalgia and kind of looking back on your childhood with maybe rose colored glasses, but that being okay.  

Laura

No, I love that. I can relate to you because when I was younger, I really thought I was going to be called to go to Hogwarts. I was like, this is my time. Mom. You’re a liar. I definitely will be going to Hogwarts. And she was like, you’re not going to Hogwarts. Hogwarts is not real. It’s not a real place. And I’m like, no, I’m going to go to London. And so, last year when I went, I sent her a picture, and I was like, I made it. I made it here. 

Olive

Aww that’s so sweet. 

Laura

Yeah. She was like, you’re crazy. But I understand that nostalgia factor. I feel like it can be often that you see a bunch of songs that are childhood being obviously bad and so very nostalgic, whimsical, fairy-like, songs are–I love all of them. They’re so good. I know “Coming of Age” was similar to that. 

Olive

Yeah, I think so. I think that was just nostalgia in a different way. And I think when I thought to myself earlier, I was kind of like, oh, I was a kid who never wants to grow up. And then I was like, actually, that’s not true. When I was a kid, I was obsessed with teenagers. I was like, I just want to be a teenager. Being a teen is the coolest thing you could be. And so when I was a teen, I feel like I definitely leaned into that teen angst, and that’s what that song is about.  

Laura

Awesome. So kind of talking from writing from personal experience,

Do you ever find yourself writing from not personal experience, such as, hypotheticals or just things that you see in your life, such as inspirations from TV shows or books?  

Olive

I honestly really struggle to do that. I would love to be able to, but I feel like I just cannot write songs that are not at least based on my personal experience. I think I’ve done it a couple of times. One time I wrote a song based on a Craigslist “misconnection”Missed Connection,” and it was kind of funny. It was about someone, it was someone who was in love with somebody who was dumpster diving, and I thought it was really funny so I wrote a song based on it. And then I’ve tried to write songs based on books or movies that I’m reading, but they never turn out as good as the songs that are based on actual experience. 

Laura

Do you ever feel pressured to kind of have those experiences then since you’re writing about them? do you ever feel like you have no other material that you have to go out and find?  

Olive

Yeah, I definitely do feel that pressure. But then I remember that some of my best songs are not like–I don’t think my songs are almost ever based on –I had this crazy experience and did a ton of drugs. I sometimes do. I’m like, I need to live more and have all these really rich experiences to write about. 

But then I remember that a lot of my best songs are kind of written about really mundane personal experiences. When I think about “Raining in June,” that’s literally a song about the weather, and how I always like, that’s literally just like a song about an allegory about oh, you always think it’s going to be better when things change and then things change and you just wish for them to be the way they were. And it’s just about the weather. So it’s like yes, it’s about a personal experience, but the weather is one of the most mundane things. 

And “Self Help” is about the fact that I am recognizing my own personal growth. And I just think that I don’t feel pressured to have crazy experiences. I more just feel pressured to self reflect and reflect on the world around me and be really present in every moment. Because I think that although I write songs about personal experience, I think that good songs can come out of really mundane personal experiences.  

Laura

No, that does make sense.

Do you have certain places where you feel it’s more comfortable for you to write? 

Olive

Yeah, I think that I tend to write well when I am on the go. I think I tend to get more inspiration when I am exposed to new places and new experiences and kind of have a change of pace in that way. But I also think that I write well just when I’m alone in my apartment and that’s part of why I decided to live alone even though it’s really expensive. I was like, I just want to be able to have the space to write a song at 02:00 AM. If it comes to me and not be worried about waking up my roommate or just having that kind of space. You know, a room of one zone kind of thing is nice. 

Laura

I think it gives you the ability to kind of just pick up and when you want to collaborate with others, you can, versus you have those two boundaries. You kind of set yourself boundaries. This is how I know I can work well, and I can definitely…yeah. Awesome. Well,

What is the weirdest place that you think that you’ve had an idea for a song?  

Olive

Oh, I was at a punk show last night, and I had an idea for a song, but I don’t know if that’s the weirdest place.

Laura

Did you take it from the punk show or it kind of just came to be at the show?

Olive

It was just a feeling of, oh, my God. There’s just no world in which I fit in with these people, but I still feel a pressure to, and I think I felt the same way. I went to a very alternative liberal arts college, and it was just kind of the idea of, I want to stand out in the same way that everybody else stands out any alternative space. 

I’m always like, oh, my God, I need to be cool in the same way that these people are cool. I need to be counterculture in the same way that these people are counterculture. The pressure to fit in doesn’t go away just because you’re going against the grain. The pressure to fit in is always there. That’s the idea that I had.

Laura

No, that’s really good. No, that’s fantastic.

Olive

Thank you.

Laura

Is there a specific lyric that you are proud of that you wrote?

Olive

Yeah, I mean, I feel like I should be talking about lyrics from my upcoming album, but the truth is that I wrote all these songs two-ish years ago.  

Laura

Yeah. 

Olive

So I think a lyric that I am proud of that I just wrote a couple of weeks ago was–let me see. I have the lyrics. Oh, I think I said, like, “Sewing myself a blue ribbon when I’m struggling to finish in last place.” And I really like that. I was like, that’s so cute. I like just describing, and recognizing that you’re trying and doing good even if you’re not in first place. So, yeah, that was a lyric that I liked that I wrote recently. 

And I think that my songs are already released or already written. It’s hard for me to even recognize which lyrics are good because they become these weird entities that are separate from–separate from myself, almost. I’m always like, oh, I guess I did write that. But they feel separate. I don’t know. So it’s hard for me to recognize the lyrics I like in songs I’ve already completed. 

Laura

Yeah, I’ve heard.,

Do you ever feel that once you’ve completed or put out the song, it’s harder to listen to or harder to connect to? Like what you said, it’s a separate entity. 

Olive

Yeah, totally. I don’t like listening to my own music. When my friends put it on, they’ll put it on in the car just to be like, oh, yeah, this is your song. And I’ll be like, no, you have to skip it. I cannot listen. I know that objectively, my music is good, people like it, I’m good at it. But I also have this intense cringe response when somebody puts on my song, I can’t listen to it. I can play it for you, but I cannot listen to it. Yeah, for sure.

Laura

No, I’ve always seen it more as–it’s like you’re giving your diary to people and then they’re reading it out loud in front of you and you’re like, why are you doing that?  

<break>

Laura

So we’re going to talk a little bit of behind your lyrics and what you kind of were thinking when you wrote them, so I’m going to start with “Out of Line.” Okay. 

“Been living parallel lives in the corners of my mind getting unattached to linear time”. 

Olive

What did I mean by that? I think the first part was just kind of like the first part of the lyrics, just, like, thinking of other lives that I could have and thinking of all these different possibilities. I wrote that at a time where I just moved to LA, and kind of was just getting started in my music career, and all of these opportunities were kind of coming my way that I hadn’t even considered.

So I was like, oh, my God, there are all these different people that I could be and all of these different lives that I could live. And it was really exciting to me at the time because I kind of had just one idea of what my life was going to be like before that. 

So that’s what that meant. And I think the second part of the lyric is also like making my own schedule and just doing whatever I wanted and not following rules and staying up late if I wanted to stay up late. Taking a nap when I wanted to take a nap. Just getting unattached to the idea that there are certain times for certain things, and you have to work a nine to five, and you have to do all, I think the whole song is just about, breaking rules and realizing that you can do whatever you want. And I think that the linear timeline is referring to that of just, you don’t have to do things at the right time. There’s no such thing as the right time. Just do things when you feel like doing things.  

Laura

Yeah. It, like, goes back to what you were taught as a child, as what you’re supposed to do, going forward in your life. And then you sit there after, whether you’re, in college or out, you didn’t go to college, and you’re like, what am I supposed to be doing? Like, what? Am I supposed to go back to what I was told to do? Or should I just continue to do what my brain actually wants to do?

Olive

Exactly. Yeah. That’s so real. Yeah. Learning that there’s no “supposed to” and it’s just whatever. Learning to actually do things based on how they feel for you rather than just what you’re supposed to do.

Laura

Yeah. I picked that lyric because I thought it was funny because it’s two math things, like the parallel, and I thought parallel lines and then linear, and I was like–I almost wondered if you were trying to do that, or it just kind of worked out that way. 

Olive

Yeah, no, I was not trying to do that at all, but that’s cool. But it worked out that way.

Laura

Yeah. I was like, wow, that’s so interesting. Were they trying to just makea math thing?

Olive

That’s kind of cool. I’m going to lean into that because I feel like it’s deconstructing math. Yeah.

Laura

Deconstructing time in life.

Olive

Yeah. I don’t know.

Laura

Awesome. Well, the next one is from your new song. I’m sorry. 

“You’re a sunbeam through a brick wall, you’re an empty glass at my bedside table”. 

Olive

Okay, I guess I’ll talk about this.

Laura

You don’t have to talk about super in-depth.  

Olive

Yeah, I won’t talk about it in too much detail. Basically. I just feel like everyone’s been in–not everybody–but a lot of people have been in kind of a situationship with somebody that they really like, and they’re wanting to see this person as a sunbeam. But then it’s like they put a wall up and they’re like, no, you can’t have what you actually want out of this relationship. And the empty glass by my bedside table, you can visualize what it would be to have a healthy, fulfilling relationship with this person, but either they’re not ready or they’re too focused on themselves. I think that’s definitely the things that were happening in that relationship. 

And yeah, I think that’s what was happening. Basically, I was in a situationship, and I was wanting so much more than the person could give. And it really wasn’t a fault of them or me. It was just, like, they were not ready for a serious relationship. They needed to do a lot of work on themselves. And I really liked them, and I like to hang out with them. So I was like, well, why can’t we just be together? But it was like, just constantly reaching for something that you can’t have and constantly having that. Those are those metaphors. 

Laura

Yeah.

Do you find it comforting or such a release when you write about things like this that obviously weigh on you? Does it act kind of like a release when you write it down? 

Olive

Yeah, it acts as a release, but it also is like…I don’t like the whole releasing part of it. It’s acts as release to just get it out, but then it’s not really a relief to actually release it. It just feels angry.

Laura

And then it haunts you forever.

Olive

Yeah.

Laura

And you’re like, wait, this was supposed to help. Now I’m going to have to perform it. I’m going to sum up with a couple of extra questions and then we’re all good. No more emotional talk. Kind of a basic question,

Is there a specific song that you really love to perform?

Olive

That one. I ask people to sing along with me, and I feel like it’s kind of this camp counselor icebreaker that I do with people. I make them learn all the words and then sing it even though they don’t know the word yet. And I love being really fun, and it just feels so good to have everybody singing along with me and participating and feels like an experience we’re sharing rather than just me being like, sing sing sing sing sing. 

Laura

Yeah, awesome. So I’m going to talk just very briefly about your upcoming projects, and then we’re all good. Since you’re releasing an album later this year, Did you–

Olive

Yeah.

Laura

Yeah, Very exciting.

Was there a specific theme that you were trying to maintain when choosing and creating the album?  

Olive

I don’t think that I necessarily created a theme intentionally. I kind of just noticed which songs I gravitated towards and what kind of aesthetic I gravitated towards, and then it just kind of formed around that, I guess? And so, it wasn’t this thing where I was like, okay, I’m going to write an album about this, and then I wrote all the songs. I think it was just like, I was in a pretty specific time in my life when I wrote out most of the songs, and that theme was kind of just deconstructing what I learned and what I learned I needed my life to be and creating new rules for myself and also maintaining kind of childlike excitement and magic for the world in the face of a lot of really discouraging things. 

So I wrote a lot of these songs. I had graduated college kind of into the pandemic, and I was really discouraged and really confused, and every model I had for the world was being deconstructed. And Trump was president, and people’s rights were being taken away, and I was like, holy shit, there are so many terrible things happening. But at the same time, I was, like, beginning to visualize my life as a musician, and not with a nine-to-five job and being able to travel all the time and meet other artists. 

And so it was this thing where I was kind of like, oh, my God, there are all these terrible things happening, but I still have this kind of youthful hope that things can change and that I can’t live a beautiful life and that I and none of us have to follow these rules, and we can fight back and we can, do what we want.

And so I think it’s just kind of about that experience and that kind of second adolescence that we go through after we graduate college when we realize that we are in the driver’s seat of our life, and we get to make all the decisions, and we don’t actually have to follow any rules anymore? And kind of having that experience in the face of a super confusing and discouraging world and choosing hope and choosing positivity and choosing joy in the face of that. So that is what the album is about.

Laura

That’s so exciting. See, now I’m really excited.

Is there a specific song that you think describes the album as a whole? 

Olive

Yeah, well, I think I have two songs that kind of have that theme the most, and those are the two songs are okay, these songs are about are, what the album is about. And I would say “Out Of Line” and “Casting Spells” are the two songs that really encapsulate the album’s theme and where I kind of drew that album–the album theme–from because “Out of Line” is all about deconstructing reality and, choosing your own rules and being joyful and doing what you want. And then “Casting Spells” is really about finding the magic and the joy in being in the driver’s seat of your own life, rather than the fear, and not leaving your child-self behind, but taking them with you. 

Laura

Yeah, I’m saying if you ever do a music video for Casting Spells, dress up as a witch.

Olive

Oh, my God, that would be cute. I am doing a music video for that, but I’m having an animator do it because I want it to be the very childlike. That’s the goal. I feel like maybe I can tell them to include some witches in there.

Laura

I think that would be a very good idea, a very cool parallel between what you’re thinking of in your brain and your experience to the actual song.

Well awesome, this was all so great.