What does your songwriting process look like?
It is a very visual process so it’s funny that you say it like that. I’m a landlord’s nightmare, every wall of my studio is covered with notes and photos and lyrics. It’s a messy process. [For example] I read a New York Times article about two journalists who pretended to be asylum seekers and came to Australia, and that started something. It makes you think what people go through to get here. It’s not like I’m going to solve the world’s problems, and it’s not writing as therapy. It’s that little grain of sand is irritating and you want to explore it. I don’t want it to sound too earnest or soap boxy, that’s when I’m drunk, but they are just ideas.
You wrote a song about that?
Yes, that’s coming on the album. It’s called Blue Light Disco and it’s one of my favourite songs. That idea of when you see lights over the water, they are magnified and it looks like a massive city. It’s about desire and that idea that you want the house across the road, you buy it, you move in and you look out and you think oh, is that it? Maybe that’s more about us than them.
What’s the story behind your new song Honey?
Honey’s another one of my favourites. This is pretty tangent stuff, but there’s this Peter Carey short story called Report on the Shadow Industry. It’s set in the future, and you buy these sealed boxes at the supermarket, and they have a shadow in it [that offer psychological insight]. Some people leave their family or some people commit suicide so it’s like a lottery ticket in that you put all your money into this thing but you don’t know what the end result will be, it could change your life, it’s hoping. Then visually it was seeing those pictures red honey in Utah, and then the honey went blue in France [because of what the bees were fed]. And then as a writer you think about people who have had such an impact on your life and how we influence each other both positively and negatively. These things all came together.
What made you pick up the guitar initially?
I played piano as a kid, but I wasn’t very interested. But I grew up in a church so I would play along. Being part of a small community like that, it was very amateur level but everyone got involved. No one stood out as talented, everyone was on the same level and everyone had a go. Maybe that’s where I got my confidence from because I didn’t realise that it was such a big deal. Also my father and my brother both play guitar beautifully, both self-taught, so it just seemed like I’d give it a go.
Is the family connection to music what kept you interested?
Yes it did. I always think I grew up in a very religious household but there were two distinct religions. One was Christianity and the other was my dad’s favourite music. He liked a very narrow window of 70s funk music and it was almost religious. I grew up in Woollongong [near Sydney], we’d go to the record shop, to the jazz section because they didn’t have a 70s funk section. I’d bring home Dizzy Gillespie and he’d throw it in the bin. It took me years to learn what type of music he liked.
What did he like?
Here are the rules: Sly and the Family Stone. Rufus, when Chaka Khan sang with them but then they got too progressive. Some Chicago but they were too prolific. Blood, Sweat and Tears. He made me a mixtape once and one for my brother and they are different. You could tell he was so excited when he was making the tapes that he would interrupt the song and then another one would start. Then he couldn’t just rip the same cassette, he had to go through the whole process to make my brother one, using the same songs. They are both these unique cassette tapes that give an insight into his brain.
Which songs taught you the most about music?
It’s often all about your parents’ influences, but I think [for me] it was taping Womadelaide off the radio. The ABC would simulcast some of the artists and I would record them and listen to those tapes. I also got some derogatory comments like ‘What is this? Is this world music?’ And I thought wow, is that a dirty term?
Why did you adopt Olympia as a stage name rather than use Olivia?
It’s becoming a cliche, but it’s more of a collaborative project where we can explore ideas, instead of just being first person. I wanted to step away from it seeming like a confessional singer-songwriter project, to something where we can explore things phonetically or with different instruments. I cut my teeth performing under my own name, and it felt like I was going down a path I didn’t want to be locked into. Why Olympia? I say it was that Manet painting and I’m an art nerd. It was one of the first nudes where she looks at the viewer. People thought it was abhorrent. It sounds so aspirational and a bit nerdy, but I think if you are a performer you’ve got to step up. it is having a name that’s a little ridiculous and it’s about ‘OK you’ve got to reach out and connect.’
Who would be your dream collaborators?
I would love to collaborate, I want to work with people who do different things to me. One of my favourite albums last year was John Grant’s album Pale Green Ghosts, where he went to Iceland and worked with this minimal electronic musician [Birgir Þórarinsson] I was on the tram coming home from work, and I had to get off so I could walk home, and listen to the album over and over again For me, I would love to collaborate, but I would want to be pushed and see what else we could do. Dream collaborators? Sly Stone would be cool if he’s alive and out of jail.
Who are your favourite poets?
There’s something about poems, they can be short but they convey so much. As a songwriter it’s something you aspire to, getting the message across. So Richard Siken, Dorothy Porter, Adrienne Rich. Tracy K Smith who took out the Nobel Poetry Prize in 2012. I also love the Latin American poets like Pablo Neruda and Federico Garcia Lorca. When I get into someone, I get so excited. I want to know how they became who they were, and whether their personality influences their art or whether they are just nine-to-five artists. When you read about [Australian poet] Robert Adamson, it’s his story that makes his poetry so amazing.
Olympia is currently on tour with Felicity Groom, playing Adelaide on 11 April, then Brisbane and Sydney
