Music was never in the cards professionally; but the world wouldn’t be spared

A twang and a bang, liv.’s musical journey is truly the definition of Serendipity.

The laptop screen lights up with liv.’s smiling face, the sun shining from her bedroom window, framing her plaited blonde hair like a halo.

But make no “Mistake,” liv.’s got many wicked tricks up her sleeve.

Circumstances led us to not be able to meet in person, as she is based in New York — but the singer’s liveliness and willingness to share is just as palpable as if she were next to me, with her anecdotal answers and vibrant energy.

I first came across liv. after spotting her name in Montreal-based band Squeeze Mason’s songs.

Liv.’s raspy, low-register vocals, with the twang fit of a country music singer, was enticing and captivating — and a great addition to Squeeze Mason’s melody.

Which begs the question:

BB: How does a New York native end up in Montreal and record with Montreal-based band Squeeze Mason?

liv.: I met them through Concordia (University based in Montreal)! It’s actually a really funny story. I was on a family vacation in Mont Tremblant (in Québec), and I met this waiter who suggested to look at schools in Montreal. I dismissed it at first but [the waiter and I] continued talking, and then we started dating! And funnily enough, my cousin was in McGill, and I looked for interesting programs there, but then I went to Concordia, and saw that they had an English and History joint program. And I just fell in love with the program and the school. I felt like I was supposed to be there. So I packed up and moved to Montreal. While initially, it was a boy who suggested I move to a new city, I went to school for myself. I wanted to move to Montreal. And it was the best thing to come out of a crappy situation, because the boy in question ended up cheating on me. Long-story-long, I met Ted [Shulze], back when he lived at Grey Nuns (Student residence in Concordia University), and when I came out with my first EP (Life Vest), Dexter reached out and said “we have this song that we think you would sound really good on” and then the pandemic hit and they kept the song for over a year, and when I was able to go up Montreal, we recorded “Rachelle.”

BB: How did your first EP come about? Were you always interested in making music?

liv.: My music journey was a complete coincidence, I didn’t really plan any of it. The first time I wrote a song, it was after reading a poem in a Victorian Poetry Class. I believe the name was “Porphyria’s Lover” by Robert Browning. It was just so inspiring that I wrote a song called “Porphyria,” but I never released it. I just wrote it, looked it over, and was like “alright, well this was fun.” And after that, I wrote “Life Vest,” but I didn’t think anything of it. It just happened and I went for it.

“Life Vest” is the name of liv.’s single, after which she named her first EP, released in 2020.

The EP’s recording came about, much like most of her musical career, as a complete stroke of fate.

liv.: I wrote the songs in 2019, so a year before the pandemic hit. And in 2020, I was at home in New York, and I live on a farm where we usually hold a music festival every year. But in 2020, we couldn’t do that with COVID. People who were going to come couldn’t anymore because of the restrictions. We tried to coordinate with them as much as possible but it just didn’t happen. At the same time I got approached by a producer, but it didn’t feel like the right fit so my mom started asking around and then one day she introduces me to Bryan (Elijah Smith, award-winning singer, song-writer, and multi-instrumentalist producer based in Shenandoah Valley, Virginia) and goes “He’s gonna produce your record!” 

BB: Most of your songs, with the exception of the ones where you collaborated with Squeeze Mason, are mostly country ballads.Did you always know that’s the music you wanted to make?

liv.: I never intended to make music, but that’s what’s happening. And part of making this music is figuring out who I am and I guess in that sense it’s making me realize that most of the music I listen to is based on Americana/Country/Southern Rock/Alt Rock. It makes sense that’s how my writing appears. I surround myself with it. So it makes me take the opportunity, if something feels like the right thing and just go with it. When I was recording with Squeeze Mason, my voice sounded different, and it’s cool to just play around, and not be stuck in this one thing, and kinda just going wherever the wind takes you. 

BB: Do you prefer recording solo or collaborating with artists?

liv.: It’s a different experience either way. I love working with other people. I think music is not competition it’s collaboration. Getting to work with people, who have different ideas, is kinda exciting. Because they might hear something that I don’t, or they might have an idea that I never thought of, or a lyric that just didn’t exist until they talked about it, and that way we feed off each other. It’s cool to have your own stuff come out too, but I never really recorded by myself. There’s always someone recording with me, because I am not confident in my guitar playing skills, I’m more of a singer than anything else. All the featured artists I recorded with all had something else to contribute. For me it’s about being in the moment and if you’re thinking about other things, you’re just not. So working with people really allows that, because you’re all collectively in the present, working on it. You’re sharing the moment together, rather than trying really hard to stay in it on your own. 

Her most recent collaboration is with critically acclaimed Indie-Americana artist, Van Plating, on a song titled, “The Mistake.”

A song born out of a break-up, and too many glasses of wine — as most great songs do.

The song is a fierce, raw, and unapologetic tune where liv. is unwavering with her anger, and passion. Strong strums on guitar strings, with an eerie violin timber in the background, defiant lyrics to go with intense feelings of betrayal, acting upon the need for retribution, the singer pours her heart and soul in just two minutes and 22 seconds.

BB: How did this song come about?

liv.: Oh this one is fun (chuckles). I was leaving work one day in Montreal, walking back to the metro to go home, and this line “cut my hair in the way I know you’d hate” just hit me. (First verse of “The Mistake.”) So i’m writing down the first verse, the melody in my head, I call my mum and go “I don’t know where this came from because it’s very angry and it’s not true but I have this idea.” I sang it to her, and she was like “This is really nice, Olivia!”. And then I didn’t touch it for a couple of hours. And then I had a glass of wine. Okay, I had too much wine. And all of a sudden, this really charged, pissed off song started coming out, and I have a voice memo of me singing it in full, cause it was much longer back then, and it just came out and I remembered looking at it and thinking “where did this come from?” This isn’t what I’m feeling. I mean I don’t think it is. Then when I was putting everything together, I realized that I really wanted to record it, but it’s kind of dodgy, and provocative. And I wasn’t sure how people who were gonna be on the record would feel being associated with it. How I would feel once it’s out in the world. 

BB: How did you manage to collaborate with Van Plating?

liv.: It was a graduation gift. After I finished my degree, I came back home to New York, and had an existential crisis, as one does. And then one day, my parents sat me down, and told me that I was going to record music in Florida with Van Plating. I freaked out in a good way because I love Van, and I was really excited to work with her and I knew she was gonna lean into those really charged feelings, which scared the crap out of me. 

BB: I can imagine working with such a talented, passionate woman did wonders for your music!

liv.: Van is a fucking badass. She is incredibly empowering to be around. She is fully aware of how she feels and why she feels things. Being around her, and being her friend, and making music together has taught me to not apologize for being me. And to lean into hard feelings, and doing things that really scare the shit out of you. I cried so much during those recording sessions and she was just there. She’s always just been there. I feel extremely lucky to have her by my side. She’s like my best friend. When I sent her my voice memo of “The Mistake,” I’ll never forget what she said to me. She went: “It’s really important, especially as a woman in the world to be honest, like you are, but not tip the scales into diminishing yourself in the process.” And this song, while it’s not based on anything true to my life, it is really honest. Brutally honest. So we went ahead with it. 

Liv.’s songs are a piece of her every day life. They are beacons of truths and as she previously mentioned, not necessarily her truth but universal ones as well. She sings from the heart and hopes her sound waves spread wide enough to resonate with her audience. Her words are soul bared on paper, her voice both a burning flame and a warm embrace.

To further enhance her duality, her most recent single “Red Hoodie” which came out on 14 October, is a softer ballad for the broken-hearted — with a little edge.

With Van Plating on production, acoustic guitar, and the twin fiddles; Mya Byrne (of Kill Rock Starts) and Swan Real (of Head Voice Band) on 12-string guitars, Reid Stains on drums, and Taylor Ard on bass, “Red Hoodie” is a hub of Americana artists — one you cannot risk passing on.