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Meet Olivia Henry

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Olivia Henry.

Olivia, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Music has always been at the core of my life. I remember hearing the voices of artists like Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Fiona Apple, Celine Dion, and thinking… I want to do that. I want to make people feel something with my voice. I remember telling my mom I’m going to be a singer when I was in kindergarten. That and a Marine Biologist. One of those you can see didn’t pan out.

When I was growing up, I trained classically with a Belgian opera singer, I studied Jazz and Musical Theatre, while at the same time, dancing competitively and taking acting classes on the weekends. That led me to CalArts where I continued my training as an artist but found myself interrupted by a debilitating back injury that took me down a pretty long and arduous path of healing. Funnily enough it also happens to be the reason I started teaching myself piano and putting music to the lyrics I had been writing for so many years. I couldn’t dance and had to put that energy somewhere, and that was piano…silver linings.

After college, and feeling somewhat better, I self-released my debut EP called Sessions in 2014. My goal was to create a live sounding album. All vocals were one take, all instruments were recorded live and there was very little production. I still really love that EP. Unfortunately shortly after that my body started failing me again, and I discovered I had some undiagnosed joint related auto-immune conditions that took me out of the game yet again. At the time, I was pretty ready to give up, and it took a tremendous amount of work to get back on my feet again, but here I am. Sometimes the Universe throws curve balls and you’ve just got to roll with it.

Now it’s 2019, and I have a full album that I cannot wait to release! Two of the songs I put out as singles earlier this year, and I’m very happy to say they’ve been doing really well. This new album is definitely a long way from my Neo-Jazz roots, but you can still hear them in there. I like to think of it as “Cinematic-Pop.” The working title is Part I – Expectations and it’s due to come out this August.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Unforeseen physical ailments. If my life had a title that would be it. I am a very disciplined person and I was not going to let doctors tell me what I would and would not be able to do because of my injuries and physical limitations. In most ways this is a God-given gift, as I educated myself to the point where I was heading down the path to a degree in kinesiology just to “fix” myself, but it also derailed my musical ambitions as I was determined to get healthy above all else. I’m grateful for my journey. I have a crazy story and I’m so happy I can appreciate where I am now from where I came from, but it wasn’t easy, I had a lot of help from a lot of amazing people and I’m reminded everyday how blessed I am to now be able to pursue what I love. I feel lucky.

We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I began as a singer, became a performer and discovered that writing was something I had to do to stay sane. I’m not “known” yet, but I will be.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
My next goal is a tour. I want to follow that with a sold-out show at the Troubadour and then get on the festival circuit. When I am performing in major venues as the main act, I’ll feel successful as a musical artist. As a person, I feel pretty successful already. 🙂

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Image Credit:
Laurel Saul Photography, Justin Rosenburg Photography

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