In The Making

From a very young age, Olivia Lunny began to build the solid foundation for her now bustling music career. With years of continuous writing and musical explorations, the singer/songwriter has always strived for artistic growth and we’ll be seeing most of that in the coming year. We sat down with the singer/songwriter to talk about her life-long dedication to her craft, the importance of collaboration, and her New EP.

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JA: When did you get started in music?

OL: Basically, all my life. That sounds so cliche but actually. I think when I was four or five my parents enrolled me in Suzuki Music; that’s basically like play by ear. I did that for three or four years. When I was young I just hated it. I hated practicing. I hated every aspect of it, so I was like ‘Okay, piano lessons aren’t for me.’

My dad has been a big influence. He’s super into music. He was in a band back in high school and music is just his passion. He plays guitar so he taught me guitar when I was 12. I’d say around then I started writing. When I was 13, [my parents] sent me to this [program]; it wasn’t classical training but they would teach me how to write songs. It was a different approach to music lessons and I really did enjoy that. Throughout that whole time, I think my song writing progressed. You have to write a lot of bad songs to get good songs. So from 12 years old until now, I’m 18, I’ve just written a lot of songs, collaborated with lots of artists. That’s kind of where I am now.

JA: You’ve had a pretty busy year – what have been some of your favourite highlights?
OL: 2017 was awesome. I feel like this past year has been an important one as far as my goals and where I want to be in, let’s say the next five years.

January last year, I was playing coffee houses, little brunch places, stuff like that, and then I got accepted into the [Stringray] Young Performers Program for [Winnipeg] Folk Fest. I think that was my 4th year. Slowly, I just started getting more gigs. I opened for Nic [Dyson] and played a Manitoba Music event. It was called 204 Unlocked and that was another big thing for me. That was at The Park Theatre, so that drew a big audience. From there, it was a bit of a domino effect. I got three or four other Park Theatre gigs. I got to play Fringe Fest. I had a set at ManyFest. Through mutual people I met, someone showed my music to Murray Pulver from the Crash Test Dummies. He’s a producer in Winnipeg. I contacted him and he’s like ‘Hey, let’s collaborate.’ I really wanted to go into the studio, so it’s kind of interesting how that worked out. Finding a producer is like finding a teammate. You don’t just want to work with any random person. Murray and I really clicked and we brought on board, Roman Clarke, he’s another Winnipeg musician from The Middle Coast. That was my first kind of co-write. From there I  started planning my EP, then all of September, October, November and beginning of December has just been devoted to recording those three songs.

Another gig that sort of helped me up was Leif Vollebekk. He was touring and someone from the West End [Cultural Centre] found me and they were like, ‘Hey want to open for this guy?’ so that one was a big one for me. Through making connections with people at the West End, in January I’m opening for Daniel Champagne (Jan. 25th).  Slowly, things are coming together and I’m super excited to release the EP.

JA: Talk about your style, you started out acoustic, but now you’re melding different elements.
OL: Yeah. I find it hard to find just one genre or to put a sticker on me. I think the studio really helped me establish those different genres and elements. I would always listen to artists and be like, ‘I want my guitar to sound like that. I want my drums to sound like this,’ but without a studio or other musicians to collaborate with it’s hard to do that.

A big influence for me is the Paper Kites. I love them. I love their folky-singer-songwriter lyrically but instrumentally, they are mellow, alternative, indie but kind of pop. Something that is an important goal of mine is having that pop aspect. I think that’s super popular right now. It’s modern and there’s high demand for that.

There’s so many upcoming artists. There’s so many people willing to collaborate. There’s so many people who tour through here. It’s an empty canvas and there’s so much that can come from that.

JA: Are you thinking of doing more collaborating because you did do We Are Fury’s “Waiting”?
OL: Yeah. That was super random and cool how that came about. I play ultimate frisbee with this girl and she was like, ‘my brother writes lyrics for this electronic group.’ I thought, well that’s cool and she put us in touch. I thought, why not? It’s good to get yourself exposure. A lot came from that [song]. I think we have almost 300,000 views on YouTube and I would have never even thought! I wouldn’t say I’m an electronic artist or that trap music is my thing, but I think that just shows how you have to take every opportunity, every gig, every collaboration and every co-write. It’s just important.

JA: What’s your favourite part about playing in Winnipeg?
OL: The thing is, it keeps getting better. I feel like some people think in Winnipeg you can hit this roof, but I haven’t felt that. There’s so many upcoming artists. There’s so many people willing to collaborate. There’s so many people who tour through here. It’s an empty canvas and there’s so much that can come from that.

JA: You mentioned you have this five year plan for your career.
OL: I don’t have a plan for every year but my end goal is to just make music a career. I don’t need to be the next Justin Bieber. I’m realistic about it, but I just want to be able to do something I love. I can’t see myself doing anything other than music. I don’t think I’d want to otherwise I’d be miserable [laughs]. Whether at the end of the day that means getting a job in the industry. I’m open to that but I want music to be the centre of my career. If I can play or record my own songs that’s a bonus. That would be my ultimate dream.

Leading up to that, in the next few years I want to tour. I want to record more music, hopefully get a few grants, work with more artists, and get more familiar with the business side of things because it’s crazy; and just have a large audience. I’m not going to put a number on that, but I just want to be known. I really try to write about things that are relatable. Music is this universal art and it’s really interesting being a musician and trying to connect people through that.

JA: Anything else you’d like to add?
OL: Basically, I’m really happy and proud to be a Manitoban musician. So much great talent has come from this province and city and it’s exciting. There’s so many young musicians now, like Taylor Janzen, Erika Fowler, all bound to be big scale. It’s crazy and cool that there’s other artists chasing the same goal.

 

 Like Olivia at Facebook.com/OliviaLunnyMusic. Listen at Soundcloud.com/OliviaLunny and grab her new self-titled EP on iTunes & Spotify. Follow her Instagram and twitter @olivialunny.