by mariah estran
PHOTO BY EDWIN TORRES
At the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards, Lady Gaga spoke three influential lines. “I know a renaissance is coming. And the wrath of pop culture will inspire you. And the rage of art will empower you as it responds to hardship with its generosity and love…” Her timely speech sparked similarities to a recent discussion with one pop-soul singer. The renaissance spoken of is here, and Olivia King is making it happen.
With years of experience in the industry, starting at the age of sixteen, King fought her way through. Figuring out what works for her, and what simply does not. “Nothing ever really seemed to work out, and it was kind of that final straw with the last indie label,” the singer discloses when recalling her beginnings. “I was like, you know what? I’m just gonna do this gung-ho independent and see how far I can take it.”
Inspired by Chance the Rapper’s independent success in 2017, King knew she could do the same thing. “When I decided to go independent, my boyfriend and I decided to make a whole wall in our home office full of sticky notes,” King confesses with laughter. Each note contained an innovative way to market herself when a new single was in the works. It was not sharing a song and hoping for the best. She used the resources we have readily available. One tool being online streaming services.
“In 2017, I released my first single, and I just went super hard with Spotify playlisting,” the singer explains. “I would stay up until three or four AM when that single came out and was just doing detective work trying to find these Spotify playlists.” Those late nights paid off. She found herself on numerous playlists, curating over three million streams. And that is not even her most notable accomplishment yet. “I found a new-hire at Tidal last year on Instagram, reached out to them, and was put on the cover of their Pop Rising playlist,” King reveals. “It’s just about connecting with people.”
By 2019, King created her debut album, which was appropriately titled D.I.Y. (she, of course, did everything herself). The cover, production, and songwriting. It was a vision she thoroughly thought out, “I really wanted it to be completely ‘D.I.Y’ and made sure it was really true to the title.”
PHOTO BY EDWIN TORRES
The ten-track record exhibits her soulful tone and her ear for rhythmic pop chords — her sound inspiration stemming from childhood memories with her mother. “Lauryn Hill, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, that was always what was playing in our house,” King says. “I think I grew up to love that kind of a sound. My mom would take me to different concerts with different people. She would spend her whole day on YouTube, trying to find a perfect song for me for a talent show, she would always choose those soulful, R&B type sounding songs.”
A year has passed, and like any musician, she jokes, “When I listen to songs off that album, it feels like a lifetime ago that I did that. On to bigger and better things…” Staying focused on her craft, she’s currently released six singles, including “N.B.D”, and most recently, “Take a Shot”, which expresses her experience with anxiety over the last few months. She has found confidence in her soulful sound, developed stronger lyricism with the help of her good friend Rodrick Jones, and still finds the time to get her name noticed. Explaining her current technique, she says, “I reach out to ten people a day, do my research on people who are similar to my brand, and that has really gotten me far.” Proposing that living in major cities or pursuing a label deal might be “a thing of the past” due to social media, and she’s right. Social media is what lead to this conversation you’re reading.
As TikTok grew in popularity among young users, King found another way to share her music with a larger audience. Sporting trendy clothes matched with playful hairstyles, she performs her songs and funny skits with her followers. “TikTok is a different beast because you can literally not have any followers, post one video, and go viral,” the singer describes. “There’s no other platform that’s really like that right now.” King was reached out by the TikTok team directly. At the time, the concept of the app was strange, but once she saw the success of Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road”, she understood its advantages.
One advantage that can’t be ignored was the apps ability to reach out to organizations with a greater purpose. King used her TikTok savviness and reached out to the Turning Leaf Project, a group which mentors newly release individuals from prison for a brighter future. “This organization is giving people that second chance and I thought that was awesome,” she says. “I wanted to get myself fully involved in it and help people directly. I felt this was a good way to do so.” King did just that, she created an exclusive “King” shirt,” while royalties from her song “With a Little Bit of Love” went directly to Turning Leaf Project and their Black Lives Matter efforts.
There’s apparent selflessness equally found in her entire identity as an artist. This thirty-minute discussion included a myriad of tips for other musicians, such as releasing Christmas music annually and investing in an at-home studio. “I just had so many people lead me down the wrong path," she says. “I never really had a mentor. I felt like if I could be that to some people, even just a couple of people, it would be worth it.” So, King created Make Music Moves, where she offers classes to musicians who want to get into the game. “I have a different technique going about how to release music. If I can share that with people, and help them out as well, that’s important to me.”
PHOTO BY EDWIN TORRES
The industry's trials and tribulations could have set her back or made her bitter, but it only moved her to a stronger position. Our current pandemic wasn't even a hindrance to King’s creative spirit, “I was able to crank out music more than ever because I had more time at home,” she says. There’s now a handful of singles and an EP titled Old Soul set for release by the end of the year. “The big thing with me is I like to stay consistent, so I like to release about a single a month just to keep everything going.”
King’s dedicated, innovative mind-set is showcasing what bright talent lies in front of her, and it’s paving the road for what’s to follow. “If I can be someone that people can look up to, and be like ‘hey, she’s a quality person, she works hard, and I can relate to her music...' I think that is important,” she concludes, at the forefront of this oncoming pop culture renaissance.