- Words Miriam Balanescu
- Director and Producer Heini Susanne
- Cinematographer Rick Joaquim
The up-and-coming experimental-pop artist, OLI, shares her first 2021 single “Think About It”.
Listing the likes of Sade, Dion Warwick, and Peal Jam as influences on her music, 24-year-old OLI creates a tantalizing mix of anthemic pop tunes and sparse, eclectic soundscapes. Though debuting as a solo artist only in 2020, OLI has been a backing singer for Boy George and features Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan on one of her upcoming singles. Working with her long-term producer Benny D – also the brains behind many of Stormzy, Paloma Faith, and Plan B’s tracks – OLI’s first two songs, “Happy” and “What Happened to You?”, have already turned heads.
Making her mark in 2021, OLI is back with her new genre-blending single, “Think About It”. Unearthly synths and choral layers are juxtaposed with trumpets and jazzy piano riffs, held together by OLI’s assured vocals. A lockdown single through and through, OLI’s latest was recorded in 2020 and deals with the grim experience of overthinking, something that many of us are likely to have been going through with not much else to do.
OLI explains the meaning behind the song: “There are days when you won’t have any control over your thoughts, you’ll think of anything and everything all at once,” explains OLI, “I wanted the song to show how that felt. When it’s late at night and all I can tell myself is ‘don’t over think’, whilst knowing I absolutely will anyway.”
Speaking more on the context in which she wrote “Think About It”, OLI says, “I’d actually never played so much music with my family. We’d get drunk and do funny improvised songs about each other. My Dad would play guitar without fail every night too, I was really lucky to be around that.”
With her unique boundary-pushing sound, we look forward to seeing more of OLI on the alt-pop scene.