Interview by Carol Wright |Photography: Nicole Ciancia
We got to chat with singer Olivia Morreale about her song “PARASOMNIA” and the inspiration behind the visuals for the track.
Los Angeles is called the “City of Dreams.” When you moved to LA for college did becoming a singer seem even more tangible?
I honestly just moved to LA because I got a scholarship to go to school there. I grew up on the East Coast and had always lived there, so I had never planned on moving to LA and always saw myself in New York. But when I got here it definitely did. I was surrounded by the music scene and that influenced me to start auditioning as a background singer as well as to build my own artist career.
Who are artists that have kept you inspired in 2021?
I really loved Jazmine Sullivan’s recent record, and I’ve also been really inspired by smaller artists like Mia Gladstone and Spill Tab, who are doing their own thing in a really unique way and staying authentic.
Tell us about “PARASOMNIA.” What inspired the lyrics?
Lyrically the theme is just sort of a conversation between your subconscious desires and dreams and what you end up choosing to do in a situation, which I think every person has experienced at one point or another. The working title was “Tell You I Won’t,” which is obviously not as interesting – we came up with “Parasomnia” halfway through the production and then wrote the trippy nightmare bridge afterwards that is just vocal ad libs and weird sounds, which I think was when a cool shift in the writing happened.
You have very distinct visuals that accompany your music. What inspired the visuals for “PARASOMNIA?”
The director of the music video, Sammy King, showed me her reel and we decided to work together the next week – her aesthetic was exactly what I had been looking for and she is great at presenting an idea in a really stylish and visually innovative, but also accessible and current way. We wanted to create a world that was kind of a spooky Alice in Wonderland, kind of a weird and eerie dream world. The video features so many awesome artists and dancers, and the clothes were designed by designers our age, so a lot of the video was inspired by the strengths of those individuals as well in the context of the story we wanted to convey.
Your EP SPACE DREAMS will be out later this Spring. What can listeners expect from the EP?
It’s a lot of synth-based, glittery sounding pop, and there is a nice guitar more indie-sounding ballad in there too. Some throwbacks in the production, but I think most of the ideas are organized in a cool way that they maybe haven’t been before, and we tried to take risks in the pop song form and in the production overall, so hopefully some of that comes through in the listener’s experience.
What advice do you have for aspiring singers?
Be kind to your community and show appreciation to those who help you out, and keep an open mind. Also, if you don’t hold yourself to a high standard, others won’t either. Those are just the things I try to keep in mind.
