LYVIA INTERVIEW: Blending soulful Pop with a spoken-word edge, LYVIA captivates with raw, heart-on-sleeve lyricism, and melodies shaped by icons fromAmy Winehouse to Lauryn Hill.Meanwhile, her nimble wordplay and flair for pithy home truths was mastered onNottingham’s spoken-word scene, where she honed her craft in a local community recording studio. Following the release of her Honey, I’m Home! mixtape and accompanying tour, she speaks to VIPER about her career so far. Get familiar…
What five words define your sound?
Honest, storytelling, fun, soulful and ‘heart on sleeve’ if that can be classed as one word [laughs]
Tell me something unique about your creative process
I write most of my songs on guitar but I’ve never had a single guitar lesson in my life and only know the names of like three chords.
Which song of yours would you like people to hear first?
Probably ‘Little White Lie’.
What inspired you to make that song?
My first boyfriend and how nice he was to me when I wasn’t so great to him.
What’s the most vulnerable you’ve allowed yourself to be when writing/making music?
Probably when I was writing ‘figure it out’. I just let the words fall out my mouth and cried into the mic until it sounded right.
What’s the best/worst experience you’ve had on stage?
Best would probably be the tour I just went on, honey I’m home! Every show was sick but London was super special and I brought NSG out as my special guests so that was a vibe.
Worst experience would maybe have been a cold rainy day busking – if you can call that a stage [laughs]. Some days it was just really hard man, and some times people just didn’t wanna hear it so taking abuse from people on the street was tough too.
What is your favourite song to perform?
I think ‘bounce’ is my favourite song to perform, or ‘monday2sunday’.
Which artist/song/album made you want to make music?
Amy Winehouse is the first name that comes to my head, I’ve always loved her songwriting. And also P!nks album ‘funhouse’. I remember me and my mum singing that in the car when I was little. We still do now tbh [laughs].
What’s the meaning behind your name?
Well my name is Olivia and everyone always called me liv growing up so I just kinda combined the two.
If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing instead?
Probably teaching people to make music. Or at one point I wanted to be a midwife – random I know [laughs].
What’s success to you?
Contentment within my career and happiness within myself and for my family. Just being able to make music everyday and make a living from it has always been my goal.
What moment in your life/career forced you to change direction?
There’s a lot of moments honestly. I think in the music industry you’re always trying to adapt. Which is fun and tricky – especially when you’re trying to remain true to you at the same time. There was one day where I just realised that nobody is gonna make this happen for me and it does truly just lay in my hands; that changed a lot of things for me.
Where can people keep in touch with you?
All my socials are @lyviamusic – come talk to me on there I really love connecting with my listeners.
