We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Olivia Altair a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Olivia , so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
The moment I discovered the power of writing and producing my own original pop music, I knew without a doubt that it was my purpose. When I was younger, I always liked making art. I enjoyed drawing, painting, theater—but music always touched me in a way that nothing else did. Even before I knew how to write or sing, I was obsessed with the old pop songs my mom would play in the car. She would play 60’s Oldies, as well as ABBA and Elton John, and immediately, that music would transport me into another world. I was 10 or 11 when I discovered modern, more aggressive electronic pop. I remember the first few songs I ever heard by artists like Kesha, Britney Spears, and Katy Perry—and how those songs made me feel. That feeling changed my life—I felt like it transcended everything else around me.
When I was 14, I came across some demos of pop songs on the internet, which were self-produced by an independent musician named MARINA. I soon discovered that she had written all of her own lyrics and composed all of her own songs, all by herself. I hadn’t even realized that was something one person could do! I was so inspired by her music that I started experimenting with GarageBand on my mom’s laptop, and began teaching myself piano. It wasn’t long before I wrote my first few songs, and it felt like the entire universe opened up to me: I finally felt like I knew how to express myself! Writing music felt like the only way I could accurately express my emotions in a way that didn’t dilute them. It was the only thing I felt understood by, and it became therapeutic for me. I wrote songs about the things that upset me, and when a song was finished, it felt like I had alchemized something ugly into something gold. I became obsessed with songwriting then, and it got me through everything. But I never felt I could share that work with anyone else…
In 2018, I started the Drama program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where I met Edoardo Tesio, an incredible playwright/theater artist from Italy, who was the first person I ever really shared my music with. He immediately loved it, even in its rough and unpolished form– so much so that a year later, he asked if I would compose the pop soundtrack for a theater piece he was writing, which he wanted to perform with a bunch of our other friends from school. Of course, I said yes. Unfortunately, that project ended up getting cancelled due to the pandemic. But we were resilient. During those horrific two online semesters, Edoardo wrote a new show, “Vanity”, for which I wrote all the music, and finally, in the Fall of 2021, when the pandemic was over, he put together a cast, and we performed the show in New York City.
I still vividly remember performing “Vanity”. I was so nervous because I had never performed as the main singer in a show before, and up until then, pretty much nobody had ever heard my music. I had no idea how people would react! But as soon as the opening number began, EVERYONE in the audience started clapping, cheering, and singing along to the song I wrote. It was electrifying! And for months after the show, people would come up to me at school humming the melody of “Vanity (When The Lights Go Down)” and tell me “that song is so catchy!/I want to listen to it again!/where can I hear it?”. I couldn’t believe that people I barely even knew were so excited about my song! For some reason, my music stuck with people, and they wanted more.
So, I put the song out, and we officially founded our very own theater company: Theater Company della Luna. I continued writing the original music for our fantastical pop musicals. and with every song, and every show, the same thing would happen: people told me my music was catchy, and during big numbers onstage, the audience would cheer, and clap, and sing along, and gasp. I realized then that I had the power not only to make art for myself, but art that could impact others— and THIS is the reason why I do it.
I find that music, (as well as art in general) is a powerful thing. It is a purely emotional, ethereal way of communicating with others. I feel understood by music more than anything else in this world. When someone tells me they love a song I wrote, or starts humming the tune after a show, it makes me feel less alone. Every time I write a song, and one of my friends tells me that they related to it, it makes me feel like the both of us understand something that nobody else does. It makes me feel like we communicated on a deeper, more intimate, perhaps even spiritual, level. I know that songwriting has that power, and I know songwriting is my passion, and my skill. So really, I don’t know what else my purpose in life could possibly be. There is nothing else I would rather do.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I release music under the name Olivia Altair (Olivia Amicangioli is my legal name), and I am in the process of putting together a live show, as well as new music. I released an album last year called “KILL MY FEELINGS”, which I would describe as electronic, gothic, experimental synth-pop. It’s dramatic and sarcastic, and I would recommend listening to it while you walk around a cemetery in the rain. It’s like my diary if instead of a diary, it was a drunk voice note to a friend at 3AM after crying all my mascara off at the club. It sounds like upbeat pop at times, but there’s darkness and depth underneath. I think if there is one thing about my artistic identity that stays constant throughout everything I do, it’s the desire to go towards darkness and depth, rather than run away from it. To me, darkness is not inherently negative, and brightness is not inherently positive. Sometimes, I think in order to spread positivity, we NEED to explore the shadows—if you know about the “shadow self” idea, I essentially believe something similar to that— So I make “dark pop”.
The music I am writing now is much more conceptual, dark, and sexual than “KILL MY FEELINGS”, and is nothing like a diary. Instead, I basically want to explore this repressed, neurotic, Disney-villain-esque side of myself through dance pop. I I want to be able to look at the shadowy sides of myself, and just be totally free. Though honestly, I have no idea exactly what this will result in. I just know the project is very queer (as am I), and feels reminiscent of drag (though I have no experience as a drag artist), and it’s definitely very loaded and layered. It’s also not done, so who knows if any of that will be true. But I think my most recently released song, “So Hot”, fits somewhere in that world. Either way, I am trying to build my spooky/sexy/campy artistic world and immerse people in it. While I would say Theater Company della Luna brings pop music to theater, Olivia Altair does the reverse, and brings theatricality to pop music. I want to create something I would describe as a “theatrical concert”— so let’s see how that idea turns out!
Meanwhile, Theater Company della Luna (which consists of Edoardo Tesio, Marjorie Murillo, Tomoka Takahashi, Bridget Spencer, and myself) just finished our month-long run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, with our show “Love’s Concordia Bar”, which is about a burlesque bar owned by Love Itself. Earlier in the year, we performed a show in Torino, Italy, “La Linfa del Villaggio”, which is an absolutely insane, dark, twisted fairytale—with an even crazier electropop soundtrack, written and produced entirely by me. We also got the chance to do a performance from that show for the Lovers Film Festival in Torino, which was such an incredible opportunity! It truly has been a crazy year, but these two projects are the ones we definitely plan on bringing back in the future, so keep an eye out for them— We are definitely bringing “Love’s Concordia Bar” to NYC this Spring. If you want to hear these show’s soundtracks, search “Theater Company della Luna” on your streaming service of choice. If you’re only going to listen to one song each, I would suggest you listen to either “ARE YOU READY TO BE KING?” or “MERCY”, and either “333” or “My Love”. If you want to know more about us, Theater Company della Luna creates shows about “human emotions in imaginary worlds”, and I would describe most of our projects as dark fairytales, one way or another. We tell stories about Love, power struggle, sexuality, seduction, fear, and joy, where the characters are princesses, magic mermaids, kings, queens, flowers, mannequins, nymphs, ghosts, statues, etc. We dive deep into the drama of these stories, and then we also have big sexy dance numbers in the middle of them. If you’re interested, follow us on instagram, and which is where we usually post information about our latest performances. If there is one thing I can guarantee, it’s that it is IMPOSSIBLE to be bored watching one of our shows. Trust me.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Three areas of knowledge I wish I had as an artist when I was starting out:
1. Confidence: Be confident, and stand up for yourself, your art, and your competence. Just because someone is gatekeeping an opportunity from you doesn’t mean you can’t burn down the gate and just do it anyway. Life is so short, and you do NOT need anyone else’s validation but your own. And art is subjective anyway, so just have the audacity to do whatever you want. And if something really isn’t for you, have the confidence to pursue it from a different angle. “When one door closes another one opens” might be cliche, but it’s usually been true in my experience. It might take time and effort, but don’t give up!!!
2. Practice + Experimentation: The only way to get better at something is to practice, and you are probably going to be bad at something for a while if it’s new to you. But it’s just part of the process. Also, “bad” might not actually be bad…It might just be an interesting new way of doing something. Lean into experimentation, not perfection. I think some of the most creative ideas I’ve ever had were when I had less knowledge, because my limitations made me do things “wrong”… but “wrong” was also “different”, and “different” was interesting!! Now that I do more things “correctly”, sometimes it gets me stuck (specifically in music production/songwriting). Perfection is not always what I want.
3. Criticism: People are going to criticize you. Learn how to accept constructive criticism, but also know that NOT ALL CRITICISM IS CONSTRUCTIVE. Again, art is subjective. There is no authority on what makes a work of art good. So even if you want to know if a critic liked your work, the real question is: Do YOU like your work? Do YOU agree with them? Maybe you do, maybe you don’t. Listening to them might be a good move, or it might not be. But that is for you to decide. Just like you don’t have to listen to my advice, because who even am I to you? Not any authority over your work. Listen to your own intuition and taste because guess what? Some people are tasteless : )
Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?
The book that has influenced the way I make art the most is David Lynch’s book, “Catching The Big Fish”.
If you are unfamiliar with David Lynch, he is a famous filmmaker who makes these beautiful, crazy, seemingly abstract films, and then refuses to explain any of them. And in his book, he basically explains that in his opinion, once you explain what a film is about, it ruins the experience for people, because it makes them think about it, and therefore, experience it, differently.
This idea that art is something to be experienced, not explained, is something I experiment with a LOT. I think about what elements of the audience’s perception of my work I have control over, and what elements I don’t. We can’t always control how people perceive our work, but despite that, I try to see how much of my ideas I can communicate to people with, and without, words: And according to Lynch, even if people won’t understand the deeper meaning of something, they might still feel it. I find this concept really interesting!!!
“Catching The Big Fish” also talks a lot about meditation, and “catching” ideas via meditation. While I’m sure I don’t meditate half as often as Lynch (he created a whole foundation dedicated to it), it is definitely a part of my artistic process/life. Self care in general is a very essential part of my process. So much of what artists do is mental. If I can’t take my time while I am writing, I will not be able to write properly. I need to work slowly, I need to work peacefully. Maybe from an outside perspective it seems lazy if I take a break from work to center myself, take a walk, get a snack, make tea… but I promise you, my best ideas ALWAYS come after some form of mental relaxation (and I don’t know if David Lynch would agree, but I think clubbing can be like meditation!!!). I do something that decompresses me and then, I just sit back and let the ideas come to me, and they almost always do. Our subconscious minds have SO MANY IDEAS! And I know some people don’t enjoy meditating, or they don’t know how to do it… but I do, and I swear it works. If you’re remotely interested in this, I highly, HIGHLY recommend it. Go on YouTube and look up “guided meditations”, it’s free!
*This book will probably be more valuable to you if you are a fan of Lynch, but I do recommend it either way!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.companydellalunatheater.com
- Instagram: @olivia.altair @companydellaluna @ollie.ami
- Youtube: @OliviaAltair
- Soundcloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/5TGTWbZndVAfviC27
- Other: email: [email protected]
Image Credits
Autumn Chapman, Emmettia Henderson, Jonas Dellow, Jack Hyler, Antonio de Jesus
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