Olivia Reid on Family, Her Creative Process and Her Debut EP, Earth Water
Photo by Alan David Padilla
August 27, 2021 saw the release of alternative singer-songwriter Olivia Reid’s six track EP titled Earth Water. A calming vocalist with a strong pen, Reid’s songs rest well within the soul, with tempos mirroring the pace of a steady heartbeat, and lyrics that articulate the most intimate parts of the human experience.
Although this is Reid’s first EP release, she is no stranger to making music. She wrote her first song at the impressive age of six, as a result of not knowing what else to get her dad for Father’s day. “I sang the song I wrote for him to my mom while she typed it into Microsoft Word,” Reid recalls, also noting her seemingly innate understanding of song structure. The nonchalance with which six year old Reid wrote this song is most impressive to her adult self, but was simply an intuitive gesture from her younger self. As songwriting became a primary method of self expression for Reid, her grandparents were quick to catch on and eventually paid for guitar lessons at her local music store.
Reid’s guitar teacher became an important role model for her, and someone who she showed her original songs to. “He gave me feedback like, ‘Oh, you could switch out this chord with this one’... but [he] never really stepped into that position [of giving too much feedback], which I respect a lot now. That's a sacred space, especially when you're young. I know some people who were writing songs when they were younger and got too much feedback or too much input too early on. So I'm really grateful for having [had] this sacred space to explore [my] songwriting.” This exploration of her creativity gave her more confidence to create without fear of judgement. “Now I can look back at [the songs I wrote when I was younger] as an adult and be like ‘That sucks,’ she said with a smile. “[But] I didn’t have anyone stopping me [prematurely].”
As she got older, Reid began to draw inspiration from peers who were also exploring their own creativity. As a “wide eyed” high school freshman, she watched older students at her high school write and produce their own music, soaking in lessons from them and realizing for the first time that one could dream of having a career in music. “I really did not realize that there was a music industry and that at any point you could get started writing and recording music … that you can be a songwriter as a job.”
In her college years, Olivia Reid’s writing and production savvy were further nurtured at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, where she received a more formal and well-rounded music education, and continued to experiment with collaborating with peers. “[I was] overwhelmed with how many other wonderful musicians [there] were, [who] had their own creative process. And just like anything in life, you kind of see what everybody's doing and if you connect to one thing, you start putting stuff in your pocket.”
Early adulthood continued to provide Reid with collaboration opportunities. And while she has and always will glean important creative lessons from them, she still makes most of her music by herself. “It has to be solitary in some ways,” Reid says of her creative process. Aside from “Take in the View,” all the lyrics and melodies on Earth Water were written by her alone, which is an approach that’s likely to be repeated on her upcoming full length project.
A solitary writing process is only fitting for expressing experiences so personal to Olivia Reid. Music remains to be a method of communicating her love and appreciation for her family, as evidenced on “Interlude (for Grampa),” a standout track on Reid’s EP, built around a voicemail from her grandfather telling her that he requested that her music be played before his hospital procedure. “I got the most messages, honestly, about this song because everybody felt something different with it, but had a very visceral real experience,” Reid reflects, describing the way her fellow students at NYU connected to the song. “Everybody felt it and everyone had a very different story, even though it's a very specific story between my grandpa and me. I will never know if there's anyone else in the hospital going into surgery listening to my music. I won't know that, but maybe the song is what someone needs, maybe someone needs it to get a good cry in.”
Throughout our conversation, Reid’s love for her family is palpable, as she speaks of them with the most pure and contagious expression of love. “I've always made music partially just to connect with my family,” says Reid, recalling experiences performing for them at Christmastime. “I think in some ways it makes me feel like I have a purpose in my family to bring people together around my music.” Both in times of celebration and times of hardship, Reid’s music has been at the center of her family experiences, bringing purpose to her craft and providing emotional and physical healing to the people she loves most. “My grandma got COVID and she just went through the worst battle with it and was in the hospital for over a month in the ICU. She said she was listening to my music all the time to calm down when her heart rate started pacing up…Even if [I’m supposed to make music] literally just for that, I’ll do it.”