Three Albums That Changed My Life: Olympia

Having just released her debut album, Self Talk, last week, it’s safe to say things are looking pretty good for Olympia right now. By releasing a slew of stellar singles in the lead up to the release of Self Talk, we could tell Olympia was onto something great – and the results definitely do not disappoint.

Dripping in drama, rich in texture and heavy influence from bygone eras, Olympia’s refreshing take on pop music serves as a reviving collection of tunes and a very impressive debut album. To celebrate, she’s also announced a national tour to take her new material out on the road. Before she does that, however, we got the chance to ask Olympia about albums that have shaped her into the artist, and person, that she is today. Check out her incredible answers below, as well as her tour dates below that!

Bjork, Debut

The first time I heard Bjork’s Debut coming through the radio, the world I lived in became a musical in which everyone on set erupted into a chorus of what they hated about the artist and her work. Even buildings seemed to be injured by the artist’s arsenal that included: the tone of her voice, the pronunciation AND the lyrics themselves, and according to a Rolling Stone review, “a phalanx of cheap electronic gimmickry”. Twenty-odd years later, we can call it for what it was: the album sounded like nothing else.

Music may be ubiquitous, it takes us up in lifts, drives the sharks hungry arch in movies, maps out how long you have to get dressed before the ice-cream truck is on your street, unites us (along with alcohol) for Karaoke in countries that you don’t even know how to order coffee in. We all understand music, but it’s important (now more than ever) to remember that music is not a talent show serviced by three spinning chairs. I’m still excited by this album, something I can’t say for many others.

Betty Davis, They Say I’m Different

Betty Davis was an American funk musician who is credited not only for her own work, but was also instrumental in husband Miles Davis’ work – specifically the change of direction in albums Filles de Kilimanjaro & Bitches Brew. This album is my happy place.

Suicide, Suicide

I was tossing up whether to include Sheila Chandra or Suicide. One is played in Inner-City yoga studios, the other, prone to screaming and saw-sounding guitars, not-so-much. But I’ve been drawn to both for their hypnotic quality; both offer an escape that I usually draw from instrumental music. I first heard Chandra’s Ever So Lonely during my HSC (Year 12 exam) and it had an immediate effect on me. Hearing the song I became really interested in vocal percussion, and the possibilities of the human voice. At this stage, it was only world artists who were experimenting with voice and loops, etc.

Similarly, Suicide for me is the soundtrack to an imaginary movie. The trance-like-build of drum machines like 808s & Rhythm Aces, thrumming low-fi production singer Alan Vega’s vocal throw-back to singers (that I also love) of the late fifties, quoted as saying “Elvis Presley to me is like God, and Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis, they’re my triumvirate”.

Unlike Chandra however, Suicide absolutely polarised their audiences, inducing riots even from the punk scene while supporting bands such as The Clash and Elvis Costello.

Rolling Stone gave the album a negative review, referring to the album as “absolutely puerile”, but included the album in best 500 albums of all time some twenty years later.