Emma Oliver isn't your typical pop star; she's an asset to the new wave of pop and a fresh face for the youth to embrace. The Dallas native has grown and evolved with the internet. Oliver has built her online presence since she was a teenager, dialing into platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. While many fans know Emma as a goofy, trend-starting influencer, she has spent the past six years gearing up to launch her solo artist project, debuting her first original earlier this year. As a self-proclaimed "black sheep," Emma has ingrained herself into the world of alternative pop as the world's next unconventional pop star.
Recently, Oliver has dedicated her time in quarantine to TikTok, and her account has skyrocketed. She has amassed a following of nearly half a million followers and garnered a millennial following of fans reminders to be themselves and stay weird. Her videos range from dance trends and inside looks into her dog's life to motivational dialogues and personal stories around her upbringing. Her platform has also become an avenue to push her own music to fans and start trends around her lyrical storytelling. Her song 'Sad Sometimes,' produced by production duo loyalties, became a craze on the app resulting in over 40,000 fans posting their own take on the trend.
Today the twenty-three-year-old artist releases her third single, "Nightmare on Dream Street," a dystopian anthem and fitting homage to the spooky holiday season that just passed. Produced by loyalties, the track transcends Oliver's voice to haunting heights while simultaneously grounding her back to reality. Like modern-day pop icons Billie Eilish and BENEE, Oliver showcases her sound by embracing her angst and manifesting it into her vocal range and backing production. Though the new track may seem to pivot from her last single 'I miss you, I'm sorry,' the dark undertones of youthfulness and anxiety remain constant.
I sat down and asked Emma about her upbringing in rural Texas, her newfound fame on TikTok, and an inside look into her storytelling in music form.
Can you recall the first moment where you knew in your gut that music was your calling?
I was in Dallas, and I believe I was 17 when I was asked to come out and do an open mic. I'm a pretty shy person until you get to know me, so I was kind of like, 'nah, I don't want to,' but they dragged me out anyways. And I played 'Let It Go' by James Bay. Once I was done, and the venue manager stopped me halfway back to my table and was like, "that was awesome. Do you want to come back and play an actual show here?". I didn't have any time to react, so I just said yes and went back that next weekend. At that moment, I knew this is what I wanted to do this for the rest of my life.
I also grew up a lot around the country and '60s music. I remember listening to '60s music at my grandmother's house and falling in love with it. I would watch how much fun they had and how much fun they had recorded it. I just fell in love with the way music was written and produced.
Growing up in rural Texas, what was it like developing yourself as a pop artist surrounded by country and traditional music?
It's weird because growing up in more of a rural area. I grew up with a lot of country and traditional music. It's not my favorite nowadays, and it wasn't my favorite back then, but it shaped me for sure. My aunt got me into R&B like Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, and all of those people. I was jumping from country and listening to that to going like into R&B, and then slowly realizing that rock music was a thing too. I would listen to Everclear and Five Finger Death Punch in my room. Once I discovered these other genres, I left country behind. I was always kind of the black sheep in the family, so I did many things that weren't how my family did things and took my path.
When you were 17, you spontaneously posted some songs you recorded in your kitchen on Soundcloud. When you first put them out, did you ever expect those songs to garner as much traction that they did? How did that inspire you to pursue a career as an artist?
I never expected those songs to do anything. I went on GarageBand on my mom's computer and started singing stuff in my kitchen because I got a mic setup and other things for Christmas that year. So I was singing in my kitchen, not worried about anything else while my mom was cooking. I didn't know what I was doing at all. I just sat down, and there was no production at all, these are just like raw takes of that of those songs that I posted. As I grew up, they shouldn't have done as well as they did without the whole production aspect.
Throughout your late-teens, you have utilized different social media channels to engage with fans online, like posting covers on YouTube in addition to originals on SoundCloud. What have you learned about the importance of the internet over the years?
What I've learned over the years is that there's always going to be an audience. There are so many people out there who could run across the video, and you never know who they are. It's awesome for people who are like starting with the mindset that nobody will ever see my video. You don't know that there are millions of people on the internet every single day. Just posting something, whether it be on TikTok or YouTube or whatever, you never know what's going to happen. When I was younger, I was one of those kids that thought nobody's ever going to see this, but then I said, screw it, I'm just going to post it.
The single 'I'm sorry, I miss you' was released in September and was the first song you released on the project. Can you walk us through that song's writing process and why this felt like a fitting introduction to yourself as a recording artist?
I wrote the song with loyalties; they've been producing my music since 'sad sometimes.' I also wrote that with one of the loyalties guys, Michael Connie. We wanted to make a fun, upbeat song based on sad scenarios. We went into the song with the idea of this super cool beat, but we wanted something that people my age and younger go through to feel like they're not alone. The song is about a party where you go, and you meet somebody that you slightly fall in love with for the night. They don't feel the same way about you, and they just kind of walk out on you, leaving you struggling with what you're going to do for the rest of the night. It's that scenario of teen rage that everyone has experiences and has trouble comprehending.
TikTok is the latest addition to the social channels you use. What was the first video that put you on the map, and what would you attribute to your growing success and following?
The first video that kindly took off was when I was giving my dog a lecture. He had run away for the third time that week. The people around town would be like, 'we have your dog,' so when I would retrieve him, I pulled out my phone since he knew he was in trouble. I just started filming him, and people were really into that. I don't understand why but it took off from there.
I posted periodically, and I wasn't like trying to get anywhere with it. I was just like, seeing what could happen, but the big ones that took off after that initial video were the look-alike videos. Somebody said that I looked like the character from Megamind, I made fun of myself and went with it. I made a video for myself looking like the Bling Bling Boy from the Johnny Test on Cartoon Network because I watched it all the time. All my friends would say that I look like him when my hair was like in the middle part, and then that just like, opened a floodgate of like, people are like, you look like the hamster from Bolt. One of them has almost a million likes, so I was insane, so I posted my music to see where it went. It boosted my music, which, you know, sometimes brought to 500,000 streams, which is crazy.
What is your dream TikTok collaboration and dream musical collaboration?
There's so many. I would love to collaborate with Quinlan Blackwell. I think she's incredible, and her humor is insane. If you don't know who she is, you should look her up. Christine Snaps probably be like another because she's a good friend of mine, but we've never met in person. For musical collaboration, I'd say Post Malone. I want to do a song with him. I don't know why because I don't see how that would go, but I believe Post and I could do some magic.
You just released your follow up single' Nightmare On Dream Street,' can you walk us through the back story and how you constructed the song's metaphorical title?
Yeah, when I wrote this song, the vision was within a dream, where you'd go with the person you want to be with, but it turned like super dark, and I loved it. We finally concluded that it does remind me of Nightmare on Elm Street, except it's a love story. It goes from; I want to be with you, but our demons are chasing us because we know we're doing something wrong. It's terrifying, so I feel like it's a good representation of the song and the title.
Does the song feel like a darker paradox of your previous single, and are the two stories here intertwined?
I think they go together. Lyrically I don't really like try to make my songs go together and have this like a theatrical story, but my writing process is pretty dark. In a very subtle way, I like to write about sad things. I don't know why I like I feel those things a lot more than writing happy love stories.
Let's get all Vanity Fair, one year from now, on October 29th, 2021, where do you see Emma Oliver, and what is one thing you want to achieve?
I see myself with a lot more music out, and I definitely want to play more shows, I just want to be a better artist. Not only for like myself but like for my fans, too.
Comments