After a year and a half of incredibly exciting and rewarding work in the studio my solo album is complete, and will be released on May 1, 2024!
Being in the studio is an amazing high point in the creative process where musical ideas evolve, and new directions are discovered. I am very proud of this album. It is both very personal and hopefully deeply relatable for the listener.
Recording as a solo artist has been complex but exhilarating. In a world that can often feel too fast paced and overstimulating, the opportunity to curate a sonic space that feels my own, has been a cathartic and deeply enriching experience. In fact, both lyrically and musically, a recurring theme that has come up during this project has been a reframing of the often negative idea of being “too much” as “just enough” instead. Music has always been one of the most immediate ways for me to share what joy feels like in my body. Emotions of all kinds feel like a full body experience for me, and I hope that you’ll feel some of that too, when you listen to the album.
It was a challenge and a joy to record the vocals and the harmonies and to play guitar, piano, organ, synthesizer, electric and double bass, violin, and percussion as I navigated from idea to idea and note to note. It has also been an absolute gift to collaborate with an incredible engineer/producer.
I took several brief breaks during the year to perform live and to recharge by absorbing the energy of the audience. It was a privilege to tour with Niki Luparelli and her amazing band and to play sold out shows in Worcester and Salem, MA and Providence, RI and to share the stage with Diana Alvarez in Bellows Falls, VT and the incredible Firehouse Band in Newport, RI.
The next steps are to finalize and release the album and to plan an album release concert where I will perform the entire album live. That concert will likely be in Western MA in the spring of 2024. I hope you will consider being part of that event.
I will keep you updated and send you an announcement as soon as the album is available for download.
Thank you so much for supporting my music. I am deeply grateful for your generosity and your trust in me as a musician!
Olivia Nied
