Brisbane will be the first audience to hear new music from Melbourne songstress Olivia Bartley aka Olympia when she performs as part of the GOMA Up Late series for the ‘Marvel: Creating The Cinematic Universe’ exhibition.
“We’re really looking forward to it,” Olivia says of the upcoming performance. “We played the National Gallery Of Victoria in February and it was a fantastic vibe. It’s nice to put the audience in a different space, so it adds something extra to the show that you wouldn’t usually get at a pub or a traditional venue.
“It means you get people coming to your show that might not have [otherwise] come to your show. They’ve come for the art or you get people coming to your show who then go to the exhibition, so there’s that nice crossover which is exciting and it makes for quite an electric atmosphere.”
“The Brisbane show is going to be a celebration of us playing together in the band.”
Speaking of electric, this will be the first show Olympia has played in five months since finalising performances for their 2016 debut album ‘Self Talk’. Olivia says audiences will get a preview of the new material they’ve been working on recently. “We’ve taken a break from playing to write,” Olivia says.
“The last show we did was Golden Plains [Festival], which was a massive highlight for us. So we’ll play ‘Self Talk’, but we’ll also preview some of the new stuff we’re working on. We’ve had some of our fans say ‘when are you going to come play a show?’. So it kind of feels like it’s a cheeky, touch base with fans in Brisbane show.
“It’s not something we’ll do around the country until the new work is more solid, but it’s a really nice opportunity because there’s not much pressure. It’s not attached to a release and it’s just going to be a celebration of us playing together in the band.”
With the new body of work she is compiling, Olivia says she remains committed to the album format rather than producing half-baked content for the sake of trying to remain relevant. “I’m kind of old-school, I still believe in albums and there being a big story there,” she says.
“I always believe that each album should have something new in it, so there will be a slight departure from the first album that I’m really excited about. Also if we’re successful in pulling it off, it will shine even more light on ‘Self Talk' that we can link to it, but also depart from it sonically as well.”
Apart from performing, Olivia says she's keen to explore the exhibition and dive into the Marvel universe. Not being an avid adherent to the Marvel phenomenon, Olivia says she is most interested in learning about the artists and techniques used to create the world.
“I haven’t been to Brisbane since the exhibition launched, but I think whoever is curating at GOMA is doing an incredible job and I’m really looking forward to getting into the exhibition and learning something because I don’t know a lot about Marvel.
“Obviously I know ‘The Avengers’, but I’m really interested in film itself. So looking at how all the animation is pulled together and there are incredible artists in this exhibition as well, so I’m really looking forward to jumping in when I’m there.”
Olympia performs as part of the GOMA Up Late Series (Brisbane) 18 August.
