Posted: by The Alt Editing Staff
“The dream shows the inner truth and reality of the patient as it really is: not as I conjecture it to be, and not as he would like it to be, but as it is.”
Alice Renendez, lead guitarist of Olivia’s World, seems to embody this quote by Carl Jung throughout the band’s debut full-length album Greedy & gorgeous as she tackles the more crude, more unbridled, more unconscious parts of us all to get to something well… less fake and vanilla brewing under the surface. Hailing from Australia, the jangle-pop and garage punk band isn’t shy about exploring retrospective topics and contrasting sounds. In fact, they welcome it–especially on Greedy & gorgeous, embodying the whittling away of the external soul that occurs during your quest for identity through its rowdy lyricism and divergent soundscape.
The record works its way around the power of the mind, the interplay of the conscious and unconscious, and the oppositions of reality and perception like the listener is taking the journey alongside the band. The bristly opener, “Porcupine Girl,” kicks off the curiosity and running thoughts that Greedy & gorgeous is fraught with as it asks, “Is it all part of the show?” overtop a plinky guitar. “Healthy and wealthy” follows with a more uneven take on the challenges of rational living against spontaneous desire. Elsewhere, “Chemlab” is a restless warble that features some of the more creative imagery in Alice’s repertoire comparing a brain to a chemlab and talking about nerves that could fry an egg.
Then there’s “Sourgum,” Olivia World’s seamless take on razor-punk ethics. The tune thrashes about as it documents the feeling of falling out of love. The guitars whir and the percussions bruise as Jungian lyrics such as “a quick reflection makes the mind unsteady to the compulsive need to be competitive” are belted.
“Beauty Bar” is the hazy closing track, sonically mimicking dream states as its low energy, surefooted vibe touches on the vanity (“the beauty bar is open and they’ve got a chair especially for you”) and comparisons (“everyone’s climbing to some lofty heights, giving off some awkward vibes / Am I just a peasant here?”) that plague modern life. The ideal song to tie the album together as its reflective mood feels like a journal entry bound with wonder and contemplation of the social world we walk through every day.
I was able to talk with the members of Olivia’s World about Greedy & gorgeous, allowing them to expand their thoughts on little poems becoming big songs, their complicated relationship with twee, and which Carl Jung interview everyone must watch (and more!) below:
How does it feel to be releasing your guys’ first LP with Greedy & gorgeous? What are you most proud of as this record has come to fruition?
Daan: It’s always special to put out a body of work after having spent so much time writing, rehearsing, recording it. I’m really proud that we are getting vinyls made and distributed. This is the first project I’ve been a part of that’s been put to vinyl and it’s a real dream come true for me. I’m most proud of the songs, no amount of rehearsal prepares you for the studio and it often feels ‘make or break’. I’m really grateful that despite my own fears and anxieties of being in the studio that the music came across as fun and energetic as it did.
Joe: I’m proud of the way Alice’s artwork turned out for the vinyl, it really sets the scene for the music and stands out in a crazy way, I think. And I’m proud of how we all just got in the studio and recorded this in a pretty short space of time. More than that though, I just have great memories of that week of recording, bonding over Metallica live footage and Bob Ross episodes in our downtime. It was like being on a little family holiday.
Alice, I know you’ve spoken about writing these songs over the course of two to three years without any real music accompanying them. How does that process differ from the traditional songwriting process for you, and what was it like to tackle the music-side of these songs once you were piecing the record together?
Alice: It’s not so much that I don’t write any music to go along, but that for a little while the songs exist primarily as little poems. That sounds really pretentious, but whatever. I have been writing songs for over a decade and I have always started with these little scribbles. I think it’s mostly because I don’t have a traditional musical background and am generally a little illiterate when it comes to translating sonic ideas to the guitar. This is still my biggest frustration as a so-called musician, which is why I often choose to collaborate with super heavyweight musos. The lyrics to me usually dictate the mood and tone of the songs, which is a big thing creatively, and helps a lot when it comes to “checking” if the song is going the right way.
Carl Jung seems to be a big inspiration for the perspectives explored on Greedy & gorgeous. As a Carl Jung fan myself, what pieces of his work really spoke to you as you were creating the record?
Alice: Initially the gateway drug was the book Memories, Dreams, Reflections: An Autobiography. There has been no one Jung. For Jung, the world is the human mind, and our inner happenings. It’s not the outside world. I highly recommend everyone give this interview a watch! More recently, Joe got me watching the documentary that features Jung’s disciple Marie-Louise von Franz, The Way of the Dream. It’s really disheartening to see how many people don’t give a crap about their dreams. That can be read in as many levels as you’d like!
Can you talk a little about the concepts of Greedy & gorgeous and all that inspired it?
Alice: Aw, man! Explaining stuff like that is hard. I think when I put the songs all together I had a read of it, to get a sense of what was going on. Like when a medium lays all your tarot cards on the table, and gets a read of the vibe. I read the general sentiment, and it seemed funny to label these feelings of desire as sinful excess. Of course desire is not sinful excess. To desire is to be alive and full of flesh in the final era of the human project.
One of the biggest things that drew me to Olivia’s World was how twee-punk inspired it is. Twee is such a surprisingly enduring genre. What drew you guys to that sound and carving out your own space within its walls?
Joe: I don’t know much about twee. Is Belle and Sebastian twee? I like Belle and Sebastian. I obviously like The Softies, which may or may not be considered twee. It’s a loaded term I guess. But I think there are maybe elements of twee in Alice’s songwriting style, but everyone in the band (including Alice) is kind of pushing against that twee-ness in how we play. Maybe that goes without saying, because you’re saying it’s twee-punk – punk is obviously the polar opposite of twee in a way.
Alice: Twee is the prototype to many genres like new wave, post-punk, and so on and so forth, but of course like with most history it just gets flattened to a pulp. Twee is about minimalism, like Jamboree by Beat Happening. It’s not (just) tambourines and happy claps. I think that’s why I say I like vintage twee. People need to stop being afraid of twee!
You guys welcomed a new drummer and guitarist as the band tackled this album. How did their presence strengthen the sound and purpose of Olivia’s World? How did working with collaborator Joe Saxby strengthen Greedy & gorgeous?
Jordan: Joe is an incredible musician and probably the most laid-back person I know. He adds vocals and beautiful saxophone parts effortlessly and brings a playful and calm energy to the band which puts everyone at ease. He’s the best.
Alice: Well, why don’t you marry him then, Jordan?!
Joe: Aw thanks Jordan. Jordan is a shredlord. His shredding always strikes that perfect balance of adding to the appeal and the sensibility of a song, without overpowering anything else at any point. Daan is also the best. He’s got that brute force that complements and contrasts nicely with all the jingly-jangly things we’ve got going on. He was really on one throughout recording, saying all kinds of outlandish stuff that really tickled my fancy – for example, he coined the term Greedy & gorgeous. But yeah they both added a lot of power to the sound, that’s what impressed me and Alice the most.
Which song was most rewarding to create from start to finish?
Daan: “Healthy and wealthy.” I was really confused by the structure of the song and consistently struggled to hit the correct cues when we rehearsed and played it live. Even when recording I had a book of notes next to me on the drums that I’d follow along as I played so I didn’t miss a cue. Through the studio process I got more comfortable.
Jordan: “Oskar” was definitely a very rewarding song to play on. I remember that I’d just been on a deep Modest Mouse revisit, especially This is a Long Drive… and as soon as everyone started playing the song, the harmonic guitar melody just came out and seemed to fit perfectly. There’s also a lead part at the end which sounds like it should be played while standing on a cliff edge, Tear for Fears style, and I love imagining that.
Joe: “Beauty bar” for me. We only started rehearsing it in the couple of weeks before recording, and it’s a very different kind of song to everything else on the record and all our other material.I approached my bass part differently to how I usually would–I just felt like it was an opportunity for me to sit back and just do a simple, rock-steady groove, and let everyone else create the vibe. I love the lyrics, they just conjure up a lot of imagery and I feel like the arrangement supports that imagery really well – that’s what it’s all about, for me.
What would you get tattooed from Greedy & gorgeous if you could?
Alice: Kill all normies.
Joe: I like the bin bag lying on the ground outside the beauty bar on the front cover, with the rat next to it and flies buzzing around. I’ll get that tattooed on my armpits.
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Hope Ankney | @heart_vandelay
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