Interview: Olivia Dawn
Hong Kong born electronic artist, producer, songwriter, violinist and DJ Olivia Dawn refuses to be boxed into a single genre. Her dreamy musical style carries influences from house, disco, techno, jazz and world music, while her mesmerising violin solos and stunning vocals over her own live DJ sets never fail to bring the house down. Since she picked up electronic music two years ago, Olivia has already warmed up for an array of respected DJs such as Yokoo, Agents of Time, and Paul Oakenfold, as well as international stars Rain, Jonas Blue, and Bebe Rexha. The Juilliard bachelor and Berklee double-master graduate went from playing at a shisha bar to playing in world-renowned EDM festival Tomorrowland two years in a row with her duo “Until Dawn”. Ahead of her performance at the Amsterdam Dance Event, we spoke to Olivia about her views on the local music scene and her journey as an artist.
So first of all, can you tell us a bit about your musical background?
I started out with a classically trained background. I picked up the piano at five, then started playing the violin at six. You know how it is in Hong Kong, everyone starts learning an instrument at a young age. Then I went to Juilliard in New York, where I was kind of a black sheep. I didn’t want to practise much, instead I spent my time writing songs in my dorm room. I remember my teacher telling me, “Olivia, if you don’t practise your scales, you’re gonna get kicked out”, but I just wanted to continue writing songs so I didn’t listen to him.
Given your classically trained background, did you ever imagine you would deter from the classical music path?
I guess I’ve always listened to other types of music apart from classical music. I grew up listening to John Mayer. I listened to Avril Lavigne — everyone had that phase. I’ve always been interested in other music. It was one of those things where I thought, "These people are so cool, if only I could do something like that", but I never thought I could actually do it.
So how did you get into producing your own music and DJ-ing?
Before I finished Julliard, I already thought maybe classical music wasn’t for me. I thought maybe it’s too intense, people are too intense. I’m playing music written by dead people and not that I didn’t love classical music, but something in me just needed more. I needed to create my own music. Then someone in my family found Berklee’s website, where I could do music production, electronic music, and Jazz — which I was really into at that time. We took a vacation to the Masters Programme campus in Spain to check it out and I fell in love in the campus, it was my dream place. So in my first year at Berklee, I did contemporary music theory where I learnt to do all sorts of improvising, jazz, world music, moonrise, Arabic music, then I discovered electronic music and it just went from there.
You’ve done really well for yourself in just two years time, can you share with us a bit about your journey?
Honestly, even though it’s really important to be really good at what you do, that’s only the basic level, the most basic thing you need to have. Most of it was just branding and being really lucky. I remember when I first came back to Hong Kong, I was at a shisha bar with my friends. I asked the people there if they needed a DJ because they could really use some music in the place. My friends were like, “Yeah, let her do it!” and they actually said yes. I was so excited because it was my first time playing in Hong Kong. I wasn’t even really good at DJ-ing yet. All I had was a tiny beginner DJ equipment, and I hadn’t figured out how to combine DJ-ing and violin at that time so I just played them separately. There were only about ten people there at first, but I tried to select really good tunes and everyone had a great time. So that’s how I started, from a shisha bar. Some of the people who were there turned out to be event organisers, and they asked me to played at other events. Then for every three or four gigs I played for free, I would get one big one, and slowly, that’s how you build.
What are your musical influences when you’re DJ-ing or producing your own music?
Well my background is obviously classically trained, but as much of an influence it has on me, it’s more about the music I listen to and the events I attend. I started going to clubs and music festivals when I was twenty or so. My friend in New York invited me to go to Rave, which I hadn’t heard of before, and that’s how I started listening to electronic music. It was quite commercial at that time, and I thought it was really cool but not my style. I listened to a lot of Jazz and Arabic music as well, thenI discovered techno and deep house when I got to Spain. I realised then that not all EDM sounds the same. Because of my songwriting, I figured out how to put together classical strings sounds with the vocal melodic elements of indie pop sound writing with deep electronic music like deep house or techno.
What’s your favourite part about what you do?
The freedom that I have to create my own world. I can draw from different influences, I don’t have to play a single style because I don’t believe in categorising yourself into one genre. The whole thing about being a rule breaker and to express yourself is not to have people pigeonhole you into one category. I’m not just an EDM DJ, House DJ, or a techno DJ. I listen to all sorts of music. I listen to old school hip hop, pop, rock. I listen to J Dilla, Flight Facilities, The xx. I love Led Zeppelin and Yoyo Ma. What I love about my job is I get to bring together all my influences and express them all in one show. During my shows, I can see people feel emotionally uplifted, and that's what I want. I want to make people come out of my gig and feel like life is good.
So would you say you're all about your audiences having fun?
Definitely. If the audience isn't having fun, I'm not having fun. I can't just be up there and clown around by myself. I have to make everyone move. The cool club spirit of being a DJ is it's not about you, it's about them. The audience is the star of the show. It's different from being a concert artist, because as a concert artist, everyone listens to you. I want to combine live concert performing and DJ-ing. It takes a bit more skill because you have to be interesting enough for people to watch but also make it about them. At all my shows, it's never about me. I mean I'm doing some crazy stuff on the violin but I try to involve the audience. It helps to play things that people know, but be original about it and put your own twist. I like doing remixes of songs I like or old classics, I play Michael Jackson sometimes and people always go wild when they hear it. It's all about the balance - combining things that people already know and like with new things they don't know yet.
Any thoughts on Hong Kong‘s music scene?
Hong Kong has a very special scene. It's primarily dominated by Cantopop, which I respect a lot because I know how much hard work goes into it. I have a lot of friends who are in the Canto-pop world, and I have all my hats go off to them. But it's never really been my thing. I think Hong Kong is on its way to being a more musically diverse place with Clockenflap, Sonar, Alternate and rooftop events like Rewind, and there are a lot of local small clubs like Social Room and XXX that do really deep and underground music. So I do feel like the electronic scene in Hong Kong is really budding. It's getting there, and I believe with a few trendsetters and tastemakers it can become a really cool place, as diverse as Japan, Korea and Taiwan.
Do you think it's difficult to grow up in Hong Kong and want to do something that's outside of the box?
It definitely is. People here are very practical. I mean in a way, Hong Kong people are very smart. They know that if you do this, this, this, you’ll be poor for the rest of your life. To be honest, I grew up surrounded by people with that mentality. I went to Diocesan Girls School, a very practical and academic school. Everyone was aiming to be the top of the top, lawyers or doctors, etc. And both of my parents are lawyers so you can imagine their shock when I told them I'm going to be a DJ. My mum thought that meant I was going to get paid to go clubbing and I told her, no, I'm actually making music. I spent three hours, explaining the art of DJ-ing, comparing it to how I play classical music, and how I do it. And she was like, "Oh, that's not easy!" And I was like, "No! It's not easy!" So when I proved to her I can make a living out of it, and that I'm passionate about it, they accepted it. So even though it's difficult, you just need to show passion and belief, and that goes for any career.
What other advice do you have for other young creatives and aspiring musicians in Hong Kong?
Never let people say no to you. I’ve been told no many many times. I’ve been told I could never get into Julliard, that I wasn't good enough. And I’m the type of person if you tell me no, I’m gonna show you. There's no way I'm going to let you tell me I can't do something. If people tell me, oh violin doesn't sound good with techno, it doesn't work together. Well, I invited this person to the club and told him to stay there and watch the show. Afterwards he was like, yeah okay, never mind.
What gigs do you have coming up?
I have two big bookings coming up, and I'm really excited about them. One's really last minute, Amsterdam Dance Event, it's one of my favourite festivals ever. It's the best festival there is for alternative electronic music. It's the only festival of its kind. Instead of having a designated area of stages, the whole city is the stage, all the clubs in the city are stages. My next exciting booking is the Babylon Festival in Australia, I can't believe I get to play alongside people like Damien Lazarus, Nina Kraviz, all my idols in techno. That's something I've never done before so I'm really excited about it.
Do you have any other projects or plans coming up?
Yes, I want to stop doing so many gigs actually because I want to focus on production and release an EP by next year. I want to take a few months out and just work in the studio, making music. I’ll also be moving to London in March next year. It’s one of the most exciting places to be in for electronic music, the scene there is incredible, really diverse and unique. I’ll still be coming back to Hong Kong to visit though! Keep an eye on my SoundCloud, I’ll be putting out more mixes and some original demos but the big releases won’t be coming out until next year.
