An Olympic New Single
surprise!!!
Hi friends!
I't’s been a loooong time since I’ve sent an email out to you all, and that is mainly because I have been very busy lately, preparing to move from London to Glasgow. Most of my stuff is packed away and I’ve been going through a lot of transitions. So, not much time to sit down and write newsletters.
BUT. If you’ve been keeping up on Substack Notes or Instagram you’ll know that I gave myself the tiny project of writing a song for every day of the Winter Olympics!
⛸️ My Residency at the Winter Olympics
I called it a ‘residency’ because it’s always been my dream to be the ‘Songwriter in Residence’ for the Winter Olympics. This is a job which does not exist but I am making it exist, goddammit!!
It was over two weeks of songwriting every single day. For me, it was a great exercise in showing up and making something consistently, and also sharing what I make consistently.
Every day I’d watch some Olympics, find something I wanted to write about, and then go to my computer and make a song. As with my last tiny songs project (100 Tiny Songs back in 2020!), I recorded my vocals through my iPhone voice memos app, sometimes some guitar and keys too, and then added beats and extra instruments on Ableton.
It has been sooooo fun to make these songs every day and share them with everyone, but soon it became apparent that one song had captured everyone’s hearts: my tiny song about the men’s figure skating final.
🪽 Mama, I’m a Mortal
If you weren’t watching, the USA’s Ilia Malinin had been hotly tipped to win the gold for this event. He’s a self-titled ‘quad god,’ meaning he’s known for executing the most quadruple jumps (turning four times!) in his programmes. Something must have been in the water because he, plus a handful of other favourites to win, had a bad skate. Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan skated beautifully but there was a lot of speculation that he wouldn’t place on the podium — he got gold, the medal a lot of people thought would be decorating Malinin by the end of the competition.
The way it all went down was so unexpected, so heart-wrenching, I knew I had to write a song about it.
This song blew UP, y’all. It got nearly 50 thousand views and even Olympians commented, saying that this is how they’ve felt going into competition. I knew I had to release it ASAP!
‘Mortal’ is about trying your best, accepting your flaws and finding value in being “you”. Being you is enough — something we can all tell each other but find it hard to believe about ourselves.
So with that in mind, it made sense that this song was released in a flawed, scrappy way.
I got stuck in to finishing the song as best as I could, with what I had available to me. I wrote a bridge and a final chorus. Then I recorded the vocals and guitar on my iPhone voice memos app because I couldn’t find my equipment amongst my mess of moving boxes. I mixed the song myself (something I’ve never done before: mixing a song that is going to be released), and my friend James kindly jumped on to master and fix up the vocal mix at the last minute.
Friends, from the song being initially written to it coming out on Spotify, there was a timeline of EIGHT DAYS.
I’ve always planned my single releases months in advance, but this song felt precious and like it needed to come out now. So here is my surprise single (a surprise even to me!). I hope you enjoy it.
✨ Some Frequently Asked Qs
🎧 Where can I listen to it?
This song is currently on Youtube and Spotify, my distributor is working on getting it to Apple Music etc but it is gonna take a few days because this single release is so last minute hee hee
If you are a Bandcamp listener, I am saving this single drop for Bandcamp Friday next week!
🎿 Are you gonna do songs for the Paralympic Games?
Tiny Songs for the Winter Olympics took about 3 hours out of my day every day, and I’m not gonna lie sometimes it drove me crazy that I had to write a song and make a little video EVERY DAY. I am going to be moving house and cities (yay!) next week so my capacity to write and share a song every day is going to be much much more limited. I am planning on doing a couple because I want to show the Paralympic athletes & the games some love, but I’m not going to be able to do the whole thing (unless someone wants to sponsor me!??!).
Thanks for sticking with me and thanks in advance for enjoying this song, sharing it, and pressing REPEAT if you love it!
I am going to take my time settling into Scottish life once I move up there (next week! yikes!) but rest assured, more projects are on the horizon.
Be good,
Olivia ✨ 🎲