✨The sun comes up over a holocene
Miles away
I can see the water sparkling
On Missoula Lake✨
Well whaddaya know! My next single from my geology album is OUT TODAY and this is a rootin-tootin’ Americana BANGER. It’s Coulee City Rodeo Queen!
Listen, love, add it to your playlists, share it online, go go GO!
‘Coulee City Rodeo Queen’ is maybe my most niche song yet. It was inspired by the Missoula Floods which were these massive ice age floods which took place at the end of the last ice age. It’s about facing the big things in life head-on, even if you feel like you can’t handle it. One of the landscapes which was forever changed by these floods was Grand Coulee in Washington. Coulee City has its own rodeo and a Rodeo Queen! And I thought, what better character to ride the oncoming wave than the Coulee City Rodeo Queen?
Later on I’m gonna share a story from my own life where I faced something big and scary. But for now, let’s take a look at some artefacts from the songwriting process…
🎚️ Notes From The Studio
Coulee was one of the harder songs to pin down for the album. My demo had just been acoustic guitar and voice, but I knew that I wanted this song to be BIG and have a full sound.
In the studio, we started off with the drums, and then laid down some acoustic guitar. I put in my vocals and then the bass, but we weren’t sure what else should go in, where and how.
Sometimes you put a song together and it just… works. Instantly. And then you think that’s how every song-making process should go.
To my frustration, Coulee wasn’t one of those songs.
So I stepped out of the room. It’s always good to leave something if you feel like you’re stuck, and come back with a fresh pair of eyes. Or ears, in this case.
We were recording in a little studio that my friends ran, in their back garden of their Hertfordshire house. I went down to the house and made myself a cup of tea in the kitchen, where I spoke to my friends’ Dad. He reminded me that the production process was about experimentation and fun.
I needed to leave space for myself to be surprised by what the song could be.
With a cup of tea, I stepped back into the room and we started experimenting. Trying little guitar riffs and piano lines, we’d just play over the song again and again until one of us said, “wait — go back and record what you just did there.”
Coulee reminds me that it’s okay to not know how things are going to turn out, and that when you go with the flow rather than against it, you’ll get where you need to go.
🎧 Listening Kit
If you haven’t listened to the song yet, let me get you in the mood. Here’s your listening kit:
Coulee City Rodeo Queen is an imaginary story (cowgirl harnesses an ice age wave and steers it into the ocean) based on a very real series of floods which happened between 15,000 and 13,000 years ago. Here’s a visual of what these floods would have looked like!
🎟️ Buy Your Tickets to the Album Launch!
Calling all Londoners, London-adjacent and people who might be in London around the 6th of March:
🎉 Comments Release Party!
Welcome to the Comments Release Party. You know the drill!
Please don a party hat of your choice: 🎩 👒 🧢
Come grab a drink from our butler: 🕴🏻🍷🍸🍹🍺☕🥛
Mingle with the guests: 👯🧑🤝🧑🤼🕴🏻
And please leave a comment: 🖋️
What did you think of the song?
What’s the big scary thing that you thought you wouldn’t be able to handle and then… you did?
Have you ever ridden a mechanical bull and is it as easy as I think it is (I think I have mechanical bull hubris)
_________ (unrelated personal opinions, thoughts and whimsies)
💌 Up Next: Liner Notes
Next week I’ll be sharing my take on album liner notes— this is a series which shines a light on each song from my album, Typical Forever. Liner Notes shows the story behind making these songs, things that couldn’t fit in a CD booklet or a Bandcamp credits section. This is my process behind writing each song: the lyrics, the music, and everything in between.
Typical Forever: Album Status
🔓 Single 1:🏛️ Earthquake Room [status: unlocked]
🔐 Single 2: 🏔️ Cascade [status: unlocked]
🔐 Single 3: 🌊 Coulee City Rodeo Queen [status: unlocked]
🔐 Single 4: 🗺️ ▓▓▓▓ ▓▓ ▓▓▓▓ [status: in the vault]
🔐 Album: 🌋 Typical Forever [status: 37.5% unlocked]
Want more? Check out some ways you can support me & my music:
get a ticket to the ALBUM LAUNCH SHOW in London!
buying my music on Bandcamp
forwarding this newsletter to a friend!
and if you haven’t already, subscribe:
Til next time! Be good,
Olivia 🌈✨🏔🎶
Share this post