Cheerful, badass, and electrifying. These are the three words that will run through your head as the bespectacled frazzled blonde sings “High on Life” for you. We’re talking of course about emerging Rock and Roller Olya Sonica.
High On Life is a feeling, it’s an adrenaline rush you feel in your bones when you connect with something you’re passionately in love with. It calls you to elevate to a higher frequency & become one with it.
Olya Sonica made the American Dream trip some 12 years ago to the big apple, where the classically-trained pianist and self-taught guitarist made a name for herself in the local music scene before trading east-coast grit for west-coast glam and introducing herself to the Los Angeles scene.
You and I are going places
Here comes the time to face it
Any doubts you have
Step into the light
Let’s get high on life
Her adrenaline-pumping debut single “High On Life” was released on October 28th, 2022. Her forthcoming debut album was recorded and produced by Ben Rice at Degraw Sound in Brooklyn, NY, and will be released in 2023 by Fan Girl Records, a new label for women by women.
Tell us a bit about shooting the music video for “High on life”. What did you feel like you wanted to show about yourself and the song?
HOL music video is the first music video we shot w my label Fan Girl Records. It’s a celebration of setting things in motion. We took a complete DIY approach and just wanted to have as much fun as possible while shooting it in all the places we love in LA & Cali.
I wanted to show that you can get “High On Life” and have fun anywhere you want as long as you have it within you.
What inspired you to write ‘High on Life’? what’s your songwriting process usually like?
I watched a doc about Oasis playing Knebworth 26 years ago. Live footage was so electrifying, it made me feel a strong connection w myself – I came home and High On Life poured out of me. You know that feeling when you have a new experience with something you loved all your life? It’s the best. That’s where High On Life came out of.
What’s the process of Working with Fan Girl Records been like so far?
It’s a dream come true. Working with a team of passionate heart-driven, hard-working, like-minded women has been so nurturing and so inspiring. It is also very refreshing to have the support and understanding every step of the way and the level of trust we have btw each other, I am beyond grateful for this gift of life and I can’t wait to see where it takes us.
Your Debut album is coming later this year, is there any information you can share with us about it?
The album will be out in the fall, and prior to it, we will release a ton of new music and videos. The second single is to come out on Valentine’s Day. Let’s just say it won’t be your typical love song.
Fun times are ahead, so stay tuned.
When it comes to tackling music in terms of genres, there’s a lot of fluidity nowadays, but ‘High on Life’ is pretty clearly a rock song. Do you consider yourself to be a rocker through and through, or will you be exploring other sounds and genres in the future?
I am definitely a rocker, I love and resonate the most with the visceral energy that comes with rock’n’roll. Real instruments being played live & musicians exchanging, blending and creating energies through their interaction, I find it so exciting yet grounding, and very cathartic.
With that being said I enjoy different genres of music and I love to create and experiment without any pre-meditated boundaries. So the future will tell.
Your sound is kind of a child of two cities, with you, have been a part of both the New York and L.A. music scenes. What did you take from New York and into L.A.? What does the city mean for you musically in retrospect?
That’s cool you noticed that. As someone who grew up in a different country, I always connected to the music that was foreign to me geographically yet felt like home to my spirit. I wanted to experience both New York & LA musically while being a sponge for it all so I could become a melting pot of all of my musical influences. That’s why Olya Sonica is energetic. It’s where East Village meets the canyons of LA, and Brooklyn blends into the Sunset Strip w some engrained British musical sensibility sprinkled all over, haha.
What would you say is your greatest musical asset right now?
Curiosity, thrust for musical adventures and a bunch of bangers.
What are your new year’s resolutions?
I just tattooed LFG which stands for Let’s Fucking Go (there’s a second meaning – maybe I’ll reveal it one day haha) & rEVOLution on my hands.
So 2023 is for unapologetically going for it in the name of love.
