By Kalena Reynolds | Staff Writer
For Honolulu senior Olivia Siegfried, music has always been intertwined with her personal world. From the time she was in a crib, she was humming along, perfectly in tune with songs that would later become inspiration for her own music.
When Siegfried was in first grade, her parents decided to enroll her in a performing arts school to nurture her creative gifts and surround her with like-minded peers.
“I think Hawaii just had a really big impact on music,” Siegfried said. “For me, it’s a very music culture-like island, and I went to a school of the arts for basically my whole life, from first grade to senior year of high school. And I think just being around a lot of students that were passionate about art, and it was a school of arts that was like painting, acting, dancing, like it was just, I was immersed in that art culture.”
Siegfried said she began singing when she was five years old and taught herself guitar in middle school. Since then, she has honed in on her talents and released her first single in 2020, “Springtime Sadness,” under the name Olivia Anne.
“I released my first single, “Springtime Sadness” when I was 18. A couple of months later, I released “Heart Melts Like Rain,” my second single. I then released my album during my senior year of high school, and I feel like that was probably the most transformative time for my music because I really got to see the process of creating, like art.”
Siegfried’s album, “Dreams of Saturn,” was ultimately an ode to her adolescence and the experiences, both good and bad, that come with growing up. The album consists of seven songs and took her around two years to write and release.
Siegfried’s dad, Scott, said that she got serious about writing songs around the age of 15. While it was clear that she was naturally gifted, her hard work and dedication propelled her to where she is now.
“Into her mid-teens, she really started to put pen to paper and then those lyrics to music, and then piecing it all together,” Scott said. “I’d say from 15 through 18 is where it really started, just showcasing her special talent.”
Siegfried originally started writing songs as a therapeutic outlet. Channeling her inner emotions into her work as a form of catharsis, she created songs that expressed her feelings to the outside world.
“I started writing music kind of as a way of therapy, so anything that I was kind of going through, I would just write down,” Siegfried said. “And I feel like a lot of people journal or they write stories. But for me, I found music to be a great outlet for that. So whenever I was feeling anxious or sad or, even when I was happy, I would just write music, and it was a way for me to release a lot of my emotion.”
Siegfried said that she usually begins with a voice memo whenever she feels inspired to write. She records a quick lyric idea to save for later, which she re-visits once paired with a chord progression or melody that she feels fits.
Siegfried also plans to release two new singles in the upcoming year: “9 to 5” and “Over Again.” According to Siegfried, both are heavily inspired by Texas and will have a country influence.
