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Photo: Petros

Blessed with a timeless, intimate voice to soundtrack life’s unruly emotional slings and arrows, Olivia Dean has rightly been lauded for having generational potential, an artist you can confidently share with even music neophytes and they too will swoon. In her debut album Messy, this East Londoner pushes aside the barriers of quick trends and genres to leave listeners wide open with awe, a picture glass of shared memories, a true instant classic. Waiting to know more about what to eat while listening to her praiseworthy debut, what she’s listening to, and how she settled on the amazing album artwork, we reached out via e-mail to find out more. 

Ones To Watch: Who is Olivia Dean?  

Olivia Dean: I’m a singer/songwriter/music lover from East London!

What is Messy all about? 

Messy is an album about learning to fall in love again, the fear that comes with it, and finding independence within that still. It’s about being grateful for where you came from and accepting life’s imperfections.

How’d you settle on the album cover art; it's so dynamic and unconventional.  

Funny story! We actually did a whole shoot with a completely different concept but I didn’t feel like any of the images represented the feeling of the record. I kept coming back to this image from a shoot I’d done a while ago with an amazing photographer Petros. I love how it felt blurred and candid, I knew the album just needed to be an image of my face. Me at 24! So we went back to this image and I’m so glad. I love this cover. I love the purple too. It’s a very powerful and comforting colour for me.

Any collaborations when writing the record? Who produced the album? 

I worked with some amazing songwriters on this album. I’m not someone who is afraid of collaboration but I can only write good things with people I trust and know very well. Matt Hales produced and co-wrote a lot of the album with me. We wrote "Slowly" together on my last project Growth and that is one of my favourite songs I’ve ever written. I wrote "The Hardest Part" and "Dive" with Bastian Langebaek and Max Wolfgang. they are brilliant and we have so much fun working together, those songs have been so important in shaping the whole record.

How do you feel your sound has evolved or changed since your first single? 

I feel like this is the most refined my sound has been. I wasn’t worried about the album’s genre too much, as maybe I have been in the past. I think I sound free!

Can we expect more of this style in the future? Or is this just a step into further evolution? 

I think anything is possible for me sound-wise in the future. There really are no rules with music, so I hope my next album will just be a reflection of what I’m enjoying during that chapter of my life. I never want to be in a box, musically.

Besides this excellent album, what else should we be on the lookout for? 

Gigs and lots of them! I want to tour this album as far and wide as possible and bring the music to all the humans that want to hear it.

What's inspiring you right now outside of music? 

Knitting, yoga, cooking and cycling are my favourite things to do outside of music. All require your full attention and are very therapeutic activities for me.

Food best paired when listening to Messy? 

Good question! I think a roast dinner and a pint of red stripe. With Mac and cheese on the side. The Caribbean way!

Who are your Ones To Watch? 

I’m really bad at listening to new music. I’m quite an old soul. But I’m loving Billie Marten’s new album and King Krule’s too!

Olivia Dean's Messy is available now.