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Sunday, September 20, 2015 7:00am ET by  
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Olivia Somerlyn talks to Pressparty about 'OXO' and dealing with haters

Earlier this summer, we caught up with songstress Olivia Somerlyn on her tour as Meghan Trainor's official support act and Pressparty managed to sit down for a chat with her again this week while she was in the UK. 

The beauty performed live at London's G-A-Y last night (September 19) and recently unveiled a catchy new single called 'OXO', which has an equally addictive lyric video that features many celebrity appearances along with a fun dance routine. 

Your new single 'OXO' is incredibly catchy. What was the inspiration behind the track?

Oh, I'm so happy that you like it! Thank you! I'm sorry it's stuck in your head! It was a concept I had wanted to write for a really long time and actually it's about people who try to bring us down, but end up making us stronger by forcing us to be the ones to believe in ourselves. I wanted to write a song about haters, but from a more positive perspective. That talked about it in terms of, "oh, you can actually thank them for the motivation they gave you and for pushing you to prove them wrong". It's the best form of success.

Did you write that song from personal experience? Have you ever been met with negativity that you worked to overcome?

I think everybody has been with some negativity at some point in their lives, whether it's bullies at school or something in their career... people will always say 'it's too difficult' or 'you should choose something else'. That's why I think the song is so relatable - people who listen to the song say to me, "oh yeah, I definitely feel the same way". Obviously we can't control what's given to us or what kind of negativity people send our way, but we can control our reactions to that.

Let's talk abut the lyric video. It features cameos from the likes of all three Jonas brothers, Lindsey Stirling, Meghan Trainor, and king of mashups DJ Earworm. How did you come up with the concept for it?

I wanted to get as many people involved in it as possible... I have an idea for a music video eventually, but it's pretty elaborate so I wanted to focus on the lyric video first and foremost... so, we asked fans and asked different celebrities that are friends of mine. It was amazing and I love the social media twist. I love the part where I open the notebook because I didn't even re-write those lyrics for the video. Those are actually the lyrics from when I wrote the song! It works well because I basically wrote it all stream of consciousness. I think there's like one line crossed out - it was a very fast song to write."

 

 

 

Is that quite typical of how you tend to write songs? What's your creative process like?

I like lyrics and melody. I like to start with a concept and a title of a general storyline of what I want to say. Then I want to write either just the chorus melody and write the chorus lyrics, or write the general melody and fill in the chorus lyrics. I generally like to fit lyrics into melodies - it's like a puzzle! I have a word bank - one side of the page is like the song title... then I write all these words down and as I go, I cross words off like 'I managed to fit that word in'. I have a title, theme or story and then think of different words and images that go with it. I fit those in and they tend to spark other ideas.

There's another song I've written called 'Smoke' - it's the idea of what happens after the spark of a new relationship dies down and you're left with this smoke rising... you know, what happens then? I had a word bank there - I like to think of words, images and concepts and then see what comes from that. I really just write songs, but when I was little I thought I wanted to write books. It would be fun to write other things... but music's like poetry. It's fun to fit words into a melody.

Part two of the interview will be uploaded later this afternoon and we'll reveal Olivia's top fitness tips, her favourite workout plans and the things she loves most about London. 

Follow us: @Pressparty on Twitter Pressparty on Facebook.

Watch her fantastic new lyric video for 'OXO' here:

 

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