Video premiere: Olivver the Kid, ‘Attica ’71’
Kevin Bronson on
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A year ago, Bryan Sammis departed his job as drummer for L.A. quintet the Neighbourhood and embarked on making music as Olivver the Kid. His “Freak” EP, released in October, is musical salve for emotional wounds, dark meditations that offer the same soft-to-the-touch feel as some of his old band’s pop. For the song “Attica ’71,” Olivver uses as a metaphor the four-day riots at New York state’s Attica Prison (history lesson), an ambitious leap to be sure, but when you feel trapped, your mind sometimes visit strange places. Says Sammis: “When the Neighbourhood and I amicably parted ways last January I went into a frenzy of songwriting,” with “Attica” being one of his first. He adds, “It started out as a slow and sad song, but when I took the songs into the studio we really wanted to take it some place a little more alt-pop … Cue Danny Score. Danny has done a lot of production work for my friend Jez Dior and I hit him up about working on some tracks. He knew where [the song] needed to go and helped me get it there.” The sleek video, meanwhile, is the work of director Adrian Martinez.
||| Stream: “Attica ’71” (acoustic), “Lucy (Hurt People Hurt People)” and “Freak”
||| Live: Olivver the Kid, with Halsey and Young Rising Sons, plays the Troubadour on March 11.
||| Also: Watch the video for “Keep It Sacred” below:
[…] the Neighbourhood and I amicably parted ways last January I went into a frenzy of songwriting,†explained Bryan to Buzzbands LA. “[Attica ’71] started out as a slow and sad song, but when I took the songs into the […]
[…] mirrors the song’s dark message, featuring the singer in a prison haunted by a past relationship. Says Sammis of the […]
[…] (ex-Sink Swim). Sammis delved into alt-pop and released solo EPs in 2014 and ’15 under the name Olivver the Kid, but his new partnership with longtime friend and collaborator Lopez finds the duo mining the […]