By Jim Barber
Art is meant to be a vehicle, or a conduit for the transmission of thought, spirit, information and emotion. Music has always been one of the most effective and evocative, moving and inspiring forms of creative expression. The way melodies can stir the souls, or lyrics can make one ponder new ideas and new ways of thinking, and the way a whole song can help someone process pain, joy or righteous anger is powerful stuff.
For Edmonton, Alberta-based singer/songwriter Olivia Street, who has released four albums under the King of Foxes banner, she has always wielded the power of song as a tool for self-examination, self-discovery and search for inner truth. The results are both therapeutic for her but also instructive for listeners. This is particularly the case with her forthcoming new album Hall of Shame (being released in September), where she inserts her own experiences into a revelatory and searingly honest examination of the concept of shame – with the theme acting as a continuous, if occasionally subtle thematic thread through all of her new compositions.
“I feel like the theme came out so organically because it was right around the time I just signed a publishing deal, which was a big career move for me. I was really excited about it and it opened up all these doors for co-writes with people that were professionals and working at really high performance in the industry. And I remember being in one of the first co-writing sessions with Zach [Zanardo, more about him shortly] who I went on to collaborate with on this whole album. I was a little bit starstruck by his resume. And as we’re writing together, I felt myself sort of getting so blocked in the moment and thinking, ‘oh Olivia, just snap out of it. Why can’t you just be cool? Why can’t you just do this?’ And I actually went to the bathroom for a moment and as I was splashing water on my face I looked in the mirror and said, ‘just for today, just for today, could you please just get over yourself and show up with some confidence?’ So, actually that line, ‘just for today’ ended up becoming the chorus to the title track, ‘Hall of Shame,’” she explained.
“That was the entry point into the whole album. It ended up sort of unravelling this theme within me of wondering why do I feel not worthy enough? Why do I always feel like I’m sabotaging myself? I just feel it’s such a human thing. I don’t think I’m the only person struggling with this, at least I hope I’m not the only person who feels that way, especially in the creative world. At the same time that we believe in our dreams as artists, we’re also self-doubting ourselves along the way. I think shame is a good thing to have in some ways. We’ve evolved as social creatures and it’s kind of a feeling that keeps us in check so that we’re not egomaniacs, so that we’re kind to each other, so that we help out our fellow humans. Shame actually drives those things in a good way. But there’s obviously a dark side too, when we turn those feelings on ourselves; when it silences us as well. I think as women particularly, it’s a societal force where we’ve really internalized the lesson quite well.
“But a sort of revelation came to me, when we hear that little voice inside us, rather than tamping it down or telling it to shut up, to say thank you to it. ‘Thank you, I know that you’re just trying to keep me safe. You’re trying to stop me from embarrassing myself or opening myself up for criticism. So, thank you, but actually, I’m okay.’ It’s acknowledging it with a bit of softness and kindness rather than always shoving it in the closet, keeping it under lock and key and not letting it out. It was actually during that one songwriting session in the moment, where when I was at the bathroom mirror, and how it ended up unlocking the key to everything else that I wrote about last year. Even with ‘FMLU’ the single that just came out, I was looking at some of the darkest, most embarrassing moments of my life and how those were in a way like transformative things that seemed horrible at the time, but actually opened the door to the next part of my life, the next phase. In that moment where I asked myself if I was good enough to do this and I was worried that I wasn’t, the only way out is through, right? And I think proving to myself that I could walk back into that writing session and say, ‘hey, what about this line.’ From there, the ball was rolling and I was able to put out what I think is my best album yet. So in the middle of those feelings of doubt, there is always a path forward. I really think there is no such thing as failure. Every time we try something, we learn, so when we are putting things out into the world, regardless of how they are received, or how others look at them, we are succeeding.”
Hall of Shame is a much-anticipated follow up to King of Foxes previous albums: Golden Armour (which was released the same year her son was born, a full decade ago, followed by Salt & Honey (2019) and 2021’s Twilight of the Empire.
The daughter of a music professor at the University of Alberta, Prof. William Street, Olivia, who was actually born in Evanston, Indiana, but moved to Alberta when she was five, is also an educator at the post-secondary level, teaching songwriting at MacEwan University, also located in Edmonton. Therefore, growing up literally surrounded with both the sound and theory of music as part of her daily life, she understands the potency of music in soothing the proverbial ‘savage breast’ as the old adage goes, especially when confronting the complicated, difficult and perhaps even frightening impact of shame on our individual lives.
“Most of us have to, or probably should, do therapy in some way, either in an office with a professional, or in a songwriting room. So it’s definitely how I come to understand myself better and how I connect with the world on those things. I think the reason music moves us and we share a moment is because there’s something in it that we recognize in ourselves. It doesn’t have to be a literal thing, but understanding emotively what another person is going through and connecting on that level,” she said, as she talked about her upbringing and musical influences.
“Music was definitely in our house all the time. We had a Beatles songbook at the piano and my dad was always playing songs from that book and that was where I got my education in the Beatles, which I think every songwriter needs. But I actually went to school for Drama. I did theatre growing up and that was sort of the world I lived in. I didn’t actually buy my first guitar until I was in my first year of university. I got my first electric guitar and taught myself how to play and joined a Punk band and never looked back. So, music was always around the house but it wasn’t necessarily the genre that I ended up developing for myself. It was more about classical piano. I also did classical violin. My dad is actually a contemporary classical saxophonist.
“Later on I came to love the artists that live in that world of Nirvana and Weezer, Fountains of Wayne, Sloan – the music I grew up with, which to me in so many ways is kind of like a 1990s version of The Beatles. So all those, as well as Liz Phair, PJ Harvey, Alanis Morissette, they were really inspirational for me for sure. Over the years, when people ask me about my music, I’ve been comparing myself to a female-fronted Sloan or Weezer, which I think does paint a picture of what you might hear. It’s a little bit irreverent and I have a lot of fun with it, but there’s a lot of grit in the sound and in some of the messages too.”
A keen observer of the world around her, as well as being blessed with an abundance of self-awareness and the fearlessness of an artist, Street utilizes these skills and gifts of insight and introspection to build songs which focus on these interpretations through the lens of her own life and experiences. She is then able to then communicate them through her compelling and boldly authentic lyrics and memorable melodies into compositions that indeed achieve the intent of hitting the listener solidly in ‘the feels.’
“It never comes the same way twice. I’m definitely a person who really loves lyrics and really loves melody. Sometimes I’ll just be listening for little snippets of other people’s conversations and I’ll steal a little phrase that just strikes me as an interesting way to describe something or go back and look through little bits and pieces in my notebook,” she said.
“Then often those ideas kind of come back and end up sort of finding themselves a melody in my brain. So, I might start there. But sometimes too, I’ll give myself little projects or little exercises to generate ideas. I teach songwriting as well, and because as our lives get more complicated as we get older, it’s harder to just sit down and be like, ‘okay I am going to write right now.’ So, I’ll give myself a little exercise, like writing a letter I’ll never send and then turn that letter into a song. That sort of thing can spur creativity when you give yourself a little bit of a boundary to work within.”
Part of the renewed sense of tenacity and confidence in herself as a songwriter is Street’s willingness to work with other songwriters; to get different takes on her material, learn new ways of looking at the writing process and build relationships that make the sum of the parts (each writer’s input into the song) better than the individual pieces. Many of the compositions on Hall of Shame were co-written with her husband and King of Foxes guitarist Brandon Baker who is also an artist of note in his own right, writing and performing what she says he calls ‘Metis Disco’ with his band Electric Religious. As well, Street solicited the assistance of Juno Award winning musician Zach Zanardo, former of The Monowhales, for much of the work, and his fellow former collaborator in that band, Jordan Zircosta who participated in a few writing sessions.
“I actually do love a challenge and co-writing ensures that you will always walk out of a session with something, hopefully a song, because you’re not allowed to procrastinate. You’re not allowed to obsess over it. Together, you kind of have to come through to the other side. So I do co-write a lot, although I write a lot on my own as well. I think sometimes the benefits of having a husband that’s also a musician is that I have a built-in songwriting partner at home. We’re always bouncing ideas off each other and working together. So, I’m really lucky, because he has his own thing going, but he also plays in my band,” she said.
Using her talent and highly honed abilities, combined with the experience of hundreds of shows over the past decade or more, Street has created a collection of new songs that will make ponder, but also, heck, maybe even party a little, as there is an infectious groove, and bold brazen attitude, making for a particularly potent and memorable combination.
And there was little debate as to whether or not she was going to write, record and release a full album, including physical copies.
“I do still print physical copies, although less than I used to. The music industry is definitely changing, but I truly believe that I want to create cohesive pieces of art that’re more than just a moment. It’s sort of like a painter needs multiple colours on the palette to paint something with a little more life and depth to it,” Street said.
“And I really love the art of the album and that it shows you different sides of an artist, different nuances on what their perspective is. That’s really important to me. I like to listen to albums all the way through and I think there are still a lot of people out there who do too. It’s absolutely like a snapshot or an extended story of a period of time. I think of what Ani DiFranco said all the time; she talks about a record being a record of an event, the event of people making music in a room. And I like that too, the idea of a record as an event.”
The song ‘Dynamo’ is an irreverent but still bitingly accurate look at how the spirit of youth perhaps gets compromised as we grow, get married, have kids, acquire mortgages and build our careers. Street realizes, as many of us do, that perhaps she’s fallen a little bit prey to this scenario, and this song is her waking herself up to the fact that while situations change, she is still as sprightly, incandescently awesome, strong, vital and dynamic as ever – just in a different way.
“I wrote that one sort of about ‘adulting’ and when you become a parent and you’re working in the music industry. And I distinctly remember this phase shortly after my son was born where I really wondered, what if I’ve lost everything that I though was important to me in terms of my ability to create music, my ability to rock out. I just felt like I was a different person.,” she explained.
“I felt like I’d got sucked up by a tornado and spit out the other side. So that song is about coming out of that mindset and saying how it is possible to reclaim your creativity, reclaim your part and feel like a dynamo again. It’s exploring the topic of, in my case, being a woman in music, but I think lots of parents in any line of work will relate to it; it’s not just about being a musician but just being about a new parent and trying to reconfigure your life.”
As mentioned earlier, the latest King of Foxes single/video, ‘FMLU’ (MLU stands for My Life Up … we’ll let you figure out what the F refers to), really hammers home the overall theme of Hall of Shame.
“I think I am talking specifically about gendered expectations in a lot of these songs. We are taught to be good, quiet women whose role is to the cheerleaders for everybody else. We’re taught to feel shame when we put ourselves out there, when we’re too loud, when we’re too big, when we’re ‘too much,’ you know? And when you’re being told these things all your life, even when you’re not really doing any of that – you don’t have to be over the top to receive criticism for being over the top. This all serves to tamper us down. So I wanted to talk about why I internalized those things and what is that little voice saying, and where did it come from,” she said.
Returning to the idea that art can be a force for good, for positive change and for connection, Street says artists are even more important in these current troubling times that perhaps ever before.
“I believe art has such a huge role in changing people’s hearts and minds. We as artists, have, dare I say it, a sacred responsibility to inspire people to want to change for the better. Things should always be moving more in the direction of caring for one another, and caring about the environment, caring for where humanity and the plant is going to end up. All those things are integral to art,” she said.
“You can’t separate them. It’s a human experience. It’s a shared experience. We’re all on this planet together and I feel very strongly that art has a role to play in all of that, absolutely.”
For more information on Hall of Shame, possible future shows, and other information about Olivia Street and King of Foxes, visit her social media channels or, https://www.kingoffoxesband.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, Ontario, Canada, who has been writing about music and musicians for more than 30 years. Besides his journalistic endeavors, he works as a communications and marketing specialist and is an avid volunteer in his community. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
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