Olivia Somerlyn has garnered a firm following on social networking sites, but her name is guaranteed to leak into the mainstream in the near future.
Olivia is part of a powerful wave of ‘YouTube stars’ like Justin Bieber, who use the powers of social networking to build up a huge fan base referred to as ‘SomerLovers’.
Fresh off the Nickelodeon Summer Break Tour, Purple Revolver caught up with this rising internet star before she took to the stage in Liverpool to support Jessie J.
We asked her opinions on Miley Cyrus and also about what she thinks it takes to make it in the music industry these days.
Purple Revolver: How are you finding Liverpool?
Olivia Somerlyn: I love it, it’s so fun and I did the Beatles tour yesterday. That was probably one of the biggest highlights of the tour so far. It was probably my first day off where I have been able to do some sight seeing so it was really, really great.
PR: Have you learnt anything useful from touring with Jessie J?
OS: Yeah, even by watching her I learned so much, but then when we got to talk, she gave me vocal exercises, like some weird tongue exercises, but she is an amazing singer, so I’m just going to take her word for it. She gave me a tongue twister to say, which is really great. But, she also gave me advice about song writing too.
PR: Are you running the risk of those who help you when you start out defining who you become as an artist?
OS: I think this is something that everyone has to consider when they are starting out and I’ve just turned 19, so I’m older than that ‘tween’ audience, but I did think about that when I went on the Nickelodeon tour. But, I’m not signed to Nickelodeon or Disney or one of the younger labels, so, I don’t think that it is really going to affect me in that way and it won’t define me.
PR: Obviously, Miley Cyrus made her name as Hannah Montana with Nickelodeon. Have you got anything to say on all of the latest controversy surrounding her?
OS: I think that, Miley Cyrus started off as Hannah Montana, but hasn’t ended up letting it define who she became as an artist.
She is growing up as an artist and this is how she wanted to express herself and I don’t think anybody really has the right to judge that. I was asked once, ‘do you think you will ever go down that road yourself, to that extreme level?’ and I just wouldn’t because it’s not my personality and it’s not what I want to do.
But, I’m not saying it’s a bad thing that somebody else wants to do that, it’s just that I wouldn’t.
PR: Okay, with all that said do you have any predictions for the future of pop music?
OS: It’s so hard to predict and I have these conversations all the time with band mates, we are like ‘what’s happening with this crazy industry now?’
I hope that the internet will become a big part of it because it is something that will help me along with social media. People ask if I’m a YouTube artist, but I feel I’m more of a social media artist. I think this will be something more prominent in the future, with artists being built on social media. We are in a generation of YouTubers, like Justin Beiber who started on YouTube and have built themselves into massive stars.
But it’s also really important for me to have face to face time with everybody. Anyone who wants to come to my meet and greets, I make it very accessible, because I love Twitter. But, if people don’t have it, it is still really important for people to connect. But, Twitter is a great way to supplement that.