Olive + Harrison Challenge the "Normal" with new Single + Video

Acclaimed New York singer-songwriter Olive Louise and producer/songwriter Harrison have formed a new duo called Olive + Harrison, whose sound exists in the midst of light-hearted Indie Pop and alternative Hip-Hop, a curious dynamic that is as enchanting and catchy as it is introspective and profound. The duo proudly describes their sound as "whimsical by nature," and more importantly "transportive". The duo, named after its two members, singer/songwriter/instrumentalist Olive Louise (born Olivia Handler) and producer/engineer/vocalist/songwriter Harrison (born Harrison Forbes Schneider), is made up of two kindred spirits joined at the creative hip.

The two musicians and dreamers, who first worked together in 2015, come from backgrounds that were both enriched by music and given the profundity of love, loss, hope, and everything in between. Their music reflects this duality, exploring these themes while offering their audiences a sense of comfort, kinship, and understanding.

In their latest release, Olive + Harrison are examining "normality" and what's normalized in society. "Normal, See?" is about the dark side of mental health struggles, depression, and the perils of hiding one's true self. Harrison, one half of the duo, says that he hopes the song can shine a light on how theatrical and absurd our performance in daily life can be. He compares the social fabric that holds our society together to a house of mirrors and says that the most frightening mirror is the one that reflects us as we really are.

The song starts off with the cold embrace of a forlorn and raggedy piano melody that gives way to Olive's chimerical vocals, which soon click with the unorthodox hip-hop structure of the beat; a preamble to the sharp verbal onslaught of Harrison's rap prowess to come roughly by the 2-minute mark, after a brief manic segway where the sound gets choppy and hectic.

The music video for "Normal, See?" is of course anything but. A vaguely eerie atmosphere accompanies the entirety of the visuals as if someone took a 2000s goth-punk brush and used it to tint every frame a darker shade or two.

Olive + Harrison engineer, write and produce their own music. They say they created a space for their deeply personal and thought-provoking art to thrive in a society that often discourages it. Harrison's insatiable curiosity about the world and Olive's passion for living life to the fullest inspire their music, which reflects their complexities in a brave and beautiful way.

Meet the author

Samuel Aponte is Venezuelan-born raised and based. 

I joined Rival Magazine after a few years of doing PR work for independent musicians of all stripes; understanding their struggles to be heard in a sea of constant  ADHD noise and paywalled access to platforms, I now bring a willingness to always appreciate and encourage the effort and creativity that artists put into their work . Can also find some of my writings on LADYGUNN and We Found New Music.