Olivia Lee of the Oakland-based electronic trio discusses synthesizers, intergenerational bonds, and enduring dreams
Photo by Kristin Cofer
Since her adolescent days in which she learned to play piano on a three-tier Electone under the tutelage of an electronic composer, Olivia Lee’s eclectic musical upbringing has informed a career driven by distinct innovation. Her indie-electronic trio There’s Talk bears witness to that notion with a catalog grounded in sweeping atmospherics and lyrical surreality, both on 2018’s bathed water moon and their new 2020 output, Great Falls. Amidst waves of instrumental bliss, there is a spotlight on Lee’s hazy reflections on sentiments both personal and intergenerational, intersecting at a point where time and individuality blur beyond recognition.
Originally from Virginia, Lee’s formative years were fittingly varied as she co-existed within a range of musical spaces: the new-age classical fan, the Garden State soundtrack lover, and the closeted alt-rock devotee stealing mixtapes from her brother. Her musical training was equally unconventional as she learned how to pad switch and play sheet music with a synthesizer, foreshadowing her teenage times in which she’d live loop at a local club’s open mic. She laughs and recalls, “I learned at an early age to just love pad surfing, you just go through 400 presets and land on some funky trumpet and you’re like, yeah, this is the one I’m gonna make my next hit with.” As the years progressed, her relationship with music evolved into a more intuitive process with higher levels of command over the artform, naturally leading to more formal projects down the line.
After moving to the Bay Area in 2009, Lee eventually met collaborators Kellen Balla at a music store and Young Lee through the local indie rock scene. Realizing their collective chemistry, they formed There’s Talk. Looking back on their early days, Lee fondly remembers, “We used to play in my little room in San Francisco that didn’t even have a door and we would be jamming, then…we had a bedroom and we’d play with headphones on cause with electronic music you can do that at least, so it was kinda funny, we’d be singing and anyone could hear us as acapella basically.” From those initial moments onward, There’s Talk would establish a dreamy foundation with tangible cohesion on their Tiny Strands and bathed water moon EPs. As Lee explains, “We’ve always had really good chemistry as people and musicians, and we love different kinds of music, but have such a strong Venn diagram of things we love together.”
Photo by Shelly Simon
Since the release of the bathed water moon EP in 2018, Lee has personally experienced a swelling of artistic growth that’s deeply informed her creative process, stating, “I think I have a clearer sense of direction and more faith in myself.” That sentiment is readily discernible on Great Falls, as its five tracks offer a thorough array of reflective tendencies, looking inward for inspiration through the bonds of familial blood first and foremost. Behind this intergenerational aspect, Lee explains “there is some exploration of grief and it feels very much like a dedication to certain family members; my mom, my aunt, people that are just ingrained in me. When I look at pictures of them, they look like me, and I wonder what their life was like when they were this age…that’s hard to shake and I think is worth honoring cause they’re just in my blood, you know?” That bond is particularly unique by proxy of being raised in a Chinese-American household, one where she recalls “all the little things, all the little beautiful moments that I grew up with…food and smells and music and pentatonic scales,” all sensory elements that inform her work.
With fascinating lines like “swallow eight whole past lives,” another lyrical form that takes shape throughout Great Falls is contemplations on dreams and their relation to greater spiritual questions. During our conversation, Lee asks, “Where do dreams go if you have them every night and you remember them and then you store them in your body? It’s like you have an extra life when you’re sleeping…I feel like that can speak to a lot of other experiences that you don’t experience in your waking life.” She expands into her spiritual perspective, explaining, “I’m not beyond seeing the power of certain coincidences happening, messaging especially through nature and things like that, so it’s hard to describe exactly, but I feel this openness in my heart to the divine and coincidences…in this way that is deeply comforting, that feels very much like passed down…hard to say by who or what, but it lives in you, this animal instinct.”
From a purely musical standpoint, Great Falls also finds Lee and There’s Talk at the height of their creative pursuits with a sound that’s considerably expanded in scope. Standout single “Disinformation” is possibly their finest exploration to date, fusing hauntingly modulated vocals with an ice-cold instrumental that gives The Knife a run for their money. Lee explains the track is influenced by “raw anger…it definitely doesn’t come across in a lot of my music, but I definitely can hold that as a part of myself, and that was a really great track for that to kind of come out and not be abashed.” Further examining the EP, highlight “Golden” is introduced with traditional indie-rock sentiments before widening into synth-laced euphoria, all the while fellow cut “A Slow Return” swirls with soothing dream-pop bliss, floating like a lazy river toward infinity. The group’s collective evolution on these tracks is eminently palpable as Lee explains, “This record was not as painstaking, it just came along pretty naturally and was a lot more fun because everybody’s got their strength and I think we have a groove with bringing it to the table…knowing when to be precious and when not to…I’ve gotten more articulate with what I think should happen with a song.”
Revisiting the project’s thematic tendencies once more, Lee says, “I think there’s a lot of hopefulness…it feels like I’m reaching back at a past version of myself in a mothering way, or to a friend, or a love…to help see a brighter future in this abstract way.” With the range of profound perspectives exhibited throughout the EP, her future along with the future of There’s Talk as a whole is indeed bright with the arrival of Great Falls.
Listen to “Disinformation” below.