Olivia Montgomery Fights Her Battles With Swords and Armor— And Vulnerability Too.

Though existing in the modern world, Olivia Montgomery prefers to stay in Medieval times. Her world is one filled with knights, chainmail, Camelot, and intertwining her own experiences with the history she so deeply appreciates. Her first project, How To Be A Hero, released August 15th, is a testament to her storytelling skills. The EP is intricate, each detail filled with meaning and purpose. Montgomery chatted with us about each track on the project, and why it’s so important to listen to them in order for the full experience.

Olivia, where are you from and how did you start in music?

I'm from San Diego, California originally. I've always been so drawn to singing, performing, and music. saI took piano lessons, then started taking singing lessons as well. I was also doing musical theater for a little bit. I kind of pivoted and well, at the same time as I was doing theater, I joined a rock band. I was in seventh or eighth grade and we were a band through my sophomore year of high school. I think I owe a lot of the way my music sounds, or the reason why my music sounds the way it does, to the band that I was in during high school. We didn't really write songs, we just played covers mostly, but it was all rock music. So I don't know, that kind of just really made me fall in love with performing that type of genre.

That makes so much sense. It's always the high school bands where things start, and it becomes a big influence on your life, so I totally get that. Before we get into talking about the EP, I'd love to give you an opportunity to introduce anything that you'd like to say about it, or any kind of preface that you’d want listeners to know.

This is my first project release ever, my first body of work. I'm really excited about it! It's largely influenced and inspired by The Once and Future King by T.H. White and the 2011 BBC show Merlin. All the songs are written about personal experiences or are inspired by experiences that I've been through, but I wrote the songs to a storyline, and it was all inspired by the King Arthur legend and Camelot and the Isle of Avalon and all that stuff.

That is the perfect segue to my next question! Something I know that helps a lot of other people find artistic inspiration is just all kinds of media. I was going to ask what kinds of media have played a role in this EP and in building an image. Books, movies, TV shows, other musicians, whatever it be— and I'd love for you to go a little more in depth about the ones that you'd already mentioned as well.

Totally. It's funny because me and my best friend, when we were 10 or 11, we started writing songs together, and they were kind of about made up stuff. But as I got older and started experiencing life, i think i started writing mainly about my own experiences. What i'm trying to say is this is kind of like the first time i've really like been influenced by media—My natural instinct is to write solely based off of things that happened to me as a way of processing my experiences. It felt really perfect because I came up with the title for the EP like two years ago when I first started writing “Fortify Me,” which was the first single. At that point, I hadn't seen the TV show Merlin. I knew all of The Once and Future King stuff, but I wasn't really as invested in it yet. Flash forward to the following summer, I got really into it and then I realized, ‘oh this is what I've been writing about.’ It was almost exactly what I’d been writing, and I knew I could make it fit in with that theme and characters, and the TV show really heavily inspired it. I'm a big nerd, I'm really into fairytales, and also I'm also a huge fan of the show Once Upon A Time. They talk so much about what it means to be a hero. I watched that as it was coming out when I was younger, and then my roommate and I started re-watching it. Actually, we re-watched it when I first wrote “Fortify Me.” So that's, I think, where the title came from, and then it changed into this Arthurian legend plot. Does that answer your question at all?

Yes, it totally does. I was wondering where the whole medieval vibe, the chain mail, all of that came from, which is another perfect segue into my next question. The first thing that really called me to this EP was the visual alone, because it's so unique. There's not a lot of music now that's inspired by these specific things that you've been talking about, let alone giving the same visual that the EP does. So I was wondering, how important is it to you to craft an aesthetic? I just love the chain mail and sword look, and also how the lyrics hold those same themes. I'm curious if this is more something that you worked hard to curate, or if it just came together naturally because of all the things that you fell in love with.

Kind of both. I knew that when I was going to release my first project, whether it was like an EP or an album, I wanted there to be a storyline and for it to have a plot and consistency. That was long before I started writing it, but I just didn't really know what. Then, it kind of all fell into place really beautifully because after I wrote the first song, it was like a hundred percent inspired by an interaction I had with one of my friends. Part of it is just because I love all of these different things and I think the night imagery is super cool. I wanted to do something that I didn't really see anyone else doing, but I also wanted it to make sense. You know, I didn't want to just like throw on like knight armor and be like, okay, this is my EP. And here are some songs that have nothing to do with that at all. That was always something that I kept in mind, but I think crafting a visual for my next project is going to be a lot more difficult. At least it seems like it right now, maybe it'll fall into place again. I think the next thing I'm working on is more about my life. It's always easier for me to craft something when it’s based on specific media, it’s just easier to say, ‘Ok, I’m going to do the knight thing now, because I’m talking about being a hero.’ When I think of a hero, I think of medieval heroes, not like a superhero. That's just where my brain goes because that's what I like.

I do understand how it can be both— something unique to yourself while pulling from your favorite media. You mentioned that this EP tells a story, so I'd love to talk about the tracks in the order that they appear. “Fortify Me” is not only the opener, but it's an amazing standout on the project and the perfect intro. The lyric “poison only works if you're not used to it / I fed it to myself first” is one of my favorites from the whole project. Can you tell me a little bit about how this song came to be?

Thank you, yes. That's also one of my favorite lines from the project. I remember when I wrote it, I was like, oh, yes. I kind of ate that.

Yeah, you did. You totally did.

Thank you. The concept is from The Princess Bride. I haven't seen it in so many years, but it's burned into my memory, specifically the scene where he, I forgot the main character's name, but when he's talking about how he built up this immunity to poison by drinking a little bit of it every day. That was like the concept for the line, but in the song, it's in reference to saying mean things about yourself. It's like, oh, you're telling me all of these things that you think about me that are like not very nice, but like, it doesn't really hurt me because I was already telling that to myself to begin with. So that's kind of what I was trying to write. For some reason that just made so much sense to me— it being this type of poison.

I think that line is brilliant, especially now that you've broken it down even more. It's amazing.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Yeah, it's definitely one of my faves.

Let's talk about “Death Card.” Sonically, this track feels like a slow unraveling, a building of emotion that's still trying to find its climax. I'd love to hear a little bit about the story behind that track and what state of mind the lyrics came from.

That is an excellent question and analysis. Writing this song was very interesting; it's the only song on the project that I wrote this way. Essentially, what I did was, I sat down, and I think I had the melody in my head and I just… used a stream of consciousness. Everything I was thinking, I just wrote it all down. I wasn't thinking about what I was saying. It was just coming out in a complete stream of consciousness. I was trying to, I guess, convey this feeling. I wanted the song to sound sonically like this state of limbo, a never ending cycle that you just can't get out of. It just keeps going and going and going. I was in this situation with someone and it was constantly weighing on me, and I think that's where the song came from, because that's how it felt. It's funny because when I initially sat down to write it, I wanted to write a song that sounds like Fiona Apple. I wrote it and I played it for my band, and they were like, let's make this a Radiohead song. Then we went into the studio and it became more of a Pink Floyd song. It had many different lives for sure. I wrote it start to finish in like 30 minutes, and I think at some point later I went back and I edited a couple lyrics.

It's so interesting that you mentioned it being kind of like a cycle that you can't get out of. That was legitimately what I was thinking about when I was listening to it. I feel like the focus of the song isn't as much on the lyrics as it is like the feeling as a whole. I couldn't fully make out all of the lyrics and that put my attention more so on the instrumentals, I guess, and how the song flowed. It did feel like it was building, but then there was no climax, and it keeps you in one place. I can see how intentional that was.

That's exactly what I wanted. I'm glad that it came across that way. It's kind of uncomfortable to listen to, and it's so repetitive. I think it can come off as like, ooh, this makes me feel a little uneasy, but when I played it at my live shows, it got like really great response, so I was like, I better record this one

Yeah, it's unsettling in the best way. You can really feel the story that the track itself is telling, even without understanding all of the lyrics. The main focus doesn't feel like it's on the words that are being said as much as it is the vibe of the song as a whole, like I said. Okay, let's talk about “What You Want.” This song brings up the idea of being the defender, but not being what the person wants. I can feel the pain that lies under the surface of this one. How were you able to morph that pain and sadness into song form?

This is the pivotal track. Track three is like the character arc that's happening, and then track four is the climax. This song was the hardest one to finish. I remember sitting upstairs and I wrote it on piano, which actually, that was also kind of cool because piano was my first instrument. I used to only write my songs on piano, but then when I moved to Nashville, I couldn't bring my keyboard with me. So I had to start writing solely on guitar and now I have it, but I really mostly write on guitar.

Anyway, when I wrote it, I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to write anymore. One of my good friends, his name is Austin, he produced that track. I brought the song to him because we had never made anything together, but we both do music. I was kind of thinking like, oh, if it's cool, maybe it'll go on the project as an interlude because it was really short at first. We started working on it, and then it morphed into this whole different thing entirely. Sometimes writing is like a puzzle. You get certain pieces of it, and then you're kind of trying to figure out. The last part of the song I wrote was the second verse, and I didn't write that until we were recording vocals. That whole back half of the song where the drums come in only happened because the two of us were working together. All the lyrics are very important to the story as a whole. I see this as either a hero to villain arc, or a villain to hero arc. It kind of depends on the way that you listen to the two songs before and the two songs after. The project, at its core, is really about perception and how you view yourself in relation to other people. Fun fact—when I do play this live, it's going to be different. There are going to be more verses in the back half, and the front half is kind of going to be cut. There are going to be all these verses that are added in that can only be heard live, and it’s actually very integral to the story. If you want to get the full version, come to a show and see the song live!

I love that you left the exact storyline kind of ambiguous because it's more fun for the listener to be able to figure it out themselves, and that gives them a special and unique perspective. Alright, let's move on to “Challenger.” This track seems to match up lyrically with the vibe of the aesthetic. The lyrics, “Armed to the teeth / Stake in the bone / When the skin splits / Ready for war,” hold this theme of the fight. What were you fighting when you were writing this song?

What was I fighting? I was... really angry. Honestly, it was kind of written about two different scenarios. One of those people was an ex, and there was a lot of back and forth after we broke up, a lot of drama. I was really angry because there wasn't very clear communication, and I'm a person that wants to talk everything out. They just wanted to pretend like nothing was happening, and it was just a very weird and difficult time in my life. Now it kind of feels like the situationship final boss song to me because it's like… why did you put me through this if it wasn't gonna last? But really, that relationship was not a situation. That was a three year relationship. The song was also inspired by someone else who I would argue with all the time because he was just an asshole. We had a really complicated friendship, and some days he hated me, and some days he didn't.

I'd love to hear an in-depth analysis of the final song. Track five and the last of the EP, “Avalon,” talks about letting sleeping dogs lie. Can you tell me about that lyric and what exactly the Avalon is?

It was based on the like phrase of letting sleeping dogs lie, and kind of like, we never actually ended this. In my head, putting the dogs to bed is like when you're letting sleeping dogs lie. Like, okay, it's dead. It's done. I'm just going to let it be. “We never put the dogs to bed / so how the hell am I supposed to let them lie?” This is like, okay, the dogs were never asleep. So how am I supposed to leave it alone? There's still unanswered questions and there's still like things that we haven't talked about, you know? So that's kind of where that came from. I like a fun little twist on the phrase too, I think.

Can you tell me more about the Avalon aspect of that and what it means to you?

Yeah, so Avalon is... In the King Arthur legend, Avalon is the isle that they take him like after he's mortally wounded in battle, and it's either to die or to heal. In the legend he dies, but he's supposed to come back because he's the once and future king, like in the future he'll make his return. It feels very like biblical to me too, kind of. I was thinking a lot about the concept that that's the place where they take the heroes to die. But at the same time, it’s also a source of great magic and power.

One other thing. Avalon, I looked it up. It was loosely translated to mean apple. That's also why there's the apples in the photo shoots, it’s kind of a little Easter egg. When I figured out the whole Camelot and chainmail thing, I realized that I needed the last track on the EP to be called Avalon. I hadn't written the song yet I just knew that that's what it needed to be. Avalon is the end of the legend, the end of the story. In “Challenger,” there’s foreshadowing a little bit, there's a line that's says, “I'm ready for the end.” That's kind of in reference to knowing what’s about to happen, and “Challenger” is also the climax. I see the instrumental as the final battle scene. Then “Avalon” is the end. It's about loss of yourself and finding yourself again, and the loss of another person. I left it ambiguous—maybe I died at the end, maybe I didn’t. It’s kind of also a symbol for rebirth, I think, because of this concept that he's going to return from this isle. So it can be hopeful. It can also not be, depending on how you want to look at it. It's also very much about being haunted by people or things or your own path. I wrote it after I did a lot of really intense work on myself last fall, and grew a lot as a person. In context with the EP, it's kind of a reflection on everything that you've just listened to, and a reflection on who you've been and who you are now.

I really love how intentional each piece of this was. Every fact that you wanted to incorporate into it and every piece of your personal life, it flows so well. I was just thinking that I know what rabbit hole I'm going to fall down next, and it's definitely going to be the history of Avalon. Thanks so much for your time!