For the better part of the last decade, Brian Olive has been someone’s guitarist — sometimes as Oliver Henry or Henry Oliver — from post-high school outfits to his stints with The Greenhornes and Soledad Brothers. When the time finally came for Olive to blaze a solo trail, he had plenty of experience to draw on when considering what he wanted to accomplish as a solo artist.
Like the bands that he has contributed to, Olive’s solo album has a definite Garage/Blues feel to it, but there’s also an undeniable streak of Memphis/Stax Soul running through the album. A good deal of the way the album sounds is clearly due to Olive’s musical vision and influences, but he’s quick to spread the credit around.
“In the past, I would have played a lot more of the instruments, but then I realized I had all these people around that I could call on and do the parts,” Olive says. “And I realized they were doing it as good or better than I would have, because they were coming in with an outside perspective.”
As the lone songwriter on the project, Olive certainly feels as though he was able to draw on a wider array of musical influences to craft these songs. At the same time, he’s philosophical about how those influences are reflected in the finished work.
See him Saturday at the Northside Tavern and Read Brian Baker's interview here.
