'Lioness' by Olly Hite. Co written and produced by Multi Grammy award winner Robert Cutarella and released by Mesa Bluemoon Recordings. 'Lioness' is a Piano driven pop Ballad. Echos early works of Elton John colliding with the modern melodies of Chris Martin. Beautifully crafted pop music. The song is about the empowerment of women, 'Lioness' is regal, she is nurturing and walks with pride, grace and immense beauty. The lioness is strong and powerful and will do whatever she needs to do to survive and grow. Even if it’s the unimaginable.
By Kamil Bobin
Discovered via Musosoup
Kamil) Hey Olly Hite, super nice to have the chance to chat with you. What first got you into music?
Thanks Kamil, well My Nan’s piano was sitting dormant in the lounge of our family home. Sadly no one played it, so it got wheeled into my bedroom out the way which was a converted garage. So basically we unknowingly became room mates and in time I began to play. Still have absolutely no idea what or how this happened. But very happy to be able to play what I consider to be the original PlayStation.
How do you balance your time in the studio with other commitments such as a part-time job, family, admin?
Home studio. And I’m a night owl so it works perfectly.
Your latest song is 'Lioness'. Can you tell us more about the making of it and if there were any unusual things happening during the process?
My good friend Robert Cutarella and I wrote this together. A song I’m incredibly proud off. Robert is a multi Grammy Award winning producer from Hollywood. We met whilst I was over there playing the piano bars, so to have his talents involved in this song was personally mind blowing. We’ve got more songs pending this being our first collaboration together.
A music video was shot for 'Lioness'. Can you write us about the behind the scenes?
Well the song “Lioness “ is about female empowerment and I really wanted to get that across as strong as possible in this music video.
I was lucky enough to have the incredible film director Mark Hamilton steering the ship and the fantastic actor Coral bead playing the Lioness. We basically created a short film with a dramatic ending.
Part of the video includes a piano that slowly gets submerged into the sea. We had to remove the iron frame out of the piano in order to make it a movable prop. But we didn’t take into consideration we had really created a piano boat. We had a great production team and one poor man who had to spend a lot of time in the sea holding his piano stable whilst we shot the video.
What would you be doing right now, if it wasn’t for your music career?
Dealing in antiques and restoring old vintage camper vans.
How do you know when a work is finished?
I don’t think you ever do know you just have to call it a day at some point otherwise you’ll be tinkering with it forever. Basically it comes to a stage where it sounding complete and you have to let it go.
What is one message you would give to your fans?
Thank you so much for the support. The messages and support really do help fuel the fire, although I make music I to am a music fan, music is medicine it’s a mood altering substance and something I could never live without.
Do you have a mentor or coach?
I have a few thankfully. In my opinion it’s really important to have goto people to share your art with before you share it to the world, you can get to close sometimes to your own work, so to step back and get another opinion from an honest friend is priceless.
Who is your favourite musician?
Elton John, he’s why I play the piano!
What are your plans for the future?
To keep sharing songs written from the heart and performing live and sharing those experiences with people all over the world.