Olive Featherstone

Words by Eadie Young Photographs by Lydia Cashmore

We meet in an active laundrette in early February for the shoot. Washing machines are whirring, cold crisp air outside. The colours make our surroundings seem timeless, until Olive Featherstone glides through the door; her afghan coat and her platform boots transport us to the early 70’s. 

Olive Featherstone is a Bristol based musician, in the middle of ‘trickling out’ a string of singles. Each one a silky, melodic, indie rock dream. And although the individual tracks are unique and distinct, they have gathered perfectly to form the first part of her debut album ‘I Was Wondering, Lost.’ Her writing explores deeply personal feelings (romance, heartbreak, growing up) with beautiful, unbashful honesty. 

So, I found out Olive Featherstone is not your real name. 

It’s not no... 

Where does it come from? 

Olive is quite a recent nickname I found for myself. I wanted something that was a bit more androgynous, and I wanted something that sounded like a nanny or a gran. Featherstone is my nan’s maternal name- I wanted something that represented me and had some personal meaning. 

How are you feeling after your latest release Come Clean? 

I feel good! It’s good to be back at it in the New Year. It’s the third one from the debut album ‘I Was Wondering, Lost’ and I’m slowly trickling them out, seeing the response and going off that basically. 

Writing the lyrics back in 2018, how is it to revisit that time in your life? 

It’s different. There’s something really cathartic looking back at old lyrics, you kind of detach yourself from it a little bit, once it’s done, its written out of paper and that’s it. 

Have you grown a lot as a person and an artist since then? 

Yeah definitely. Just from and experience, that whole first album was a lot more heartbroken and a lot more tainted and I think now, since then, I’ve got a new perspective of love and who I am as a person, as a writer, as a woman. You just get more... mature. 

How does releasing new music feel? 

Every emotion combined. You’re taking a massive leap. You want to fuss over stuff quite a lot and then right at the end you’re like ‘I can’t hold onto this forever, I’ve got to release it at some point, so it might as well be now...There’s anticipation and excitement for that because you know, you’re being vulnerable. You’ve just got to risk it basically. 

How long have you been making music for? 

I’ve been playing guitar since I was about 11. I had this amazing pink electric guitar that was really crappy. I would learn my favourite songs on it and that’s where I found the love of the writing. 

Any advice to your younger self, if you could speak to her? 

Oh yeah. I would give so much advice. I think for women in my generation, there was a weird way of cringing at yourself. Not being involved in things for the sake of not being shut down. At school, the girls around me could be quite subdued. I would tell myself to just be bold and take those risks, you can laugh about it later, but don’t be scared about it in the moment. I think that would be really important advice for younger me. 

Okay, kind of opposite question from the last one... What would you want to know about your future as a musician?
I think little hints. Not giving away too much. I’d wanna know if I had persisted, if I’d seen it through and been true to what I’d wanted to do at the time. Ultimately as you grow, it will always grow with you. I’d just want to know if I was true to that. 

If your song Come Clean was a button, what kind of button would it be? 

Oh, it would have to be... It would have to be a heart shaped button. It would have to be. 

How big? 

Oh, pretty big. Like unavoidable. It’s all about coming clean with your emotions to someone and being obvious and being shut down. 

The question inspires the niche description of her other releases. Opium Requiem is marble like. “A transparent, glittery haze to it. A cute little button.” And I’ll Be Sweet is described as a “vivid red, velvet, dinner jacket button.” 

Olive is planning on releasing a new song each month. This year is a ‘big old year’ for her. And very much anticipated both by Olive herself and her growing audience, whom could include you if it doesn’t already. Her music will fill your head and heart with warm nostalgia and lyrics that describe the deep feelings you’ve been longing to profess.