Ahead of her intimate, Americana-rooted debut EP ‘Human Nature,’ singer/songwriter Olivia Barnes opens up about trusting her songwriting instincts, the creative friendships that bring her best songs to life, and why she’s learned to put out only music she truly believes in.

Stream: “The Weight” – Olivia Barnes

Isn’t it funny how some people are simply given the gift of writing songs?

We all move through life experiencing more or less the same things. Love, heartbreak, joy, despair, hope, etc. Some people process those experiences by turning them into songs. It feels like a gift from somewhere else entirely. It is the ability to take something personal, strange, painful, or even ordinary and transform it into something that makes the rest of us feel a little less alone.

Olivia Barnes has that gift.

Her single, “The Weight,” is a song born from a man chasing Barnes and her friend down the street. The two went home and immediately started writing. Somewhere along the way, Barnes found herself empathizing with the man who had chased them.

“I was going through a difficult time and I just remember thinking, ‘This guy is crazy, but I’m crazy too,’” she says.

That strange moment turned into “The Weight,” a song in which she explores the things we carry with us and, eventually, learn to live alongside. Its music video takes that idea literally, with Barnes carrying a physical “weight” through her day. It is funny and lighthearted, but the meaning behind it is real. Barnes says the concept was inspired by her experience with therapy and learning to accept difficult feelings rather than constantly trying to push them away.

Human Nature - Olivia Barnes — Olivia Barnes’ debut EP, ‘Human Nature,’ is out now.

The instinct to find meaning in the strange, painful, and ordinary things that happen to us is at the heart of all great songwriting. It is certainly at the heart of Barnes’ artistry.

We caught up with Barnes ahead of her first headlining show in New York. As she put it, she was “having my city moments. Doing the New York thing.”

As a former New Orleans resident, I can’t resist talking about the greatest city in the world before we get into the music. I tell her how much I love that when you live there, New Orleans somehow feels like a small town. Barnes agrees.

“Every time I leave my house, I see at least one person I know. Even just walking down the street,” she says. “It’s pretty awesome. I’m a fan of that kind of stuff. I like feeling like you know everybody.”

Her music carries that same warmth and familiarity.

Rooted in Americana and experiences that feel both deeply personal and universal, Barnes’ songs invite you into her world. Her lyrics paint vivid pictures of heartbreak, love, anxiety, and everyday life. The production is warm and lived-in. The result feels timeless and grounded, but distinctly her own.

From “Oyster Song” and “Mary Mississippi” to the viral rise of “Reds,” which has caught the attention of artists including Dora Jar, Barnes is steadily building a loyal audience the way you are supposed to build one. She is doing it with genuinely good songs. There is no gimmick at the center of it. There is thoughtful songwriting, warm production, and music that could only come from her.

We spoke with Barnes about the songs that just feel right, recording “Like I Did Then” in a single day, almost giving up on “It’s No Fun,” and the unexpected life of “Reds.” We also get into finding the right people to make music with, playing to her biggest crowds yet with The Revivalists, and why she has learned to trust her gut when it comes to the music she puts into the world.

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:: stream/purchase Human Nature here ::

:: connect with Olivia Barnes here ::

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Stream: ‘Human Nature’ – Olivia Barnes

A CONVERSATION WITH OLIVIA BARNES

Atwood Magazine: With the past few singles you’ve put out, it feels like you’ve really started to find your sonic world. Was that intentional? How did you home in on that sound?

Olivia Barnes: Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of it was just writing a lot and kind of getting my hours in. I write a fair amount of songs, and not all of them necessarily make the cut. But yeah, I think honing those songwriting skills and developing my taste with songwriting on my own a little bit was part of where I landed with some of these.

With my songwriting, I sort of just know when the song is right pretty quickly. There have been a handful of songs where I wrote the song, kind of forgot about it, then came back to it. But I would say that with a majority of the songs I write that I end up releasing, I immediately know. It’s just kind of a feeling, I guess.

When it came to “Like I Did Then,” I immediately knew. It was one of those songs that I wrote fully for emotional release, as an emotional outlet sort of situation. I was not thinking about the recording process or anything like that when I was writing the song. I was literally just like, “I have to write the song right now.” So that just sort of naturally happened. I think, over time, it has naturally evolved through the process of me trying my hardest not to force the creativity and all that.

I think that’s so telling. I’ve talked to a lot of songwriters who say they don’t even fully understand how they’re feeling until they write it into a song.

Olivia Barnes: Yes, that’s so true.

And I love that.

Olivia Barnes: I know. It’s so funny looking back on some of the lyrics I write, and then a few weeks later I’ll be like, “That’s interesting.” Even in “Like I Did Then,” there’s still a bit of optimism in it, which is so funny because I was not happy when I wrote that song. I still was able to sneak some sort of optimism in there somehow, which is funny.

A coping mechanism.

Olivia Barnes: Literally, literally. Yeah.

It’s interesting that you know so quickly when a song feels right. Hearing your music, that makes sense. Your choruses are so hooky and catchy. I love how this one switches at the “Baby, I miss you” part. What was the process of producing and finishing it?

Olivia Barnes: Yeah, so for this song, it was kind of different than how I’ve done some of my other songs. Usually I have the song written for at least a few weeks, if not a few months, before I take it into the studio. But in this instance, I wrote the song, and then a week later I had a trip scheduled to LA to do some recording and writing and stuff like that.

I brought it into a session with my friends Ethan and Evan, who also helped produce “Reds.” They’re also just friends of mine too. So I brought the song into the session, and we finished it. It was literally, I think, one day of recording. It was a really, really fast process, which is not usually how it works for me. Usually I have to sit on things for a while, and I don’t take a song in until way later.

But this one was just pretty immediate, which was really fun. It was literally a one-day recording process, and we still talk about it. It was one of my favorite recording days that I’ve had because everything was working. It was so obvious where the song was going to go.

All three of us knew exactly where it was going to go and exactly what it needed. The vocal take was literally my first take. It was one take. That’s literally all we did, which never happens. It literally never happens. So I’m just like, I don’t know, that day there was something in the air, something in the water. I don’t know. But it was one of the smoothest and most fun recording days ever.

So yeah, that was a really, really fun one to record. It’s not always like that, but that was really, really good.

I love the harmonies at the end too. It’s incredible that it all happened in one day.

Olivia Barnes: Yeah. It’s insane. I don’t even know. We were all just so psyched about it.

I also want to talk about “It’s No Fun.” I love this one, especially the lyrics and that third verse. It feels a bit more introspective. Tell me about it.

Olivia Barnes: Yeah, so it’s funny that you were talking earlier about how sometimes you write songs and you don’t even really know what they’re about or what you’re feeling until afterwards. This was totally one of those songs because I wrote it and I wasn’t upset about anything. It’s sort of sad. I don’t know, it’s a little introspective. I wasn’t even sad, though. I guess I was feeling a mix of feelings, but I wouldn’t say sadness was one of them.

This one sort of came out pretty quickly as well. I wrote it by myself in my room in New Orleans. I remember I wrote it, and then the next day, or maybe a few days later, I had a gig where I was playing solo. I was like, “Screw it. I’m just going to play this. I like this song.”

It was one of those songs where, again, I wrote it and I was like, “Ooh, I like this. I know something’s going to happen with this song.” So I played it, and my roommate Finn, who ended up producing the song, was at that gig. He literally was like, “Please let me produce that song. I love it so much.”

When he says that he likes something, I trust him because he’ll also tell me if he doesn’t like something. So I was like, “He likes the song.” The process of that was also really fun. I recorded the main vocal with him in Georgia because his mom lives in Georgia and he records there sometimes.

I’m also from Atlanta, so we ended up overlapping in Georgia. I can’t even remember what it was, but we ended up overlapping. We produced it in a night, and it wasn’t quite right. I was kind of like, “I don’t know.” So I kind of forgot about the song for a while.

Then he brought it up to me a few months later when we were both in New Orleans. He was like, “I think that we can make this song really cool. Let’s redo most of it.” So in our house in New Orleans, we ended up reconstructing the production of the song, and it ended up being one of my favorites.

I’m really glad because when we first produced it, it just wasn’t right. The production wasn’t right. I was working on other songs at the time too, and I was like, “This one just isn’t hitting for me.” But I’m really glad he pushed me and was like, “No, we should just strip it down and try some other things.”

He was totally right. He’s really good at that too. With another song that I’m releasing soon, it was a similar situation where I was like, “I don’t know.” We tried some different production things, and I wasn’t sure about it. Then he was like, “No, I think we can try out X, Y, Z things.” That song ended up being one of my favorites that I’ve done. So it was similar with “It’s No Fun.”

He sounds like one to keep around. Having someone who’s excited about your music and whose opinion you trust feels so important.

Olivia Barnes: It’s huge. It’s definitely taken time throughout my music career to find people that I trust. I’m lucky to have friends that I trust with my music.

The New Orleans community is so creative too. Speaking of that, you’re on tour with The Revivalists, right?

Olivia Barnes: Sort of. I’m doing two shows with them in August.

That’s being on tour with them!

Olivia Barnes: You can say it. A little bit. I’m going to say it. I don’t even know what to call it. But basically, I did a show with them in Westport, Connecticut, two days ago. Tomorrow I’m doing a show with them in Chautauqua, New York, which is outside of Buffalo.

How have those shows been? I’m sure they’re big crowds.

Olivia Barnes: Yeah. I mean, I played with The Revivalists in February, and when I’ve played with them, they’ve been the biggest crowds I’ve played to, which is really fun. I’ve enjoyed it. I honestly thought I would be more nervous, but it’s more just exciting.

I’m playing solo, which is obviously a little intimidating, but the crowds have been really good. I can tell when people are locked in and listening. I think a lot of the crowd is like that, which is nice.

That’s awesome. They’re there for The Revivalists, this huge band, and then you walk onstage alone with a guitar. That has to be a pretty cool experience.

Olivia Barnes: No, it’s definitely crazy because The Revivalists are a big band. People are drinking and dancing. Especially at the show in Colorado, though, people were locked in and listening. I was shocked.

People love a girl with a guitar. They’ll listen!

Olivia Barnes: They do. Obviously, I’ve had instances where I’m basically singing over a party kind of situation, but there’s something so special when you’re solo and people are listening. That’s just the most special feeling. You can really, truly connect with the crowd. That’s my favorite feeling ever.

We have to talk about “Reds.” I feel like this is the song where a lot of people discovered you.

Olivia Barnes: Totally. Yeah. First, it was “Mary Mississippi.”

I love that one. I love “Oyster Song” too.

Olivia Barnes: Thank you. I appreciate it. I think “Mary Mississippi” was the first time where I was like, “Wait, there are some new people here that are not just my friends and family.” Then “Reds” had another wave of people discovering some of my stuff, which was so cool.

I love the bridge and the lyrics in “Reds.” Tell me about making this one.

Olivia Barnes: Yeah, this one was also really fun to make. I wrote this with my friend Ethan, who I was talking about and who I did “Like I Did Then” with, and also my friends Evan and Max. So Ethan and I wrote the song together.

At this point, I was in LA with him, and we were just like, “Let’s write some songs.” That week we ended up writing a few songs. This was maybe the first or second one we wrote on the trip, I want to say.

It was just one of those songs that was so fun to write. It was so back and forth. There was literally not a single moment in the writing process where we were like, “We have to think about this. What’s this going to be?” We were immediately just like, “Yes, I love your idea. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.”

It was such a fun song to write, and we were both just psyched about it. We ended up recording a demo while I was there. Then we finished it that fall, I think. I made another trip up there, and we ended up finishing the song.

Things just came together really quickly. This one was not as smooth as the “Like I Did Then” recording process because that was just an outlier. That was insane.

I think especially when Ethan had the idea to add the trumpets and make it this grandiose production, that solidified the song for me. I already loved it, but once he added some of these really interesting elements, that’s when I was like, “Okay, I have a feeling about this one.” And I did, which was also really satisfying.

I think that’s why I doubled down so hard on the social media promotion of it because I was like, “This song rocks. This is a good one.” It was one of those songs I was just really proud of. At the time, it was my favorite thing I had made, which is always what you want when you’re releasing something. You want it to be your favorite, or at least you want to see the growth you’ve had compared to the songs you released before.

That was definitely one where I was just like, okay, I feel like I’ve reached a new… I don’t know. I felt like I had moved the goalpost with this song. I felt like I had accomplished what I wanted to accomplish when it came to production and songwriting.

Then that gave me the opportunity to move the goalpost again and be like, “Okay, I made this song. Now what can I do from here?” But yeah, I love that song. It’s a blast.

It’s a big song. I’ve heard people talk about those lightning-in-a-bottle moments, and some of the best songs seem to come from that. Everything just hits in the right way.

Olivia Barnes: I know. And it’s fun. It’s almost easier for me to get there when I’m writing with someone. “Like I Did Then” and “It’s No Fun,” which I wrote by myself, were lightning-in-the-bottle moments that were just me, which is more rare than when I’m writing with someone.

Ethan and I, especially, almost every time I take a trip up there, have at least one lightning-in-a-bottle moment together where we’re writing something. We have really good writing chemistry, and I think we trust each other’s taste so much.

He was the first person I ever co-wrote with. We’ve been writing together since college for about four or five years now, I want to say. No, three or four years maybe. But yeah, those sorts of things are so special.

And definitely when it’s signed off on by someone you trust, whose taste you trust, like Ethan for me, it means even more, I think.

Just talking with you, it feels like you have a strong gut instinct for what you think is good. It shows in the songs you’re putting out because you genuinely love them. I think that’s the only way to do it.

Olivia Barnes: Yeah. There have been times when I released a song that I didn’t love. Actually, I released a song and then deleted it a few years ago, which I didn’t even know you could do.

But with that song, I had that experience where if I release a song that I don’t really believe in, I’ll literally have a stomachache for a month. My body physically won’t let me do it. So I pretty much have to like every song, or else I’m going to maybe throw up.

Which I think is a good thing. It means you’ll always be proud of what you put out. I was just watching an interview with Role Model, and he said he wants to talk to his label about deleting the first two years of his catalog.

Olivia Barnes: I know so many people. Literally all my friends who make music, almost all my friends who make music, and all the artists that I’ve seen in interviews, literally everybody’s like, “My first stuff, I don’t know what was happening.”

But it’s all part of it. It’s all part of the journey, and I appreciate it. It’s also fun to see how much I’ve grown. Even a year ago, I wouldn’t have had the information I have now and the taste, I guess, I have now.

So it’s all part of the journey. It is. But sometimes I listen back to things, or my friends will play one of my old songs, and I’m like, “Turn it off. My ears are bleeding. I cannot listen to this.”

I think people forget that when they’re playing an artist’s music around them. These songs are your inner thoughts. Sometimes you don’t want to sit there and listen to them with someone else.

Olivia Barnes: I’m sure there are some artists that like listening to their songs with people. I can’t do it. And I don’t want to be rude either. Sometimes if my friends or family turn it on, I’m like, “Turn it off. I don’t want to listen to this.”

But if it’s a stranger, or not a stranger, just somebody else, I have to suffer through it. What are you supposed to do when someone else is playing your song and you’re there? Are you supposed to be like, “Yeah, I love this. This is awesome”? I just have to be coy. I don’t know.

It’s such a weird thing. It’s like karaoke. I don’t like doing karaoke either because I’m like, “Am I supposed to be trying to sing well right now?” But if I am joking, then it’s like, “Oh, you’re a singer. What are you doing?” It’s one of those things.

I’m with you on that! You have a show tonight, right?

Olivia Barnes: I do have a show tonight. Yeah.

I’m very excited to keep following your career. Is there potentially an album coming?

Olivia Barnes: I have an EP that I’m working on right now. It’s kind of in the final phases of everything. So this fall, I don’t have a date yet, but there will be an EP, and I’m so, so, so excited.

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A lot has changed since Barnes and I spoke.

The EP she was still finishing now has a name and was recently released. The songs she was trusting her gut on have made their way out into the world.

If there is one thing that becomes clear in talking to Barnes, it is that she knows when something feels right. So far, that instinct seems to be serving her well.

Olivia Barnes’ debut EP, Human Nature, is out now.

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