Olivia O'Brien

California’s Olivia O'Brien is a vocalist with a bent toward dance-oriented electronic pop and emotive balladry. She made her breakthrough in the late 2010s on her collaboration with gnash, “i hate u, i love u,” which peaked in the Top Ten of the Hot 100. This paved the way for her debut album, 2019′s Was It Even Real?, as well as EPs like 2020′s The Results of My Poor Judgement and 2021′s Episodes: Season 1. She teamed up with FLETCHER in 2022 for the hit single “Bitch Back.”
Born in Thousand Oaks, California, in 1999, O'Brien grew up singing from a young age and taught herself to play guitar and piano. By her teens she was writing her own songs as well as posting covers online. Eventually, she caught the ear of Los Angeles-based singer/rapper/producer gnash, whose song “Disposable” she had covered. He requested to hear her original material, and they began collaborating. In 2015, they posted their version of her song “i hate u, i love you” online. The following year, gnash included the song on his debut EP, us, and released it commercially as a single. It immediately caught on, hitting number one in Australia and landing in the Top Ten in the U.S.
In August 2016, O'Brien released her debut solo single, “Trust Issues.” Several more singles followed, including “Root Beer Float” featuring Blackbear, “Find What You’re Looking For,” “Empty,” and “RIP.” The latter two tracks appeared on her 2017 EP It's Not That Deep (Island). The following year, she hopped onto “Beg” with Jack & Jack, later recruiting G-Eazy and Drew Love for a remix of “RIP.”
In late 2018, the singles “UDK,” “I Don’t Exist,” and “I Care More” appeared ahead of the release of her first full-length effort, Was It Even Real?, which arrived in spring 2019. In 2020, O'Brien stayed busy issuing a handful of EPs, including The Results of My Poor Judgement, Josslyn, and Hope That It Was Worth It. During the early months of 2021, she delivered several singles including “Better Than Feeling Lonely” and “Sociopath,” the latter of which was included on her fourth EP, Episodes: Season 1, along with the song “No More Friends” featuring Oliver Sykes of Bring Me the Horizon. O'Brien kicked off 2022 with the FLETCHER-assisted hit “Bitch Back,” with “Never Be the One” arriving later that year. ~ Matt Collar