INTERVIEW: Olive Klug Tackles America With a Full Heart and Clear Vision
Olive Klug tackles America’s contradictions and indignities with a sweet voice and hopefulness on “Song About America.” Hailing from Portland, they’ve taken social media by storm. Since joining TikTok in the summer of 2020, Olive Klug’s TikTok fanbase has grown to over 168.5K followers with over 2.8M likes across their video content.
Following the success of their TikTok video previews and 2019’s self-released debut EP Fire Alarm, Klugbegan steadily releasing music in 2021, which included their single “Raining In June” that has accumulated 8M+ streams on Spotify alone. In 2022, Olive released a trio of songs including, “Out of Line,” the Liz Phair cover “Why Can’t I?” and “Self Help.” These handful of songs from the past couple of years chronicle Olive’s struggle to make sense of a senseless world and reflects their experience with queer identity, ambivalence in romantic relationships, and the difficulties to establish adulthood in unprecedented times.
Say what you will about social media stats, but there’s a reason Klug’s music has captured so many. As we see in this interview, Klug approaches the world with an open heart and clear eyes: there’s lots to be upset about, but that anger cannot consume us.
Explain the title of your album.
The title of my album is Don’t You Dare Make Me Jaded, a quote from a song called “Casting Spells” that I wrote back in early 2021. I think my album, although it has some sad songs, is decidedly optimistic. I just turned 26, and my generation has come of age during a season of the world that was particularly disheartening and difficult. As soon as I graduated college just before 2020, the world as I know it crumbled around me. Instead of following the traditional plan most of us had envisioned, we had to reimagine our lives and the world around us in order to maintain our joy and sense of peace. I think that continuing to seek joy and community in a time of isolation and fear is radical, and the title Don’t You Dare Make Me Jaded speaks to the importance of seeking said joy.
Do you have any go-to albums to listen to in the van?
Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You by Big Thief. Flawless road album, especially in the American Southwest!
Where are some places you’ve found joy within the country/Americana world?
I think the recent resurgence of country music and aesthetics in the queer community is so empowering! Queer people were excluded from country music for so long, but artists like Ethel Cain, Brandi Carlile, and Adeem the Artist are making strides in creating spaces for queer country and joy. I’ve always loved country music, especially old, classic country/Americana but I used to feel like I had to hide that because people would make assumptions about my value system that was inconsistent with what it really is. Now I feel like I can be unapologetically queer and love country music and find a community of like-minded people, which is incredibly special.
Have you ever been given something remarkable by a fan?
Yes! At my show in Salt Lake City, a fan gave me a hand thrown mug that was decorated beautifully in a childlike, hand-drawn style that mimics the style of a lot of my merch/cover art. They wrote one of my favorite lyrics, “Watching all the rules disintegrate” on the side and even put a clay olive in the middle of the mug. It was so cool to see that someone put so much thought, effort, care, and creativity into a gift for me. It’s one of my most prized possessions.
Recent release you cannot stop listening to?
Honey (the full album, not just the song) by Samia
Don’t You Dare Make Me Jaded will be out on August 11
