Emerging artist Olivia Cella knows what it means to start over

thefader.com:

Losing an entire project would be a likely deterrent for any artist, but for emerging pop artist Olivia Cella it was a chance at creating something even better.

After recording over 100 songs for what would eventually become her Barista EP, her producer’s laptop was stolen - along with the entire project. “I ran into another friend of mine who was able to isolate the stems somehow, and she recreated the beats for me and I re-recorded the songs because we lost my vocal tracks,” she explained, adding tracks “Green” and “Vertigo” saw the biggest changes. “I got to collaborate with so many different people throughout the process of remaking the songs, getting their opinions.

That’s how you grow as an artist. I’m honestly kind of glad the laptop got stolen.” With musical roots that started sprouting at age 4, and leading to a girl group stint at 9, the New York and New Jersey-raised Cella started uploading covers on YouTube in her pre-teens, some racking up hundreds of thousands of views before she made the leap to creating her own music at 16. “I didn’t have anything juicy to write about at 12, but I loved singing and I knew that one day I eventually would and I always looked forward to that day.” Now based in LA, the singer-songwriter’s initial focus was acting, starring in commercials and films like BlowTorch and The Ruggieros before juggling that with her work as an artist.

The pandemic, along with the unique challenges it posed for the entertainment industry, offered a serendipitous nudge. “I never thought singing would ever trump acting until recently.