Correction: An initial version of this story had the name Artie misspelled as Arite in the quote “Most of the time I live in Portland and Artie lives in Santa Cruz or Seattle…”
Ignoring Olivia is a high-energy rock band with a vocalist that wails on the mic in a way that’s uncommon, capturing feelings of heartbreak, anger and pain.
The Southern California group performed on the third episode of Kitchen Sink while they were hitting their last round of shows in California before leaving for Portland, Oregon.
The group consists of lead singer and rhythm guitarist Maya Chavez, bassist Isa Otanez, guitarist Artie Nazarov and drummer Evan Mason-White.
Chavez and Otanez started the band in 2020 in Long Beach when Otanez was Chavez’s freshman-year roommate. Mason-White and Nazarov were later additions, joining the band a year and a half ago.
“When we were trying to find a new drummer and a new guitarist it was a little bit hard, we held like auditions for it and then we had a fill-in guitarist from that for a while, but these are just our friends and that ended up working out for us,” said Chavez
Last year, the band released their debut album “Sulkus” which featured three of the songs they performed. These songs included “Staying,” “Crybaby Is A Keeper,” “Just As Much,” and “Why December,” along with an improvised song.
“Staying,” is the last song on their album and one of the fastest tempo-wise according to Mason-White.
“I remember writing “Staying” in my bedroom at my parents’ house and I remember I came up with the melody for it and was so excited because it came really easily and that doesn’t really happen very often, it felt like the perfect song to kind of like tie together the album,” said Chavez.
The second song they performed was “Crybaby Is A Keeper.”
“Yeah, that’s our newest song and the only song that’s the four of us,” bassist Otanez said.
Mason-White brought up how the band is split apart most of the time, with Otanez and Chavez living in SoCal and himself and Artie being further out.
This adds difficulty to how often they get to see each other and practice, often only getting together for shows because of the distance.
“Me and Artie have been playing with them for a year and a half now. Most of the time I live in Portland and Artie lives in Santa Cruz or Seattle and normally when we have time or when we are together playing its specifically for shows, we get a couple hours of practice beforehand, so there’s not much opportunity to write,” said Mason-White.
The next song was “Just As Much,” one of the first songs Otanez and Chavez wrote together, it also features a bass solo from Isa.
“That was the first one that Maya and I really wrote together. We sat down in our bedroom and we were like ‘We’re gonna write a song’ and then we did, we just went back and forth making parts, piecing them together,” said Otanez on the song.
“It was really fun, it was at a time when we shared a room too, so we were just like on the ground–” added Chavez.
“Between our two beds–” interjected Otanez.
According to both Chavez and Otanez, this song came very easily to them. They continued to talk back and forth on the creation of the track.
“Once we got it we didn’t change it up very much and I think we wrote in a day minus probably lyrics,” said Otanez.
“That was one of the first times that I got comfortable like brainstorming like melodies in front of you too because it was a very solitary activity for me for a while. But that’s why it came so quickly cuz I was like ‘do you like this?’ and you were like ‘yes or no’ and it worked out,” Chavez told Otanez.
Nazarov shared what it was like for him to work on the song as well.
“I feel like when I listen to the songs when I’m in Santa Cruz without you guys I’ll like learn it a certain way given the speed that’s on the album and then we come back together and I just see once again my beautiful band mates…and have to adjust,” Nazarov on how spending time apart and re-adjusting to playing the songs after reuniting.
Similarly, Mason-White shared that when first learning the songs, he had trouble practicing the recorded tracks versus playing live with them because they often change things up a bit with both tempo and energy.
In general, all the songs have become muscle memory for the band according to Otanez.
There was a mutual feeling of fatigue coming from the band in terms of playing the old songs that they have. They’re all looking forward to producing new songs to rotate their usual set.
Finishing off their mini set, the band played a new improvised song that the band uses to start off their shows.
The untitled track starts off with a strong bass and drum instrumental, setting the tone before the rest of the band jumps in.
“Every time it’s slightly different like I don’t play the same thing,” Otanez said while describing the set.
The improvisation and overall experimental nature of the song were praised by Mason-White, especially how it allows the band to just play around and do something different.
“I’m really pushing for noise. I love what Artie has been doing, reworking all the older songs and making soundscapes and complete dissonance at some points and I like Maya getting to explore tone pedals,” explained Mason-White.
After getting used to playing the same songs like clockwork, the improvised track gives them that wiggle room to just be creative and not have to conform to doing it a certain way.
The band is very eager to release new music, so fans have something to look forward to.
Ignoring Olivia is currently back in Portland with an upcoming show on July 7, they’ll be releasing more information closer to the show.
Their debut album “Sulkus” is streaming now.