Hey, my name is Olivia Swann and I am a singer-songwriter from London. I just recently dropped my latest single “Gaslight” and there’s such a huge backstory to this one so here it goes!
It’s crazy because sometimes when you write a record, the whole process from start to finish is wrapped within a matter of weeks, but with “Gaslight”, this release has been such a long time coming!
I originally wrote the demo for this record in LA back in 2018 with Symphony. It eventually was played to Roc Nation, who loved it and wanted to put it on hold for Rihanna’s new album, which at the time I agreed to.
Flash forward to 2019 and I am at Snoop Dogg’s Grammy party in Inglewood and I am playing arcade basketball in his games room! I met a couple of guys who shot videos for Interscope Records.
Hard to believe but I did lose the first two games, but before we played the 3rd, I gave them a proposition: if I beat them, I would shoot a music video with them for a hugely reduced price! They agreed and your girl ended up beating them by 20 points!
The next day we were filming the music video for “Gaslight”. It was such an amazing experience shooting it out in LA, I had the opportunity to feature the crazy talented Cameo Adele in the video as my love interest. It was then when I realised I was going to reclaim the song back from Roc Nation because I wanted to keep it for myself.
2020 hits and due to the travel restrictions, I ended up back in the UK, but it turned out to be the best outcome for the song because it was the quarantine period where I started to work with LionHaire. She ended up hearing the “Gaslight” demo, fell in love with it and it only felt right to turn the demo to a record with her.
She arranged the song with me, added her soulful voice and guitar throughout the song. Cutting and creating the record in lockdown was an experience I’ll never forget. Up to this point, I hadn’t felt like “Gaslight” was in a place where it was ready to be released, but LionHaire made it happen!
The song is about a relationship I once had with a girl who turned out to be crazy. Obsession, toxic cycles and manipulation dominated our situation, I’ll admit at first I was blind to this, but after a while, all of these things I started to notice and eventually I ran for the hills!
“Gaslight” definitely is a summer vibe, with my characteristic pop writing, R&B vocals and a nod to reggae music on the production. The reaction to the record has been quite crazy because I didn’t realise how many people could relate to the concept.
So many have reached out to me to say that they’ve been through the exact same thing! I think with my music I am always looking to connect with my fans and the listeners because I feel the best music is music where you can listen to a track and see yourself in it.
So far this track has been my favourite drop of the year, but don’t sleep because I still have a few more to release before the year is up. Watch this space!
“Gaslight” is out now and available on all streaming platforms, watch the music video below!
