Introducing the musician Olli Esmo

Introducing Olli Esmo. A brief interview with Olli Esmo discussing the musician’s interests, background and direction. With a link to her song, Ain’t about that

Introducing the musician Olli Esmo

To put one song as my favourite is difficult because I ve never really had one but I always had a bunch of favourite artists I listened to.

I just love music! I like different styles of music, it just have to speak to me.. But if I must choose a style it would be Jazz/bleus/soul. I love the story s in it and the warm and powerful voices. From when I was little, I was always intrigued by voices as Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Nina Simone, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, the platters, Ella Fitzgerald ..
My mom always played her cassettes from ‘the very best of soul’ with those old jazzy/bluesy/soul sounds. Listening to these songs still gives me a warm feeling of home.
Further on I grew up listening to more poppy songs from George Micheal, Mary J Blidge, Withney Houston, Mariah Carry, Lara Fabian, Micheal Jackson… Later on the backstreet boys of course! but not for long luckely 🙂 Next to that the known R&B songs as also in my puberty loved to listen to old rock songs and new age music. Now I try to learn from voices as from Beyoncé, Jenifer Hudson, Sam Smith, Christina Aguilera… and all the great voices in this world from the past and now.
But if really I must choose my ‘favourite’ song I would choose for ‘Caruso’ in the version of Lara Fabian. I think it s a poem brought as a song.. I can listen to it any time and never get tired of it. I think Lara Fabian gave it her soul and I even like it better with her interpretation of it.

I could sing before I could speak and I just love to live music! Meaning I can really put myself in the feeling when I hear music, I guess it depends on my mood to which songs I prefer to listen to. Now to bring it out professionally is another thing.. It needs hard work and concentration really.

Ain’t about that by Olli Esmo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o4mD5B_w0Q

What do you enjoy most about being a musician?
I love to create and give the people a certain energy. Meaning, I like to show a story true music so people feel understood.

What do you dislike about being a musician?
I dislike the fact that the music industry is based to much on making money and selling.. It takes away the opportunities to make real music that speaks to the soul!
And these days people lives on social media.. I think it s a shame.. People follow ‘the herd’ even more now because of social media, especially youngsters..

Describe your music and the audience you seek?
Our music is a mixture of jazz, soul and pop I would say. We re still busy creating our own sounds. With our first song ‘Ain t about that’ we just want to introduce ourselves.. I would say: “You Ain t seen nothing yet” 😉

Where you from, age and mention if you have had any formal training etc
I am born in Belgium on 22/11/1986. My real name is Milena Epis. I created Olli Esmo as an ode to ‘unconditional love’. It s actually a combination of my kids names. “The loves of my life!”

Further.. My mom is Belgian and my father is Italian. So I ve got a nice mixture of cultures there as well in music as in temper 😉

As I’ve mentioned earlier, I sang before I could speak thanks to my parents. There was always music playing at home. I didn’t really get formal training. But always tried to sing as the great ones of all time. I did follow an online course called vocal feedback a concept from Alfons Verreijt, to ‘perfectionise’ my voice, recently. Although music shouldn’t be perfect because life is also all about the small imperfections.. So let’s use the word ‘professionalise’.

Have you had to overcome any setbacks to becoming a musician
Well, as I mentioned before it is hard to break through as a straight forward artist.. it all turns around selling and making money. The artist himself can not live from it anymore or you have to sell yourself.. Also you need to find the strength in yourself and the right people to work with.

What are your future plans?
I would love to continue creating music together with songwriter Evezee aka Gary Eve and Ronals Bruersens from RMProductions mol. And we actually hope to play one day full concerts of our own. As long as we can bring our music to the people.

All social media links
You can follow me on my facebook page:  @olliesmo.space or on instagram: @olliesmo or subscribe to my youtube channel: Olli Esmo