Bozeman singer Sorryimolive, photographed in Bozeman on Monday, Aug. 15, is releasing her debut album “Not To Be Emotional But…” on Friday, Aug. 19. The record is available on streaming platforms as of midnight. Physical copies will be available at the release show on Aug. 19 or after the show at Cactus Records in Bozeman.
Bozeman singer Sorryimolive, photographed in Bozeman on Monday, Aug. 15, is releasing her debut album “Not To Be Emotional But…” on Friday, Aug. 19. The record is available on streaming platforms as of midnight. Physical copies will be available at the release show on Aug. 19 or after the show at Cactus Records in Bozeman. (Rachel Hergett for the Chronicle)
Bozeman singer Sorryimolive, photographed in Bozeman on Monday, Aug. 15, is releasing her debut album “Not To Be Emotional But…” on Friday, Aug. 19. The record is available on streaming platforms as of midnight. Physical copies will be available at the release show on Aug. 19 or after the show at Cactus Records in Bozeman.
Cover art for singer Sorryimolive‘s debut album “Not To Be Emotional But…” by Nicole Scott’s.
Bozeman singer Sorryimolive is releasing her debut album “Not To Be Emotional But…” on Friday, Aug. 19. The record is available on streaming platforms as of midnight. Physical copies will be available at the release show on Aug. 19 or after the show at Cactus Records in Bozeman.
Bozeman singer Sorryimolive, photographed in Bozeman on Monday, Aug. 15, is releasing her debut album “Not To Be Emotional But…” on Friday, Aug. 19. The record is available on streaming platforms as of midnight. Physical copies will be available at the release show on Aug. 19 or after the show at Cactus Records in Bozeman.
Bozeman singer Sorryimolive, photographed in Bozeman on Monday, Aug. 15, is releasing her debut album “Not To Be Emotional But…” on Friday, Aug. 19. The record is available on streaming platforms as of midnight. Physical copies will be available at the release show on Aug. 19 or after the show at Cactus Records in Bozeman. (Rachel Hergett for the Chronicle)
Bozeman singer Sorryimolive, photographed in Bozeman on Monday, Aug. 15, is releasing her debut album “Not To Be Emotional But…” on Friday, Aug. 19. The record is available on streaming platforms as of midnight. Physical copies will be available at the release show on Aug. 19 or after the show at Cactus Records in Bozeman.
Cover art for singer Sorryimolive‘s debut album “Not To Be Emotional But…” by Nicole Scott’s.
Bozeman singer Sorryimolive is releasing her debut album “Not To Be Emotional But…” on Friday, Aug. 19. The record is available on streaming platforms as of midnight. Physical copies will be available at the release show on Aug. 19 or after the show at Cactus Records in Bozeman.
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A couple months ago, Bozeman singer Olive Nichole changed her stage name to sorryimolive, a one-word mumbled apology that had been her social media handle since middle school.
In some ways sorryimolive, whose debut album “Sorry To Be Emotional But…” is out Friday, embodies an apologetic epithet. In an interview over coffee for this article, she apologizes for an almost indistinguishable stutter, for the hoodie she is wearing to keep warm in air conditioned rooms, and for the logo on the hoodie that may be a distraction when she has her photo taken.
Friends will make jokes about the apologies. “I say ‘I’m sorry,’ and they say ‘Yeah,you’re Olive,’” the artist explained.
But on stage, the anxiety is relegated to the lyrics. Here, Olive shines.
Olive grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and remembers being fascinated by musicals. She credits making the leap to performing to her grandmother, who took her to “Annie,” heard her singing along and signed her up for a production of the play with a local children’s theater. She was cast in the lead role.
When she moved to Montana at 15 and started going to Belgrade High School, the passion was rekindled, and Olive took on roles such as Miss Adelaide in “Guys and Dolls” and the queen in “Once Upon a Mattress.”
“I couldn’t stop,” Olive said. “I got more and more invested in performing.”
Olive considered going to college to study musical theater, but balked at the price tag. Instead she tried cosmetology school to pay the bills, working with teens at the Verge on the side.
Though Olive describes cutting hair as too much like leading therapy sessions, it did propel her forward. A client introduced her to a local hip-hop MC and Olive started singing hooks on his tracks. MC Unknown, the champion of the 2021 Freestyle MC Battle, encouraged Olive to branch out musically.
“I wrote one verse with him once and he told me I couldn’t not make music,” Olive said.
She dug in, releasing one single, “Ghosted,” in March of 2021 and another, “He Got a Hangover,” a few months later and racking up thousands of streams of the songs online.
“I didn’t think people would like it as much as they do,” she said. “I honestly thought it was going to be me in my room just jamming to my own music, which I do.”
On the cusp of the release of “Sorry To Be Emotional But…”, Olive says the year-and-a-half creation process has felt like a very long lead-up and she’s celebrating the simple fact she got it done.
“There’s been times I sat there hating myself,” she said, describing a three-day mental block after she had penned the first few songs. “Nothing came to me and I was like ‘why am I even doing this?’”
But she persevered, following a hip-hop formula and using pre-made beats to underscore the gist of each lyric, and recording vocals with Luke Scheeler at Jereco Studios.
“Every song I write I personally feel keeps getting better and better,” she said.
“Sorry To Be Emotional But…” opens with a song about a painful friend breakup, “Our Friend Theme Song (Best Friend).” It took her years, she said, before she was able to write it. She needs time to process before she digs into writing.
The six-track album ends with the song sorryimolive uses to close her performances, “When I Glow.” “I don’t do this for approval/I feel the music in my soul,” sorryimolive sings.
“It’s about accepting that not everyone is going to like what I’m doing, but I like what I’m doing, so I’m going to keep doing it,” Olive said.
The song is personal, and empowering. Olive uses it to build herself up after singing tracks like “Hangover,” which recalls a night when Olive’s partner at the time drunkenly told her she was replaceable. To perform it, she digs into the hurt, then turns to “When I Glow” to remind her of her own power.
Now, Olive is a new mother to an 8-month old and works as a nanny. Her daughter will surely show up in songs in the future.
“I love her and I know there’s going to be a song about her,” Olive said. “But I also know she’ll hear it one day and get to know me on a different level. That pushes me.”
Olive said the release of “Sorry To Be Emotional But…” feels like sunshine after a long winter. Though her debut album is new to the public, she has already started on her next sorryimolive project, writing with a producer friend and digging into the emotions of a recent breakup.
“I just want to keep making (music),” Olive said. “I don’t mind if it goes anywhere. It would be cool if I could support myself by making music. I think that would be the coolest job in the world. But I’m ok just having a little community that backs me up no matter what I’m doing.”
Sorryimolive’s album release party is at the Rialto Theatre in Bozeman on Friday, Aug. 19. The all ages show is pay-what-you-can, with a suggested payment of $35. Doors open at 7:30 p.m., with supporting acts starting around 8 p.m. Guests include MC Unknown, Atryp, Buckshot Killit, Tomvict, Yngcharisma, Kat Bee and Sad Ink. “Not To Be Emotional But…” is available as of midnight on streaming platforms. Physical CD copies will be available at the show and later at Cactus Records in Bozeman.
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Rachel Hergett can be reached at rhergett@dailychronicle.com or at 406-582-2603. Hergett is on Twitter at @hergett.
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