[INTERVIEW] Olivia Thai says, "There is no better time than now to start living the life you want to live."

HYPNOTICASIA: Introduce yourself to the readers of HypnoticAsia!
Hi! I’m Olivia, and I have an obsession with podcasts, TedTalks, and learning new things.

HYPNOTICASIA: 12 Years ago, you uploaded your very first YouTube video! What made you want to release YouTube videos?
It started as a joke. My roommate was watching random covers on YouTube at the time (there weren’t very many), and I was inspired to post one of my own. I didn’t think anyone would be even remotely interested in watching it, but it reached a little over a million views in a matter of months – all by chance, of course. I really think the success of that video was due to the lack of competition… not my actual skills to cover random R&B songs that my roommates requested me to sing. Haha

HYPNOTICASIA: Do you think you would still be doing music if you didn’t take that step to upload to YouTube?
Absolutely not. As an artist, I think it’s pretty common for us to think about quitting quite frequently. That was during a phase when I decided to quit… again. I was going to school at UCLA as a junior when I was 17 years old. Those were the days when we all still believed that we had to be signed to a major label in order to “make it” as an artist. I have YouTube and every single supporter since MySpace for helping me realize that I don’t need to be signed in order to pursue a music career in 2020.

HYPNOTICASIA: How did you get into music? When did it all start?

I started singing when I was two – mostly songs in Cantonese and Mandarin, but stopped singing when I was about six years old. I loved to sing, but the emotional turmoil in my home growing up simply wasn’t an encouraging environment for singing.
My dad enrolled me in group piano lessons when I was four, but couldn’t afford them after a few months. I went through all of the piano textbooks on my own until I restarted group lessons again in Chinese school and private lessons with a young teacher near my home. My dream at the time was to play the violin as well. When I was old enough to join the free orchestra in school, I begged my parents to allow me to play in it. I quickly fell in love with the instrument when I was 10.
I taught myself how to play guitar when I was 12. The Yahoo search engine was amazing back then. I learned the basics from there and asked friends to show me how to play cool songs.
When I was a freshman in high school, I joined the marching band because I wanted to avoid P.E. at all costs. Gross motor skills are not my thing. So… I learned to play the clarinet just to avoid P.E.
I started taking voice lessons when I was 15 because I was able to work and afford paying for them on my own. I received my certification to teach voice when I was 18 years old.
Now, I am a multi-instrumental songwriter, and that started in 2014.

HYPNOTICASIA: Who is your biggest musical influence?
I can’t just pick one, but I absolutely love UK pop artists like Adele, Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran, and Jessie J.

HYPNOTICASIA: Do you do music full time? If not, what else do you do!?

It depends on the season, but at any given time, I am usually doing many things at once. Right now, my time is mostly occupied by school. I study linguistics and journalism at UC Berkeley. The rest of my energy and time is spent on teaching classes about essential oils because I am a certified specialist. I also spend a significant amount of time connecting with my supporters on my social media platforms on a daily basis while creating content. I also occasionally (if time permits) help clients develop social media strategy plans. I am currently working with a client who has an amazing skincare product. I love it.
Oh, and how can I forget? I manage 24 AirBnBs in 8 different cities in California and Hawaii & I own a small cleaning company in Hawaii.

HYPNOTICASIA: If you can collaborate with one artist, who would it be and why?
I would love to collaborate with Jessie J. Her confidence, sense of self, and of course, talent is so incredibly admirable.

HYPNOTICASIA: From all of your tracks, which song would you say is your absolute favorite and why?
I am not a huge fan of consuming my own content… but if I had to choose one, I would say: I Came To Slay. It was a co-write with my good friend, Patricia Bahia and produced by another good friend, Sebastian Hughes. It is entirely out-of-character, and I think that’s why I like it. It’s something I would never have been able to write or create on my own. The lyrics in the verses are my favorite part.

OLIVIA THAI

HYPNOTICASIA: You speak 13 languages! Is there a specific reason you learned 13 languages? Which languages are you most fluent in and which do you find yourself using the most?

I would say that I have studied 13 languages, but I really only speak 5.5? English would be my most fluent language. Then, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Diojiu (Teo Chow, Chiu Chow, etc.). I am also fairly comfortable speaking French, and I can order food and say all of the crass cuss words in Vietnamese and Spanish.
The rest of the languages are possible for me to understand, but I would have to review and practice before using them to actually speak, read, or write – Portuguese, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Russian, and Arabic.

HYPNOTICASIA: You play many instruments, which would you say is your favorite of them all and why?
I would say voice is my favorite instrument. It connects with human emotions on multiple levels, and that’s why it is my preferred instrument.

HYPNOTICASIA: You are the winner of 2009 Taiwan Idol, what was that experience like?
It was such a fun experience. It was also an incredibly dramatic experience – many ups and downs. I was definitely the underdog that, I believe, got lucky in the end. It was one of the first competitions I ever participated in, and it was truly lifechanging.

HYPNOTICASIA: Tell us about your experience with Megastar?

Megastar was also a dramatic experience with many ups and downs. I never thought an app could make me cry. In the initial competition, I really thought I had a chance.
I livestreamed for hours every day to attempt to gain support for that competition. It was my first time ever taking an online voting competition seriously. Despite all of the effort I put into basically panhandling for votes every day, I didn’t make it. It was humiliating, but I didn’t give up because my supporters didn’t give up. When the next competition came around, I won. It was awesome, and I learned a lot about these online competitions. Will I ever do it again? I doubt it. But it was a great lesson for me to learn – online competitions are more about popularity… and in this day and age, many people only care about popularity, and that sucks.

HYPNOTICASIA: You sang the national anthem for both the Los Angeles Clippers as well as the Sparks. What was that like and how did you prepare?

I was 16 years old when I decided to submit to sing for them. I made a really poor quality recording of me singing the National Anthem on my computer, burned a bunch of CDs, and mailed them out to every major league sports team in the area. When the LA Clippers called me, I was BEYOND excited. The day I sang for the Clippers for the first time was also the day I became legally emancipated. That was an amazing day.
Shortly after singing for the Clippers for the first time, I was invited to sing for the Sparks, and I sang for them occasionally ever since then.

HYPNOTICASIA: If an aspiring artist were to ask you if they should upload their music to YouTube, what would your response be?
Yes! I believe that this is the best time for anyone to be anything they want to be. There is no better time than now to start living the life you want to live.

HYPNOTICASIA: Want to say anything to your fans who have been supporting you all this time?
I love you. Thank you. If we’ve never met or chatted before, please don’t be a stranger. If I could get to know all of you, I absolutely would!

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