London born artist Olivia Dean talks about her new EP ‘’Growth’ with NME in a lengthy interview about her songwriting process and experiences with relationships. The new EP was planned to be to be a little more cheerful than her  previous music, but the singer says “I wasn’t going to write any more sad songs. But then the pandemic happened, and I was like: ‘I’m going to work with what I’ve got!’” 

Speaking about her first gig back since the pandemic began, Dean said “When people have been asking me about it, I’ve just been going with: ‘It was probably the best night of my life.’”

Her last album was written in a more emotional headspace in the midst of a breakup, where she caught herself thinking “‘What am I gonna do without a boyfriend? Oh no, life’s ruined’” Whereas the new album is written from a different perspective, whereshe says she’s now “completely on the other side of the spectrum where I’m like: ‘I think I’m gonna be fine. On Sundays, I think I’m gonna be OK’”

The singer says of the new EP that “The songs are about falling in love again. In comparison to my previous projects, they’re less like: ‘Oh, this is about you, this one person that’s had this effect on me’, and more like: ‘How do I feel?’ I think they’re a bit more introspective. I’m trying to focus more about how I feel and what I’m going through, rather than on somebody else. It’s about growth in that sense, and growing into having a healthy relationship after being in a not-so-healthy one.”

The next single from the EP, ‘Slowly’, is about falling in love again after having had a bad experience, and how that feels – how scary it is to open up again.

The new single is out on Friday, and available to preorder here.

‘SLOWLY’ OUT FRIDAY

This one definitely feels like the most vulnerable song I’ve written. Here’s a clip of the first time I performed it at the jazz cafe, with you soon