Olivia Lunny on velvet dreamscapes, dualism, and growth through adversity
Olivia Lunny X FAULT Magazine
Photography: Jemima Marriot
Styling: Olivia Lunny
Hair: Alex Szabo represented by Carol Hayes Management
Words: Charles Conway
Production & Photography Assistant: Lee Furnival
Special Thanks: Shane Hawkins / Chloe Haddad @ Weller Media Agency
Olivia Lunny‘s latest album, VELVET & DENIM, invites both revelry and reflection. Five years after her break-out on Canadian music competition show ‘The Launch’, the singer-songwriter is having a transitional moment. Now promoting her sophomore release, across solo and supporting international tours, Olivia Lunny is reaching for musical stardom.
VELVET & DENIM reflects on the tension between the road behind and the one ahead – what gets left behind, which scuffs and scrapes stick, and what dreams lie on the horizon. The opening track ‘City of Angels’ launches with the crystal glissando of a harp before diving into dark, chunky drum and bass line. Immediately following is the bubbly ‘JOHNNY & JUNE’, pairing driving synth-pop beats with lyrics of an earnest, nostalgic romance.
Ambition runs just as deep through the album, as Olivia experiments in genre cross-pollination and intimate lyricism. Between 90s-pop inflected ‘GREEN EYES’, a funky bass line for the sultry ‘MARILYN’, and chill house vibes on ‘NIGHTCRAWLER’ there is something to hook in almost everyone.
So much for the velvet, party-girl persona. Holding up a mirror darkly, ‘Heaven’ subverts its title and romantic overtones with an almost grunge aesthetic. And the picture painted on the chorus of ‘CROSS MY HEART’ – “leaving in my denim / praying in the car / trying to find a light / staring at the floor” – reveals Olivia Lunny at her most vulnerable, and authentic, self.
Tying it all together is an unapologetic celebration of Olivia’s roots, with a country-western idiom and a few spots for steel-guitar twang. ‘JESUS HELD THE DOOR’ is a pop-ified tune with biting, sardonic humour reminiscent of Loretta Lynn. Beneath its slick pop production, ‘OLD HABITS’ is an earworm of a ballad and a good showcase for her silvery voice.
In short, this album is a musical bouquet – with both flowers and thorns – by an artist honing their sound for the stages to come. Throughout our interview, Olivia’s charm, thoughtfulness, and wit shine just as bright. Take a detour with us, between touring and studio recording, and enter the interior world of VELVET & DENIM.
FAULT: Hi Olivia, the album’s been out for a couple of months now – how are you feeling?
Olivia Lunny: I can’t believe it’s been two months, to be honest – it’s been so incredible. It was really special to be able to play festivals around the UK, seeing that live reaction right after the album drop. And it’s been really exciting to grow a fan base here, in Europe – just having people really care.
I’ve had that before with singles and small releases; but having people invested enough to buy my merchandise and concert tickets, to be present in that world with me. It’s just been special to grow into this next chapter of my music career.
I can only imagine the feeling of getting that buy-in from fans...
It’s so cool. I truly did pour my heart and soul into VELVET & DENIM. As a concept album, I really wanted to evoke a world that could exist beyond the tracks on it. Actually, I’ve already started writing my next album – sounds crazy, but that’s just how music works – and it was inspired by this world that I’m living in. And letting that lead into this next chapter. So it’s just been a really big milestone.
Can you share any details about this upcoming album with us?
I’m still in the stage of figuring things out as we go, but it’s definitely about experimenting and refining my sound even further. I’ll leave it at that!
You’ve also done a couple shows supporting Justin Timberlake. How did that collaboration come about?
I have an incredible team out there in the UK/Europe, and one day I got a call – sounds crazy, but it was as simple as that! But I think it just goes to show you that the seeds you plant years ago will eventually start to sprout. It’s not necessarily that you just wake up one day and get that call from Justin Timberlake – but it’s the fruit of that labour over those past years.
I’m starting to realise that that’s how music works – that’s how life works, how anything good comes about. It was definitely an exciting call.
Sonically the album seems to have a wide range of influences – from RnB, 90s pop to country. Do you think there is a higher expectation in contemporary pop music, for artists to be stylistically versatile, or is it more about creative openness and ability to take risks?
I think that, in the current state of the popular music industry, it’s so open. In the past ‘pop music’ was attached to a specific sound, but now it really is more about popularity. Which really makes it a wild west – every day there’s ballads on the radio, folk songs, even country songs. Everyone is bending genre, and I think it’s a beautiful time in music because of that.
Before, if you wanted to make a pop song, you’d go and work to a bit of formula. I’ve definitely been in those sessions, and some of my older music I would write with the thought: ‘this is how people want to hear it, and this is how I have to deliver that song’. Writing to a bit-sized, digestible format…
But I hope that now, in my process, I’ve removed those confines and can create what feels good, what vibes good. And what I want to hear! Ironically I think that is what people are resonating with even more. And I love it, personally: I do enjoy a good bubble-gum pop song,but it opens the world to so many new possible genres or styles. Because there are so many…
On one of your YouTube shorts you revealed that ‘JOHNNY & JUNE’ sounded very different when you wrote it a few years ago. Can you talk about that transformation more – does that reflect your music as a whole?
That song is a true representation of myself, firstly, and also my writing process. And sonically I really enjoy where that one ended up. It started as a piano ballad – actually just the chorus – that I had written when I was living in Toronto. And it’s kind of crazy that, three or four years later now, I went to the studio with that idea. With a good friend of my mine, AJ, we just stayed up all night and turned that into a totally new song which fits the current state of my artistry.
It’s the other beautiful thing about the process of making music: I probably have hundreds, maybe even thousands, of random voice notes and ideas. The title track for this album, ‘VELVET & DENIM’, was actually a title and song which I’d written when I was eighteen. The song I rewrote, but the idea I took with me. When you plant that seed, creatively, you don’t always get the flower the next day or the next year. It takes a long time, but at the right moment it finds you, in a way.
But that song specifically, it’s fun and nostalgic. Johnny Cash and June Carter are an iconic couple, so I feel it gives the album a sense timelessness, which was very important to me.
So that track references Johnny Cash and June Carter, another track is titled ‘MARILYN’. How much is the album about your relationship with your career and fame as opposed to literal relationships? Are they intertwined?
Yes, they are absolutely intertwined. In both of those songs, rather than talking about a factual, historical relationship, I interpreted them with my own twist. To capture a little bit of the essence, versus a factual description of Marilyn Monroe’s life. ‘MARILYN’ is an anthem on being confident, empowerment, sexuality and she’s obviously an iconic woman that everyone knows.
And I thought that she represented that really well. But the song is really trying to capture those personal emotions – and the experience of living in LA, going to the kind of places she would gone and having that lifestyle. It’s a homage to her icon, but not about her life if that makes sense.
There is a running theme on the album of tension between your velvet and denim selves. How important is that tension/double perspective to being creative?
It’s something I didn’t know was important until this album! And I think it had a really wonderful way of showing that to me: how those struggles in my life led me to that moment. From my first tours, back in 2023, opening for [former FAULT cover star] Ellie Goulding among others, one thing that I took away was the concept of duality. Even beyond my career, just in life generally, some of the most intense, maybe low moments are always followed by growth and success and all those amazing things. Whether it’s going from playing on stage to a hotel room, or moving from small-town Winnipeg to LA, my life has been that ebb and flow.
Also speaking of genre, it just felt natural to let myself make a pop song like ‘MARILYN’, but then also do a song like ‘GUILTY PARTY’, or ‘HEAVEN’, and get kind of alt or folk with it. In the past my mindset was, ‘I’m making a pop album so I have to make music that sounds pop’.
So the liberating thing for this album was to be able to do it all. And maybe throw in a bit of country! Like on ‘JESUS HELD THE DOOR’. So I’m starting to realise that duality is life itself, and you’re not necessarily living if you’re just flat-lining.
I’m wondering if you were worried about introducing a more country sound to the album?
Honestly I wouldn’t say that I was worried about it. When I shared it with my team people didn’t actually clock that it was country. Obviously everyone knows who Marilyn Monroe is, but with ‘Johnny & June’ they were like: “who is this?”
But that’s part of what makes music special. For some people, maybe they are Johnny and June and that is their relationship. Or maybe they look it up and they fall in love with the song further learning something new. Interpretation and perspective is what makes songs beautiful. Because when you write it you feel a certain way, but as soon as you give it out into the world it can be perceived any which way – and that’s just music, you know?
Speaking of interpretation, I get the feeling – on songs like ‘JESUS HELD THE DOOR’, ‘HEAVEN’ – that you see a danger in the velvet persona, that in dreaming there is a loss of oneself. And denim represents the pained realist dealing with the fallout. Is that a fair take?
I think that’s exactly it. It’s the loving, the excitement, the celebration – but also the learning, the growing, the pain. And you need it all.
In keeping with the spirit of the album – what would be your dream velvet collaboration and your dream denim one?
I would say my dream denim collaboration would be Post Malone, and my dream velvet one would be Billie Eilish.
Olivia Lunny released VELVET & DENIM on 6th June 2025
You’ve come a long way in five years, from ‘The Launch’ to touring internationally and multiple releases. What has the making of this album taught you – what message would you like a younger version of yourself to take away?
I would just emphasise that good things take time. As simple as that statement is, I have this antsiness that’s great – I’m hungry, an up-and-coming artist, and really wanting stuff to happen at all times. But I’ve also had to sit down to create this album, and they take time to come together – a year of production, but also the writing and ideas from five years ago.
So I would say that’s what meant for you is always going to come your way and won’t miss you, so just focus on the moment. Get immersed in the process of creating, work really hard, but trust that all those seeds you are planting will one day grow into this beautiful garden. But it won’t be tomorrow.
Olivia Lunny, what is your fault?
Being brutally honest and so unapologetically myself. My music is 100 per cent based on a true story. And that isn’t always a fault – but to some of the people in my life, and my exes, maybe it is…!