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Olivia Anna Livki
Olivia Anna Schnitzler, better known as Olivia Anna Livki is a German singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, arranger and filmmaker currently living in Berlin.

Music
Often described as a singer-bassplayer or a bassplaying singer, her music combines the unity of voice and solo-bass guitar (with little use of low tones and a strong emphazis on crunched, distorted mid- and hightones as found in the Postpunk-guitarsound-convention) with complex electronic beats and samples, orchestral arrangements, melodic songs, elements of ethnic percussion and choirs consisting of the singer´s multiplied own voice. She herself calls it "Global (or Global Village) Voice'n'Bass". Her influences include African American music (Blues, Gospel/Spiritual,Funk, HipHop),Artrock, Postpunk, Alternative, Pop, as well as African, Indian, Indonesian and Middle Eastern music.

Life
Olivia Anna Livki was born on April 2nd 1984 in Opole, Poland and raised in Black Forest, South Germany. Her mother, a Polish singer, and father, a German electronics engineer, had met in Jordan where they both were engaged professionally. At age 6, Olivia and her mother moved to her father´s home-country and settled down in Black Forest, Germany. Within the next few years they changed their residence several times, eventually ending up in Villingen-Schwenningen, a smalltown near Stuttgart.Olivia graduated from Gymnasium am Hoptbühl, VS in 2004. After half a year of directing-study at a filmschool (unfinished), she moved to Berlin and went on to study Film Studies, English Philology and Comparative Literature at Freie Universität Berlin, which she completed with Bachelor of Arts in fall 2008. Having earned her first degree, Olivia began working fulltime as a musician. Today, she lives in Berlin and works there, at her studio in the country near Warsaw, or (often long-distance) with engineers and artists from the US and UK. She regularly tours Europe.

Work and Career
From her earliest childhood on, Olivia showed a great interest in art and literature, yet especially music and motion picture. She began playing the piano at early age (yet quitting after 6 years), as well as taking part in school performances of all kinds. Among her childhood idols were Afrcan American artist Aretha Franklin, John Lee Hooker and Dr Dre and filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Orson Welles and Stanley Kubrick. At age 10, Olivia wrote, directed and edited (as well as performed in) her first 45-minute-film "Die Erben", a parody of film noir and Hitchcock-classics. At age 16, she made an English-spoken short-documentary on Aldous Huxley´s "Brave New World" (featured at Jugend-Medienfestival Berlin)as well as a Holocaust-shortfilm based on Janusz Korczak´s "Ghetto Diaries","Unbetitelt" which won her several festival-appearances and awards. During her study in Berlin, she made the shortfilm "Origin of Species". Meanwhile, she also began playing bass and composing her first songs on the instrument. As a teenager, she recorded several demos of bass-songs including an early demo of "Tennis Rackets", and also began experimenting with layers of her own voice and rhythm. In 2009, Olivia finished her 3rd demo "The Smiling Face of Progress" and produced two internet-videos: "Girl vs. City" (live-performance) and "Hologram" (stop motion-animation-video to her demo of the song "Hologram") in spring 2009. In June of the same year, she began playing her first concerts in Berlin, a short tour in NYC, New York (where she spent 2 months) followed in October and November. In summer, 2010 she began sessions for her debut-album in Berlin, which however turned out unsuccessful, swollowing a great part of the self-financed project´s budget. After having spent months of correcting the material (learning to edit on Pro Tools, so far Olivia had only worked on Logic Studio), Olivia decided to get a financial injection for the finishing of the project. She took part in a tv music-contest on Polish television. The show´s concept was the possibility for the musicans to earn money through clicks on internet-videos of their show-performance. Her appareance caused a great overnight-hype on the internet and throughout the country´s media. Her videos were watched by more than 300.000 people, the youtube-video of her tv-performance of "Tel Aviv" by more than 180.000. Her demos were shared throughout the internet by thousands of fans of both alternative and mainstream-origins.

THE NAME OF THIS GIRL IS In November 2011, the 9 track-concept-album (quoting classic concept-albums like Talking Heads` "Remain In Light" and Marvin Gaye´s "What`s Goin On?") "The Name Of This Girl Is" was released. It was written, arranged and produced by Livki and mixed by American engineers Patrick Dillett ("Here Lies Love") and Ron Allaire. On the album and its artwork, Olivia also collaborated with Scottisch drummer Robin Thomson and graphic novelist Iain Sommerville. She designed the artwork (containing drawings by Sommerville) which shows characters from her songs, but also refers to movies, tv shows and themes of modern lifestyle and pop culture. The cover is a quote of Katsuhiro Otomo´s "Akira", the booklet shows Olivia´s head surrounded by drawings echoing Lisa Simpson, South Park, Franz Kafka, Pam Grier, an electronic dog. The album contains songs of which several had already been spread throughout the internet in their early demo-versions (from never officially released The Smiling Face Of Progress): "Hologram", "Tennis Rackets", "No Memory". Two other songs found on the album where known to Polish tv-viewers: "Tel Aviv" and "Abby Abby".Despite the demo-spoiler-effect, the album, released on her own label L I V V and sold only through her internet-shop (without promo-campagne) sold 1000 copies and was critically well received (both referring to Poland, the only country where, due to her tv-appearance, she was so far now known beyond the urban underground-scene). On the day of the album´s release, Olivia opened for Lenny Kravitz in Torwar, Warsaw. She also appeared at OFF Festival and Coke Live Music Festival 2011. Her second single "Tennis Rackets" was featured in the Polish film "Big Love"(2012) In July 2012, Olivia signed a license-contract with EMI. In September 2012, "The Name Of This Girl Is" will be re-released as Extended Edition with 3 Bonus Tracks, and for the first time appear in physical stores, accompanied by a promo-campagne. The album will be featured by a promo-tour and the single "Abby Abby" (Choir Girl Remix), as well as Livki´s first official music video.

Discography
Tel Aviv (single), L I V V 2011 Tennis Rackets/Song For The TV (single), L I V V 2011 The Name Of This Girl Is (9-track-album), L I V V 2011 Tennis Rackets (Big Love OST) EMI 2012 The Name Of This Girl Is (Extended), EMI 2012

Weblinks
www.oliviaannalivki.com www.myspace.com/oliviaannas www.youtube.com/user/oliviaannalivki www.facebook.com/pages/OLIVIA-ANNA-LIVKI/105068692879480

Other References
www.oliviaannalivki.com http://muzyka.interia.pl/plyty/recenzje/news/nie-jestesmy-na-nia-gotowi,1725365,5620 http://muzyka.interia.pl/alternatywa/news/olivia-anna-livki-zagra-przed-lennym-kravitzem,1709185,45 http://www.t-mobile-music.pl/newsy/zapowiedzi-plyt/olivia-anna-livki-zapamietajcie-to-imie,5335.html http://www.emimusic.pl/katalog,plyty,,big_love http://ortografia4.appspot.com/wiki/Off_Festival http://muzyka.onet.pl/letnie-festiwale/kolejni-artysci-coke-live-music-festival,1,4818203,wiadomosc.html