Carla Olson – HuffPost 4.29.13

Mike Ragogna: What advice do you have for new artists?

Carla Olson: Well, it’s a double-edged sword being a new artist. You have all the freshness and you can bring something completely unseen to the forefront if you mange to get your stuff out. My suggestion is just to follow your heart and not try to be anybody else. You can obviously draw from other people, but that happens naturally because musicians are like sponges. Don’t struggle over the recording of it so much — don’t try to make it so perfect–because the best thing about music, and the things we remember the most, are the little flaws that are in the music. There are certain things like on The Beatles record where John would sing a different word than Paul. Don’t fix all the little things. Just make it your own and make it human.

MR: What was the best advice ever given to you?

CO: Follow your heart, definitely. That and to not try to be somebody you’re not. One time, somebody wanted me to do a record with them, and he was very sweet about it, but he said, “I really picture you as more of a Pat Benatar type singer. Ditch the guitar.” I said, “I’ve been playing the guitar since I took the thumb out of my mouth. I would feel uncomfortable getting on stage without my guitar.” He might have been trying to throw me a compliment by saying I could sing like Pat Benatar, but no, I can’t because it’s just not me and it doesn’t fit with my persona. I’ve always been one of the boys in a way. I had some real heroes when I was growing up–Joan Baez and Mary Travers were two of my biggest influences, but you couldn’t take The Stones away from me, or The Kinks, or The Beatles, or the Yardbirds. Those were my guys. When I wanted to play the electric guitar I sold the acoustic guitar my dad had gotten me, and he was a classical musician, so he kind of wanted to see me go a little more in that direction, but I didn’t have those chops at all. I could play Bach and Beethoven, but after the second year of classical piano I had to beg off. I wasn’t one of those people who was going to practice for eight hours a day, and my dad was.