BIOGRAPHY

Olivia Sea is your new favourite animated musician.

Oh, you think you’ve seen this before – there’s Gorillaz, Prozzak, The Archies, Jem and the Holograms, yadda yadda yadda. But none of them have an intentionally late-80s animated style and a sound like Phoebe Bridgers fronting The Stills produced by Matt Sharp.

Olivia Sea is backed by American Youth, an animated band made up of drummer Shady Lane, synth player Kacy Accidental, guitarist Cecilia Ann, bassist Blank Girl, and a robot called 4-trak that handles the recording.

Her debut EP, the six song Purposeful Movements (March 2019) found Miss Sea delivering Moog-soaked moody pop anthems, punchy indie rockers and pop culture experiments. Diamond Deposits praised it for its “solid vocals and euphoric melodies”, while CBC Radio said “this is a cool project” and the Winnipeg Free Press compared her to Phoebe Bridgers, Snail Mail, and Alvvays.

The singer’s second record, the eight song Artificial Landscape. Artificial Heart. (June 2020), plays with a more fleshed out sound, expanding upon its indie rock leanings to include a bit more twang (think Neko Case fronting Wilco) and a lot more riot grrrl grit.

In 2022, the project shifted gears to include a quarterly comic book, The Unpredictable Olivia Sea, with each issue accompanied by a digital single.

The “Silent Reading” single (June, 2022) was accompanied by remixes and covers from various Winnipeg artists, in addition to a music video and mini comic. A compilation cassette, Crush-O-Rama (October, 2022), collects the first two EPs, the singles, and more.

The first issue of The Unpredictable Olivia Sea comic book debuted at CanZine in Toronto on October 1, 2022.