The 401 MUSIC
BY TESS LYONS
Olivia Dolphin, left, performs during her album release show at AS220 for her 2024 album Better; Dolphin and her band, above, take the stage at Myrtle.
PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY OF OLIVIA DOLPHIN.
Deep Dive
Witchy-pop princess Olivia Dolphin discusses her newest EP, All the Time We Spent.
You just released your EP, All the Time We Spent. Can you walk me through the process? I wrote a lot of the songs on this EP during or right after we recorded our first studio album, Better. There’ s nothing like taking advantage of when all that creative energy is flowing. Quite opposite to all the big-feeling songs of Better, I lyrically focused on all the small moments that build up in relationships. The band then worked on arrangements with me and brought such a unique and powerful sound to each song.
You describe your music as witchy pop. Can you explain what that is? We believe that live music is magic— that when we’ re all together at a show, singing and dancing together, we’ re putting energy out into the world. Basically, it’ s modern spellcasting. So that’ s the core of witch pop, but our alt rock’ 90s sound mixed with some dark orchestral elements brings out the witchiness even more.
How long have you been playing piano? Since I was really young! I was lucky that my mom wanted a piano for our house( even though she didn’ t play) and having the instrument through the years made me fall in love with music. I took lessons on and off but focused more on the flute for a while. It wasn’ t until I started songwriting in 2015 that I could even figure out how to sing and play the piano at the same time!
When did you realize music was something you wanted to take more seriously? In high school, I was dedicated to classical flute performance and went to URI for it. I’ ve always been drawn to music, either through pop music or loving things like Fantasia and movie soundtracks. I thought it would be amazing to play in an orchestra as my job. While music didn’ t end up being my full-time job, I think it freed me up to love
46 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY I APRIL 2026