Artist to visit Portales

Los Angeles band Oliviero are en route for Portales where they will perform songs from their new extended play, “If You’re Going to be a Bear.”

Mike Oliviero and Donovan Bullen, guitar and bass players, packed into their station wagon just two weeks ago and started traveling as across the west to bring awareness to their usually four-member band.

The band will perform their free concert at 7 p.m. June 2 at the Eastern New Mexico University Greek Park.

Bullen said the theme of how they make music ties in with the title of their extended play, or short album.

“It’s like it says, if you’re going to be a bear then make it a grizzly bear,” Bullen said.

Oliviero, the band’s namesake, said they are largely sound driven.

What is your favorite part about music?

It is the first time that a song comes into being. The first time you take it from this abstract idea in your head and make it this tangible, listenable thing. Even it if is just saying, “hey guys, let’s do this,” and hearing it for the first time. That is the moment that is so rewarding and that I live for.

Mike Oliviero

What is your favorite lyric that you have written?

We have a song on our new EP called “Solaris” that has this lyric just over and over again. The lyric is, “Now I know, it is against our wills that we become wise,” and it is a line that is paraphrased from a Greek tragedy called “Oresteia.” It is just saying that we, as humans, do not particularly want to go through the painful processes that it will take to give us wisdom.

What are the advantages/disadvantages of traveling as a small band?

The advantages are that we are a lot more transportable, logistically and symphonically. We can just pack up, or we can just grab our instruments and sit out on a street corner. It is really nice to get back to the simplicity of the song. We have to rely on the bones of the song itself when we don’t have as many instruments. The disadvantage, on the other side, is that with only two people, there are fewer appendages to make noise with. We can’t achieve the same depth of the sound that we can with four people.

What is the one thing a musician needs to know?

I think the most important thing to know is that it takes time, and you just have to hang in there and keep writing songs. Eventually, you will become successful in some capacity. You just need to keep working towards it.

— Compiled by Staff Writer Anna George