Following Her Inner Compass: Olya Sonica Talks “YOLF,” Touring, and Transformation

There’s something magnetic about Olya Sonica. Maybe it’s the way she turns personal crossroads into rock anthems, or how she stops to listen to her heart, so she can make risky, but necessary decisions. After releasing You Only Live Forever (YOLF), a song born from struggle but charged with power, the Moscow-born, Los Angeles-based artist is stepping into her boldest chapter yet.

With “YOLF” as an indication, it is more than sure Olya Sonica is going to leave a trail of empowerment and catharsis wherever she plays, because she is living proof that when you follow your inner compass, no matter how uncertain the path, you don’t just live once. You leave something that echoes. We caught up with her post-UK tour to talk about bravery, legacy, and what it really means to live forever.

First things first, how are you feeling right now in terms of your music career?

I am feeling lucky, you know. Lucky to do my thing, lucky to have fans and friends supporting me, lucky to be releasing new music and playing it with my fav people, lucky to be traveling and creating, lucky to be talking to you.

When did you realize music was your thing? Can you identify a defining moment?

Absolutely.

I was a teen living in Moscow, Russia, working a sweet job (a few of them, really) and getting a nice education and, of course, having an existential crisis about it all. I felt like it wasn’t right for me.

I instinctively always knew my path had to be different. And seeing myself on stage singing in English (specifically!) came as a vision at the moment it all came to a head.

You came to the U.S. without speaking a word of English and managed to build a music career from scratch. What part of that story still drives you when you write songs?

Well, let’s not get too crazy over here. I could say “Hello” and “Goodbye,” and had memorized some of my fav song lyrics when I first came to New York, so I knew I was gonna make it work “One Way or Another,” haha. But yeah. Twas a tough one. But I’m always “in” on an adventure, so I thought, why not? 

What drives me is when something captures your imagination, you’ve gotta go with it. That’s where the path flows. 

We are all bewitched by different things, whether we want to admit it or not. I think the way to stay true to yourself is to go with the childlike curiosity we feel towards them. 

One does require an internal compass, of course, to navigate what helps you stay on top and away from what drags you down. And some things we still have to learn along the way; that’s just a part of a creator’s journey. 

Let’s talk about “You Only Live Forever,” a song born from a difficult moment. How did the idea for this track come about, and what did you want to express with it?

“YOLF” was a song that was born from a supremely difficult moment, sort of a major crossroads that had two paths ahead for me. Either I was going to fold and retreat back to where I didn’t belong—ultimately picking a path of further suffering—or go into a greater unknown and make things up as I go, choosing bravery over fear and heart over calculation.

So I chose the latter. Took the last bit of coin I had and went into the studio.

The lyrics carry a strong sense of fight and liberation. Did the writing process feel therapeutic for you in any way?

It was one of those special numbers that just fills the empty space around you word by word with little to no effort. 

And then I thought (given the context of the song) if I’m talking the talk, I gotta walk the walk. 

So yeah, definitely therapeutic. A sonic reminder to myself that I can turn my pain into power. 

Do you remember which was the first line you wrote for “You Only Live Forever”?

“Don’t let your heart stay broken, you’ve got the gold to fill the cracks…” just poured out of me, and then it just kept on going.

What does the title “You Only Live Forever” mean to you?

“You Only Live Forever if you get on today” is the line from the song, and it means if you seize the day today, you might live forever within your legacy. And I think that’s what living forever truly means, when you leave something behind that moves people. 

In the chorus, you sing, “Slay / the power you’ve got must be used.” What kind of power are you referring to, or at least what personal power did you discover while writing this song?

The power to create your own reality, to turn things around for yourself; the power to realize no one else has got the power over you. 

How was the UK leg of your tour, and what are you most looking forward to as you continue with the U.S. shows? Any cities you’re already dreaming of returning to?

We’ve juuust finished the UK leg of the tour, and I’m back home in LA today, haha. BUT we’ve got a few more US cities to go, including a few headlining dates in LA, New York, and Dallas, and an IPO festival ahead of us.

We CANNOT wait to go back to London and Liverpool; we had an absolute blast and loved our UK crowds. So…. (Top secret) Stay tuned, we are already looking at some UK dates for next year.