Exposed Vocals just caught an exclusive with Shannon Oli

Shannon Oliver known as Shannon Oli, was born December 14th 1989 on the beaches of North Carolina where he grew up son to Joseph Oliver and Diane Oliver. His father a Marine and his mother a hard working woman with multiple professions both from Queens New York City, always knew they had something special on their hands when it came Shannon because of the talent, dedication, motivation and drive he possessed even as a small child. With childhood rap idols such as his brothers Sean Oliver and Chris Finch, Big L, Eminem, Nas, Canibus, Rakim and many many more, he then knew what dream he wanted to chase even at a young age of 11.

At age 11 is when he wrote his first verse, starting out battle rapping on small sites such as rapworlds.com, mrblunts.com and bboyz.com his skill with a pen developed exponentially while focusing on his love for multis, punchlines and excellent wordplay. At age 13 after getting a copy of Cool Edit Pro 2.0 he then started recording his very own written an performed tracks, then it began. Suddenly dreams turned to reality because of the easy access to technology; a small at home studio was created. From ages 13 to 17 he honed his skills while joining a group called Spit Game that included his two brothers “Sean Oli” and “Barz Vic”, and his two friends “Trev B” and “Charlie Rose”. At Age 18 he did his very first show at a house party in Greenville North Carolina amongst the campuses of East Carolina University and the outcome was incredible.

Falling in love with the feeling and adrenaline rush he got from a positive crowd response, that was when he knew that music was no longer a dream but a reality. Continuing to hone his skills while joining the army and becoming a pilot at age 19, 2 years later he deployed to Afghanistan. With a lot of down time he decided he was done waiting on other producers for instrumentals  and or scaling soundclick.com for that ONE beat out of millions that fit his style. He then decided to pick up the art of producing and audio engineering. This came second nature to him, learning the craft and learning it fast his first public song produce was released which featured “Mike Rose” on his very own written song “Voices”.

Just recently forming the group “The Symphony” in late 2015, he now has his own production crew consisting of 4 producers who are “Jesse P” “Solace” “Next Level” and himself, and one singer named “Tai”, he now feels he has all the tools to take the game by storm. Once people caught wind of his production the clients came pouring in, while balancing working for other artist and himself he managed to release multiple mix-tapes,the latest being Black and White. Written, composed and performed by only him and his group “The Symphony”. Shannon Oli is here an ready to prove that hard work an dedication pays off.

Exposed Vocals: How did you hear about Exposed Vocals? What made you decide to sign up?

Shannon Oli: I was contacted via twitter around the time my mixtape “Black and White” was released asking if i’d be interested in participating in an exposedvocals.com interview.

Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?

Shannon Oli:  I was born in eastern parts of North Carolina on a military base named Cherry Point. I’m sure only military brats will recognize the name but it’s extremely close to Atlantic Beach, NC. I decided to become an artist because I love music, all forms of it, the lyrics, the meaning, the sound, the instruments, the effect it can play on people lives,everything about music I am in love with. My brothers were very musically gifted and still some of the best Hip-Hop artist i’ve heard and at a young age I had no other desire than to be exactly like them. So becoming an artist ..a great artist, has been my dreams since the first day I picked up a pen.

Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your inspiration behind it?

Shannon Oli: Honestly, my fathers marine buddies always called him Jo Oli at work and around us as kids given his full name is Joseph Oliver. So when I decided to start being an emceeI had a bunch of odd names like “lil soulja” “L.E.E” etc. Then my friends in middle school started calling me “SdotOli” and I stuck with it until I graduated high school. Which is when I started using my government first name “Shannon” because honestly…how many guys do you meet named Shannon? Most of the time when people hear the name they think i’m a female, but my mother always said I was special and meant to do great things and being ashamed of my name is something I am not. So Shannon Oli it is.

Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?

Shannon Oli: It’s an outstanding resource, it gives everybody that CHANCE to become something bigger whether it’s planned or not. It opens up a great way to connect with artist everywhere and fully embrace the joy of collaborations and possibly be discovered. Yes i’ve given away my music for free mainly because some of my material I just wouldn’t feel right charging for. Not that it isn’t worth it, but I hold myself to high standards so if I heard the song and didn’t feel the need to immediately purchase it, I wouldn’t expect anybody else to. But I do charge for production, there’s some occasions where i’ll let an instrumental go for free because i’m feeling the artist style and or presence on my beat but that doesn’t happen very often.

Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?

Shannon Oli: Just keep at it, if this was an easy task everybody would be millionaires or established with their art. It’s hard, you’ll want to quit, you’ll want to take a leave of absence, but try not too an stay motivated. Motivation and dedication is the key to progression I believe.

Exposed Vocals: Do you ever make mistakes during performances? How do you handle that?

Shannon Oli: Definitely , nobody’s perfect specially if you’re offered a free bar at every show. But luckily for me I was performing a brand new song that nobody had heard prior to the show. So I forgot my lyrics mid way through and just played it off and free styled the rest. The crowd loved it an never knew the difference :). Stay Calm..it happens.

Exposed Vocals: Do you tour? Anything interesting happen on tour that you think our readers would enjoy hearing about?

Shannon Oli: I haven’t “Toured” but my old group were doing shows almost 2 times a week for about 2 months straight. Extremely exciting and great for morale. If you’ve ever listened to my music you’ll hear my say multiple times I don’t really indulge in drugs or smoking weed. But this one time in Chapel Hill NC we were doing a performance and decided to get a little wild prior to the show. Then to no surprise …My best friends dad shows up unexpected in a town like 3 hours away from where he works..and he’s a lawyer..and we’re all ….under the influence you could say. We pulled it off but it was definitely weird and nerve racking.

Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process?

Shannon Oli: Everywhere, the news, how i’m feeling, what the worlds going through, Facebook, relationship status, my friends issues, issues back home, family issues. I write about literally everything and you’ll hear that in my music.

Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?

Shannon Oli: Yes I do, I actually have multiple online platforms I use for music distribution. I use sound click mainly for instrumental sales (www.soundclick.com/shannonoliproductions). I use reverbnation.com mainly for song updates with me on vocals (www.reverbnation.com/shannonolii). I’ve just started using youtube for instrumental updates as well as a few promo videos for upcoming projects (www.youtube.com/c/shannonoli), and obviously Facebook to stay connect with the world (www.facebook.com/shannonolii).

Exposed Vocals: What are some really embarrassing songs that we might find on your mp3 player?

Shannon Oli: Honestly I feel like no songs are embarrassing, if I can get inspiration from a random taylor swift song, i’ll rock it until I can’t stand it anymore. Hell, I have Japanese anime themes and sound tracks on my track list.

Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?

Shannon Oli: I’d invest, mainly in a promotion and distribution team since thats my least favorite part about the game. I have a full studio with about 20k put into it and I’ve learned the elements I need to be successful. All I would need is a team to push my music and push it everywhere.

Exposed Vocals: Any planned studio upgrades? What are you working with now?

Shannon Oli: As of right now all I have planned to purchase are VSTS and audio plugins. I’m working with and 8 Core mac pro with 3 TB of HD space, Maschine Studio 2.0, MPC Renaissance, Native Instruments Kontrol S149, focusrite 2i4 audio interface, neuman TLM 102 Condensor mic with a porta-booth, dual Yamaha HS8s studio monitors, a couple cameras I cant remember the name of and over 700 plugins all purchases including the waves bundle, izotope ozone, isotope alloy, omnisphere, nexus etc and I also have a back up MacBook Pro with tb of SDD running it.

Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?

Shannon Oli: Put it on the internet and copy an paste your links to people who respect you enough to listen, if they like it they will share. I try to not bug or spam people I dont know personally because it’s more of a nuisance than a blessing of my music to a listeners ear. Network, meet people and talk to everybody everywhere you go  because you’ll never know who you’ll run into with whatever connections.

Exposed Vocals: If you could perform anywhere and with any artists (Dead or Alive) where and who would it be with? Why?

Shannon Oli: As of right now, it’d have to be J Cole in North Carolina at greensboro Colosseum. Mainly because we’re both from North Carolina and the outcome would be insane and theres nothing else i’d rather do then to show my hometown state some love with another established artist from the same state.

Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?

Shannon Oli: I actually just release my mixtape “Black and White” 10/2/15 and its getting awesome reviews and people are finally starting to see an believe again. With that being said, I plan on making a couple beat tape and possibly working with a few upcoming artist feature EP’s on my instrumentals.

Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?

 

Shannon Oli: Well i’m actually a pilot for my day job, so I guess i’d just be flying and that is. Probably get a couple more manned ratings and expand my knowledge in flight, but thats not my dream.

Exposed Vocals: Do you remember buying your first album? Who was it? What was going through your head?

Shannon Oli: Yes I do, an it’s an old school album. Eminem Infinite, still one of the greatest if not the greatest album I’ve ever heard when it comes to word play multis and just..everything. The only thing that was going through my head at the time was “man..how does eminem think of this stuff”. Truly an inspiration.

Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?

Shannon Oli:  Very carefully, nap none, sleep less haha. It’s tough because in my day time occupation all I want to do when I get off is go home an play a game of 2k, or play ball at the park and chill. But i’m an ambitious guy and that doesn’t cut it for me. So all in all I just try to stay motivated so in 5-10-15-20 years I can look back and say it was all worth it.

Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2015?

Shannon Oli: A Deal and feature with a big time artist, whether it be for beats or rapping.