Sky Olson & the Valley: A dive into the history of the Logan band

The musicians were tinted green from the strobe lights. Energy oozed from the crowd right into their fingertips as the band jammed out their final song of the night. The ever-present sounds of applause and cheering were undertones to the final notes of the saxophone, guitars, drums and keyboard playing in perfect harmony.  

Local band Sky Olson & The Valley are fresh and ready to take the Logan music scene by storm.  

On Nov. 22, they will be headlining Kilby Court, a music venue in Salt Lake City. Their new single “Shattered Glass” will release on Nov. 15, a week before the show. Opening for them will be The Johns and Zenization. 

For tickets or more information, go to skyolsonmusic.com. To carpool from Logan to Salt Lake for the Kilby Court show, visit the link in the band’s Instagram @skyolsonmusic. 

In an interview conducted on Oct. 31, lead singer Sky Olson and guitarist Fish discussed music, their project and what they have planned next. 

“If Fish says anything dumb, I reserve the right to strike it from the record,” Olson said as the interview kicked off.  

Q: Who is a part of Sky Olson & The Valley?  

Olson: “We got me, Fish on guitar — he just goes by Fish — Ari Calles on drums, Alex Pope on bass, Benton Wood on keys and Rudy Cord on saxophone.”  

Q: Tell me about the history of the band. How did you get your start?  

Olson: “Sky Olson is me. That got started when I was born. I started my music about a year and a half ago. I wrote my first song, and I didn’t have any intention of putting it out there or starting a band or anything. But I showed some people close to me, and they were like ‘This is amazing, you should submit to a contest.’ So I submitted my first song to the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, and I ended up winning that for a song called ‘Dear Katie.’ It gave me this confidence and energy to be like ‘Hm, maybe I have something that’s worth sharing or maybe I have something worth listening to.’ For a while there, it was just a solo project, but I would go to shows at WhySound and saw a band, Sorrymom, perform at the first show I ever went to. I didn’t know anyone in the music scene and went by myself. I thought, ‘Look at these guys doing it. They sound so good. I want to be like that.’”  

January 2022 was the first show Olson ever played with a band.  

Olson: “At that point it was the Sky Olson Trio. But I wanted to add more to it. And I thought, ‘Hm, that dude from Sorrymom, [Fish], he’s pretty rad at guitar.’ A flier for a come-one, come-all jam session was made, a way to dip my toes into the music scene here in Logan.”  

Fish: “The drummer at the time dragged along now-saxophonist, Rudy, to the session. He said he was going to a jam and Rudy was like, ‘Can I come?’ And the drummer was like ‘Yeah, I’m sure you could.’” 

Olson: “Basically I want my songs to be like a sandbox for really, really good musicians to have fun and play around with it. Like the song we start every show with is ‘Oxygen,’ and we’ll play the song, but then there’s these moments where Fish will be the star for a moment, and he can riff on guitar, and then he’ll pass it to Rudy on sax, and having it be that way is really gratifying for me because I wrote the song, but then people like Fish and Rudy are taking it and putting their own stamp on it. I like to go up there and play my song and be surprised by what these guys bring to the table that day.” 

Q: What genres or artists do you identify with or pull inspiration from?  

Olson: “People say I sound like John Mayer. It’s like a meme at this point. People will come up to me after a show to tell me that. I was with somebody and a John Mayer song was playing, and the person I was with was like, ‘I didn’t know you had a new song out.’” 

Fish: “There was a minor joke where whenever we were listening to a Sky Olson song, we would say, ‘Wow, this John Mayer song sounds awesome,’ but now it’s gotten to the point where if I hear an actual John Mayer song, I’ll think, ‘This Sky Olson song sounds so good.’”  

Olson: “I would say though, songwriting-wise, lately I’ve really been appreciating — especially lyrically — Phoebe Bridgers. I wouldn’t be as conceited to say that she’s informing my music, but I definitely listen to that and think she’s doing something special and different there that I want to try and incorporate.” 

Q: What is your songwriting process?  

Olson: “I need to be able to have alone time with songs, and I need to be able to listen to it over and over and over again — and this is not an exaggeration. I’ll make the song and put it on repeat in my room, and walk in circles for an hour and a half and analyze every single thing. Finding the right rhythm for collaboration is super important because if there’s not a structure or hierarchy, it’s challenging to get anything done because everyone has ideas and music is so subjective. I decided early on in the songwriting process that there can only ever be one other person in the room working with me.” 

Fish: “You’ve got to have people you can trust their opinion. When you write a song and they say ‘Eh,’ it’s like, ouch, but also ‘Okay, let’s see what we can do with it then.’”  

Olson: “I’ve had some projects where the respect isn’t there, the hang isn’t there, I didn’t like being around those people, and it can be very demoralizing, right? Like, at least for me, songwriting is a very vulnerable thing; I have to dig deep. And when I’m putting my song out there, it’s a part of myself, and to have anybody shit on that, it’s — you got to have people you can trust that have your back.” 

Q: Tell me more about the John Lennon Songwriting Contest. What inspired you to apply? And what was the application process like?  

Olson: “So I won the Weekly Contest for ‘Dear Katie.’ Then I wrote ‘Broken Time Machine,’ and that won the John Lennon Love Song Competition, and that also advanced to being a finalist in the full contest. So I paid an application fee, which goes toward their nonprofit. It’s a nonprofit started by Yoko Ono back in the late nineties. They have judges that listen to every song and analyze the lyrics and melody of the artist’s music. The John Lennon Songwriting Contest — I owe them a lot. I probably wouldn’t be out here doing stuff at all if I hadn’t, you know, gotten that pat on the back pretty early on.”  

Q: What does a typical practice look like? And where do you practice?  

Fish: “When the band started, it was very tricky. I just remember the first rehearsal where Sky let it be as open as possible, which was awesome for the first two minutes, and then we realized we were trying to jump straight into fire, you know? There was so much going on, and it just — like any band, it just takes a minute to get that groove going with everybody and knowing how people communicate with their instruments — we all had to take a minute and read Sky as an artist.”  

Olson has gradually invited people into the project, starting with three other people, then adding a fourth and eventually a fifth to create Sky Olson & The Valley.  

Olson: “Every time we add more to the sound, I want to make sure we’re not stepping on each other’s toes. Fish can have his moment and Rudy can have his moment, but they can’t have their moment at the same time, because that’s not fun for anybody.” 

Practices are held at WhySound, a local Logan venue.  

Fish: “It’s a good, safe space for musicians here.” 

Q: What are you most looking forward to as you pursue your career in music?  

Olson: “I didn’t think we’d get this far.” 

Fish: “I’m looking forward to playing music with people I like, and continuing to do that. If I’m in a situation where I don’t even know the person to my right’s name, that’s not what I live for when it comes to music.” 

Olson: “I think for me, music is connection, and I’m getting that right now. I know some people just want to endlessly climb ladders, worrying about getting to the next big thing, or getting signed to a label, or getting this many streams, and it’s an endless ladder, you know? But what feels the best is to look at it and appreciating it for what it is. Appreciating the journey and the ride and not looking at it from a point of climbing higher.”  

Q: Fish, you’ve been involved in other projects in the past. Are there changes in dynamics or differences you’ve experienced being a part of this band?  

Fish:  “I’m not really there when you’re [Sky] writing the song, but I feel like I’m part of a writing process. And I feel like it’s a good balance for me, personally too. In other projects I’ve been in, it’s been more like us sitting in a room for two hours, wanting to shoot each other, trying to write a song that’s three and a half minutes, and it’s still way fun to do that, but the dynamic is way different. The hang aspect is important too. And I’ve been in projects where it hasn’t been a good hang, and it sucks to be there for an hour and a half. And it’s hard because we sound good together, but like, I don’t like half the people in this room, and they don’t like me. Would you want to spend a three-hour car ride with these people? If the answer is no, then you don’t want to be in a band with these people. Doesn’t matter how amazing you sound — if you feel like throwing a pencil at them in a three-hour car ride, you shouldn’t be in a band with them.”  

Q: What has been the most difficult aspect so far? Has there ever been a moment where you thought about giving up? 

Fish: “Oh my God, like every week. Every week I’m in the music program. But then I sit down with my instrument for a long time and don’t do the things I’m “supposed” to practice, and just write something. I kind of visualize a person or an artist I want to show or sound like, and I do that and it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s why I play this instrument several hours a day.’” 

Olson: “If you’re not experiencing impostor syndrome, then you suck. You’re not going to be good. I think every good musician has to go and listen to other musicians and think they could never do that or bring that to the table, because there’s something energizing about that, because after that you think, ‘I could maybe bring that to the table,’ or even just accepting what you bring is just as valuable as what others do. I go to some of these shows and see these musicians, and they’re just absolutely stellar, and I think to myself, ‘I’ll never be that good.’ But then I think to myself, ‘None of them have had my experiences that inspired me to write the songs that I have.’ Like that literally could have only been me to write that song, and there’s value in that.”