Brian Olive

Brian Olive had already built a strong reputation alongside key players in the Midwest garage rock and punk blues community when he launched his solo career with a debut album in 2009. Growing up in Ohio, he first picked up the guitar during high school in a group called Us and Them, which later became the well-regarded garage rock outfit the Greenhornes. He contributed to their initial releases, Gun for You in 1999 and The Greenhornes in 2000, before leaving to join forces with fellow Ohio natives Johnny Wirick (performing as Johnny Walker) and Ben Smith (performing as Ben Swank) in the Soledad Brothers. Olive moved to Detroit alongside the new band and adopted the stage name Henry Oliver. The Soledad Brothers developed a close connection with Jack White, whose White Stripes were beginning to attract local attention, and White oversaw production of the band’s self-titled debut while Meg White added percussion. As Henry Oliver, he handled keyboards, guitar, sax, and flute on the recordings, yet after completing the follow-up Steal Your Soul and Dare Your Spirit to Move he exited the group and departed the Midwest in search of fresh musical ground. Reverting to his given name, Brian Olive sought to lead his own project and settled in Cincinnati, where he helped establish a basement studio inside a jewelry store and started shaping songs with several compatible players. Those sessions resulted in his self-titled album, issued in June 2009, which blended blues, R&B, jazz, garage rock, and psychedelia with notable range and command. The follow-up Two of Everything appeared in 2011, jointly produced by Olive and Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys.