
“Tired, beaten and frustrated with the world, a man decides to go live underwater among the friendly pond creatures that entice him on his daily walks through the park.”
It’s a slightly unhinged fantasy Phil Korosec describes—one his band, Olivia Valentine, milks for all its worth as the premise for latest single “And Now Just Be,” from The Couch Cushion EP, out in late January. Heavily influenced by Radiohead, Flaming Lips, Broken Social Scene and (to a lesser extent) the prog rock and metal of their youth, Korosec and Olivia Valentine co-founder Geoff Hrabar are no spring chickens. The two met at a local coffeehouse more than 30 years ago when Korosec was a film student at the University of New Orleans. They’ve been friends, collaborators and bandmates in various capacities ever since. Originally conceived as a studio project in 2017, Olivia Valentine evolved into more of a proper band with the release of its debut LP, Reverberations, in 2023.
In the real world, Korosec makes his living as a graphic and web designer. “I walk my dogs daily at a park near my house,” he says. “It’s a great place to clear my head and become present. It’s no secret that this world has been a bit challenging for the last couple of years, so I often think as we walk near the ponds, ‘I’m just going to go live underwater with all of you.’ By utilizing closeups of the band playing in the studio superimposed over the song’s narrative, the video personifies the theme of suffocation that leads our character to a sense of release.”
We’re proud to premiere Olivia Valentine’s “And Now Just Be” video.
—Hobart Rowland