New Theory sat down with the Los Angeles based rising star JoLivi

NT: How did you get started in the business?

After I graduated college I moved home for about 5 months… then finally decided I was ready to pursue the dream 🙂 and moved to LA. I was lucky enough to meet the right people and got started right away.

 NT: What inspires you?  Really inspires you, not the BS stock answer?

To be honest, heartbreak… Going through it personally or seeing the affect it has on my friends or family, in any regard, not just love relationships… but with everything.  And of course the reason I have my gift, my grandfather.  He inspires me even though he’s no longer here.  I’ve never been a spiritual person, but since he has passed I feel him more. He was a beautiful Hawaiian man who sang beautiful Hawaiian music.  I hear him every time I sing.

 NT: Why did you change your name?

As much as I am proud of my name (Leihoku) and my Hawaiian heritage, everywhere I went on the road or radio tours I kind of got pigeonholed.  Not in a bad way but I didn’t want to sing about happy shit anymore.  In Hawaii it is paradise… no matter how much of a concrete jungle it becomes… it will always feel that way to me.  I wanted a name that represents me as a singer/songwriter not a name that has any other meaning than just a name.  JoLivi stems a bit from my middle name Johanna.

NT: You talk about heartbreak, what happened?

Three years of torture! LOL – No, there were beautiful things that happened in this specific relationship.  But mostly in those three years I watched myself change…like from the outside looking in I could see myself crumble and deteriorate.  I was losing all that was “me.”  I was always a strong and independent woman, my mother raised me that way, but for the first time in my whole life I felt myself to be useless, that I was not good enough for not just anybody but for the world…  my actual “being” was worth nothing.  Crazy, to think that just one single person could break me is almost insanely incredible.  The power of the mind can kill… 

NT: I see 220k views on YouTube, impressive… How did you do it?

I have a great social media team… along with my mother and myself. We created the images, inspired the people, and wrote a beautiful song about loving whoever the fuck you want.  🙂  To inspire truly is one of the most amazing feelings.  I’ll never lose that!

NT: What is something you want the readers of New Theory to know about you?

I love driving through the country… and wide open spaces.  It sounds so darn cheesy but I just love being outside… Nature’s beauty makes me speechless… nothing else in the world can do that. LOL… well maybe Beyoncé!

NT:What’s your next move?

Doing press for the month of April… traveling all over the country… THEN TOUR TIME!…

 Any parting thoughts?

I LOVE YOU!  and thank you… 

To Learn More about this up and coming artist, check out: https://www.jolivimusic.com

Check out her Games, her break out hit: