SPOTLIGHT: "All Risk, All Reward." Olivia Ellen Lloyd is Ready to 'Do It Myself'

Editor's Note: Olivia Ellen Lloyd is No Depression's Spotlight Artist for March 2025. Learn more about her life and upcoming album, Do It Myself, to be released March 21, in this feature, and keep an eye out for more all month long.

Olivia Ellen Lloyd’s debut and sophomore albums have a few things in common. Both albums are self-released, and while making each she was living through the demise of a romantic relationship. For her first album, it was the end of a marriage; during the second, the dissolution of the long-term partnership that followed. But, although in both cases, great, independent art came from devastating heartbreak, the Lloyd who released 2021’s Loose Cannon and this month’s Do It Myself (releasing March 21st) could not be further apart.

By all accounts, Lloyd’s self-released debut, Loose Cannon was a big success. It garnered wide critical acclaim, a million streams, and most importantly, people came to the shows. It should have set her up for a record deal, even with a small, independent label. But when it came time to shop Do It Myself around, she couldn’t get anyone to listen to it.