Story by Robin Housekeeper, Reporter
Photo courtesy of Olivia Vargas/Bandcamp

This month the AQ Artist Spotlight celebrates Olivia Vargas. Vargas is currently a junior working on a liturgical music major, and right now her minor is undecided. When it comes to cats or dogs, she will choose cats all the way, while her favorite animals are pandas.

Vargas says that she always wanted to sing since she was younger. She started by singing during church then got into the music scene during her senior year of high school. Her favorite genres to listen to and sing along with are soul, jazz, and R&B. The reason Vargas loves music so much is due to the way it makes her feel and its ability to share a message. She loves to sing because she can use her voice to share messages of her own.

On Youtube Vargas has numerous covers that she’s done. She chooses a song from two ways. The first is because she likes the song and wants to try to sound like them. The second way is by choosing an unpopular song to make it her own style. She also has a few of her own songs uploaded onto Youtube. She started writing her own songs when she was in seventh grade and admitted that they were horrible. Over the years she kept working on it and was feeling inspired by other artists and the events in her own life as it was an emotional outlet.

Through all of that she has produced an EP called “Tabula Rasa.” Vargas hopes that the music gets shared and can get out in the world. She wants her music to say, “Hey, I’m here.”  

All the songs on the EP are written by her and have a jazz influence.  Vargas says that everyone could find something to enjoy or relate to in the song. She mentioned that a range of people from rock to jazz fans have enjoyed the EP. As of right now, she’s not sure about another EP. She’s planning on doing more live shows with her band.

“Tabula Rasa” has five songs. All of them are slow and quiet. They all have a different meaning. The feel of the songs vary, but they are all still fun. Vargas was able to make her music have meaning that anyone could relate to and have it be fun for her. I definitely recommend listening to it.  

After graduation, Vargas plans on staying in the music scene for as long as she can. She’ll be in the church choir to perform more. While she’ll also keep writing her own music to see where it’ll go for her.  Vargas believes that being at Aquinas has helped her learn more about music.  Her time here so far has enabled her to improve her music writing skills, and always has the help of her band, family, and friends throughout her journey.

Vargas’ music can be heard by visiting her Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/OliviaVargasmusic/ or by checking out https://oliviavargas.bandcamp.com/album/tabula-rasa.