olski

Kyle and Jan were in their late twenties when their second child was born, and even though it was nearly decades past, a person would be hard pressed to convince them that they weren't straight out of the free love era. This was something about them that took a while to fade, and Oliver sometimes found himself being thankful that he didn't wind up with a name like "Moonchild" or something, even if he could have made it work. Then again, in the end they'd let a four year old make the final decision, so it could have just as easily probably been "Crayons!" or "Jello!"

Though he doesn't remember much of it, the family did a lot of moving around when Ollie was a baby and a small child. Sometimes they lived communally, sometimes they lived in a VW bus that they had for a while. He does remember that, his bed was a hammock, and looking back it was cool, but at the time, Ollie hated it. By the time he was eight, the bus had broken down beyond repair and the family had found themselves living in Ocala, Fl with another family. The kids mostly kept each other busy and it was the first time that Oliver got to go to a real school instead of being taught by his mother at the shoddy table in their bus or around a random campfire which always turned into more fun than it probably should have. 

His sister had warned him that they'd probably be behind and not to let it upset him if he couldn't keep up in his classes at first or if things were hard, but Oliver was mostly just excited for the new experience. As it turned out, he was in fact behind in a few things, Social Studies and Math, but they found him to be advanced in Reading and Science. And they'd ended up allowing him to stay with his age group, for a probationary period, to see if he would catch up before moving him back. And he had caught up, quickly too. The excitement of the school quickly wore off, and Oliver didn't quite hate it, but he couldn't say he loved it either. His classes were fun and some of the kids were cool, but some of them were really mean, which wasn't something he was used to. 

They stayed in Ocala longer than they did anywhere else, but before he'd made it out of his first year in middle school, the family was on the move again. It was at this time that he finally got the nerve to ask his parents if he could go and live with his father's parents. Bubby and Pop, as he knew them had extended the invitation countless times over the years, in phone calls and letters, birthday cards, the rare visits over the years. For some reason though, Oliver had never felt right about leaving his family, or going back to something that his father had clearly made an effort to leave behind. But on the brink of being a teenager, he finally wanted to start doing things for himself, making decisions about himself. 

At first, they'd agreed, and the family dropped him off at his paternal grandparent's home in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia. Though his parents had left strict instructions that he was not to be taught about their religion or beliefs, his grandparents did attempt to sneak things in, clearly upset that he had no real knowledge of his father's side. There were other things too, but mostly, Oliver got a taste of what it was like to be not only an only child, but also a normal one. He went to J.S. Jenks and made real friends that he wasn't afraid of losing for the first time. He was allowed to eat whatever he wanted, and he had to be in by a certain time of night (when the streetlights came on) and it didn't even bother him in the slightest. 

Two years later though, he moved again, but at least he got to remain in Philly. His parents had missed being away too much, or so they said, and so they'd finally decided to settle down, or so they said. The family got a small apartment for themselves, and Oliver felt too guilty to not move into it with them. He still saw Bubby and Pop often, and he still got to attend public school, but he got to be reunited with his sister, and his parents too. And he could stay up as late as he wanted playing guitar or keyboard, or even the accordion if he'd wanted to. And so as he started high school, he was more into making music than ever before, and found himself making friends more easily too, now that he wasn't the "homeschooled kid" or "that southern kid". He'd dropped the accent pretty quickly once he'd realized that people were calling him that, but it had still stuck. Now though, all he needed to tell people was that he'd moved from Chestnut Hill, and he'd fit right in. 

It pretty much did work that way too, high school was the best time of his life that he could remember. He'd met his best friend, the one he'd known almost right away would be a part of his life forever, and they'd started the talks of starting their band. One drunken night, high off of weed and excitement, things between the two young men took a different turn as they ended up making out. And to Ollie's surprise, things didn't really get weird after that, nor did they after the next time or the next. It only seemed to make their friendship stronger, now that they had another bond, and really it only happened when they were both high and/or drunk and they never really talked about it when they weren't. As far as what they were really passionate about though, the music, it took a long time to really get things moving, to find other members, a drummer, in particular and gather the things they needed. They'd just started to get things going, had a small fan base, a steady group, when their drummer left them again. Finally losing patience with the whole thing, they decided to move to LA and try their luck out west. It was really exciting at first, and though they'd only really smoked in the past, there was an abundance to try and never a night without a party to find. Something else happened in LA though, he'd met her, the love of his life, Naomi. Ollie was convinced.

Even though things were strained at first, he was sure that they'd all get along if they just moved in together, the three of them. He'd managed to get everyone on board, since it would be cheaper and he'd be able to see his girlfriend and not lose any focus on the music. And things worked out that way for a while. His girlfriend was focused on building her acting career, he and his best friend were focused on the band. He went through several phases of trying to get clean and not fool around with his bandmate, in his best boyfriend mode. And even though he was unsuccessful most of the time, he still thought things were going well. Until his best friend wanted to move out, to move home. He was homesick, he hated everything about LA, he felt like they'd stood a better chance in Philly, where there were still people contacting their myspace or whatever site they still had up for Artisan. He couldn't try and convince him not to go, Ollie decided. And so despite his own lack of interest in the internet, they tried to make the band work at a long distance. Of course, it failed miserably, and within weeks, Ollie was packing his bags to head back east. It made more sense to do a long distance relationship than a long distance band. 

Once he returned to Philly, the band did manage to take off in a way. They didn't get famous, but things started falling into place. They hooked up with a kid who had his own recording equipment and they ended up having more fans than he'd remembered. His relationship stayed rocky and his girlfriend got relatively famous. The two remained in touch though, even in the off periods of their off/on romance. Artisan got to be pretty big locally, and even playing festivals. They've released three albums, one recorded in an actual studio, and are releasing another album at some point this year.