Olivia Wilkins-Becker (b. 1990) is a composer, guitarist, and vocalist based out of Boston. Their work spans from their self-taught background in experimental rock, hardcore and noise scenes to more recent studies in composition, playing with the tension between the underground versus the formal, the personal versus the political, and pleasure versus pain. 

Recent commissions include a trio for the 2023 New Bedford Roots and Branches Festival; an electroacoustic piece titled “FLEECE” written for alto saxophonist Don-Paul Kahl, co-composed and performed with Emiliano López in 2023; and a video performance of compositions for their septet Premium Velvet Headache Pillow premiered by Non-Event in 2022. In 2024, they will be releasing three albums: a suite of new compositions for sextet through people | places | records, an independent label that specializes in DIY new, experimental, and hardcore music; an album of avant-prog songs with their five-piece band Other Joliah through ERASED! Tapes; and an album of instrumental noise-meets-math-rock-meets-hardcore with their three-piece band Hairbrush also being released through ERASED! Tapes. 

One of Olivia’s primary and longest-running music projects is Rong, a noise-punk band that has been playing together since 2017. Unlike many of their experiences with composition, Rong is a fully collaborative endeavor in which all bandmates participate in and bring their whole personalities into the songwriting process. Lars Gotrich of NPR described Olivia’s vocals as “acrobatic” and wrote that Rong’s 2019 album wormhat “channels the joyous chaos of Japanese punks Melt-Banana and the aggro skronk of Brainiac with a tad of Deerhoof’s weirdo-pop hooks.” Kris Handel from Post-Trash wrote that wormhat is “a record full of explosions of all shapes and sizes - an outright assault - yet one that carries a weight that makes it impossible to escape or ignore.” Rong has since released tracks on multiple compilations including Post-Trash: Volume Four by Post-Trash in 2019; Rong // The Cost of Living Split by Mutual Aid Records in 2023; and #1 by I’m Into Life Records in 2023. Rong has also gone on several tours up and down the Atlantic coast, across the Midwest, and through parts of the Southeast. Currently Rong is wrapping up mixing and mastering their second full-length album as well as a full-length session recorded with a live audience at New Alliance Audio in Somerville, MA. 

When Olivia isn’t playing music, they are still fully immersed in the music scene; they have organized hundreds of shows including an experimental music and art series called FIND OUT which also raised funds and featured speakers from local community organizing initiatives. Since October 2023, they have been assisting at New Alliance Audio in Somerville, studying audio engineering through Lead Engineer, Ethan Dussault. 

Following a non-traditional and formerly self-taught educational path, Olivia began formal composition studies in their late twenties. In 2023 they graduated from New England Conservatory with a BM in Contemporary Musical Arts where they studied with Efstratios Minakakis, Anthony Coleman, Ted Reichman, Lautaro Mantilla, Carla Kihlstedt, Dominique Eade, Joe Morris, and Christi Catt.