After recording and performing in Los Angeles and Nashville, Carli Osika returned home to find peace and joy making music in North Idaho. Her performances today include country favorites, her original country songs and several of her favorite pop and rock covers.
Osika, a senior at Lake City High School, has been singing “forever” and started playing guitar in second grade, inspired by his uncle who played guitar. She wrote her first song at age 14 and has been writing and performing ever since, joining the Coeur d’Alene Rock School when she was 15. Through Rock School, she played with a band and solo at various venues such as the Fair District and the Silver Lake Mall.
She also made two trips to LA, the first time in high school, to shoot a music video for a song she co-wrote with Spokane musician Dan Conrad. The video has not been downloaded. Osika now says it was cheesy and hopes people won’t be able to find it online today, but she was able to use the video as part of her graduation project at Lake City High School. She graduated from Lake City High School with a bachelor’s degree and a bachelor’s degree and decided to pursue a career in music.
After graduating, Osika sent in an audition tape for The Voice and was asked to come to LA for a second round audition. She didn’t make it past the second round and now says she really hasn’t found her own style yet. She was able to hook up with some songwriters in LA and learned a thing or two about the music business—watching songwriters count the number of lines each contributed to a song and then discuss what percentage of the royalties each would get, for example. Apparently, not everything was as glamorous as many of us imagine.
Until then, Osika was singing pop music, but Dan Conrad became a musical mentor and sent her country music to listen to. Kacey Musgraves was one of the first country singers whose music she really connected with and soon Osika was writing and performing country songs in venues across North Idaho.
Devoting herself fully to music, Osika moved to Nashville in 2017 where she will spend the next three years working a day job and writing, recording and performing music in her spare time. Nashville was a very different music scene where she saw writers collaborating on songs and sharing credit equally instead of fighting over percentages and who contributed more. At the same time, she saw career choices that didn’t look attractive at all – constant touring and traveling, hours on the road or in the studio. And even if someone succeeded, well, Osika put it this way: “I wasn’t willing to live such an unbalanced life.”
Osika moved back to North Idaho a few years ago and now performs three to five days a week. She continues to write and has moved back to Nashville to connect with songwriter friends. She says she would love it if one of her songs was picked up by a big name and became a hit – and she has been quietly staying out of the limelight. Today, Osika’s performances are full of covers – about 80% of her performances – because she likes to play music that people enjoy. Expect to hear two of her favorites at any of her shows: “Let ‘Er Rip” by The Chicks and “Stripes” by Brandy Clark. In addition to country, her performances will include crowd favorites from Fleetwood Mac to Joan Jett, as well as several of her originals. “Whiskey & Him” is a favorite you will hear at every one of her shows. One sign of a great original — audiences often ask her to repeat it as an encore.
You can hear Carli at any of the following locations in North Idaho as well as on Spotify:
7/30 – Brats & Cook in Spirit Lake
8/03 – Millie’s in Priest Lake
8/06 – Lake House Bar & Barbecue at Bayview
8/07 – Made in Coeur d’Alene
8/09 – Buoy in Coeur d’Alene
8/10 – Millie’s in Priest Lake
8/13 – Lake House Bar & Barbecue at Bayview
8/17 – Millie’s in Priest Lake
8/24 – Millie’s in Priest Lake
9/02 – Snake Pit in Enaville
Tom Richards is a music lover, lead singer of the local blues band Dr. Phil & Enablers and owner of The Snake Pit.
