He was born in
Pontiac, Michigan, to a musical family. His father had a
DMA in choral music and was an
avant-garde 12-tone composer,
A&R executive for Metro Arts Detroit, known for its affiliation with the musicians of
Motown Records and later the Director of Arts & Humanities at
Michigan Tech, His mother was a music/voice major and school teacher. He started playing violin at age 6. PJ caught the attention of
Columbia records, who in mid-2000, released the critically acclaimed album
Words For Living. Olsson also made an appearance on the
Late Show with David Letterman, singing his
High Times song of the year,
"Visine." His well known song,
"Ready for a Fall," was included on the soundtrack album for the television show ''
Dawson's Creek''. Olsson began collaborating with
Alan Parsons in 2003 as his sound engineer and, within months of Parsons hearing his voice, was added as lead singer while retaining engineering duties. He has performed with many other notable acts, including
Kid Rock,
Iggy Pop,
Bob Geldof,
Something Corporate,
Ben Harper, and
Michelle Branch. Olsson mixed and co-engineered
Alan Parsons' album
A Valid Path alongside Parsons and earned a Grammy nomination for the project. He has said that working with two of his musical heroes,
Alan Parsons and
David Gilmour (who guested on the album), is a career highlight. ==Discography==