My crude understanding is the definition of life has gotten quite fuzzy in current biological theory.

Notably, I think the "viruses first" theory for the origin life has gained force. This says that first came protein/DNA soup, then came viruses and only then came cellular organisms.

And if you want something that doesn't "piggyback", you'd have to wait for photosynthesizing plants and that's several steps further in evolution (in my layman's understanding of current theory).