- 2 days ago
Olivia Rodrigo joins Bru for an Audacy Check In to offer up a preview of her new album, ‘you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love,’ to talk about the filming of her “drop dead” video, and more.
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00have you ever fell down a rabbit hole of like a fan theory where you're like this is unhinged but
00:04also like genius and you wish you maybe thought of it totally yeah sometimes what was that i saw
00:09one the other day that was like these are all the marketing tools that olivia should do and
00:12was like she needs the four-letter word to be like the wordle of the day and i was like
00:15whoa
00:21olivia it is so good to see you i want to do this quick rule um where i have the
00:24stats from
00:25last time i've seen you lord it's been two years no it's all good stuff last time i saw you
00:29you debuted at number one with guts that spent 130 weeks on the chart still charting by the way
00:35102 shows across the globe and you became the youngest female artist to ever cross 180 million
00:40on a debut arena tour that's insane over 25 billion streams across your catalog billion of those are
00:46from me um you dropped a netflix concert film and now you're back with a new album you seem pretty
00:51sad for a girl so in love out june 12th and drop dead the first single is out now olivia
00:56rodrigo it
00:57so good to see you welcome back thank you thanks so much for having me yeah of course i mean
01:00congrats
01:01on all of that that's insane does that feel real i mean gosh so many fun things have happened in
01:06the
01:06past couple of years yeah gosh i was like sweating hearing you read the statistics it's it's pretty
01:09wild that would be stressful to be like if you did mine like you graduated at 25 it's just weird
01:14but impressive numbers i mean gosh yeah i'm very very grateful to be able to make music and on this
01:21scale it's uh it's living the dream yeah and a blast of a weekend um at coachella how about with
01:26addison you guys go way back that's so fun yeah i've known her for so long i'm so happy for
01:32her
01:32she has such a vision and is such like a positive wonderful person and i'm just i'm just so happy
01:37that she's having yeah she called you and be like this is a moment let's do it did you plan
01:40it in some
01:41way was it spontaneous i think i i like we're friends like we text all the time and i like
01:45text her i was
01:45like maybe i could like come out at coachella like i feel like this song is so fun and free
01:50and
01:50very you and she was so stoked and yeah yeah oh people went nuts lost their minds i'm always
01:55curious too can anyone just join at coachella or is there like a waiver wire thing you gotta like
02:00process or something yeah and maybe there was i don't know i forgot to sign some safety stuff
02:04yeah oh my gosh and then at the actual festival itself do you stick around to like watch anybody
02:10are you a beaver girl like i'm so curious i saw i thought nine inch nails which was incredible
02:14like one of the best shows i've ever seen i saw them at the forum the other day too and
02:17they're
02:17insane i saw david byrne who i love the show was outstanding and i did see beaver it was so
02:22epic
02:22yeah i loved it so great when he sang baby i think i like lost my mind i mean it's
02:27just like
02:28it's one of those things where it's so nostalgic yeah and he breaks it out and he's like in his
02:32new whatever that is era or whatever it was just amazing to see him do the throwbacks and love his
02:36new music so totally i thought it was so beautiful the way that he did it with the the laptop
02:40too it
02:41like almost felt like he was paying homage to his younger self and like having this younger self
02:43on screen and like seeing him in real life like so happy was it was really powerful so him yeah
02:48just
02:49felt like so so like carefree and everything and you knew he had a blast that's amazing um but what
02:53we're here for is is a new album and i'm so excited to dive into all of it i mean
02:57we took us from sour
02:58to guts and now this project and i'm just so curious like you from a personal stance does it almost
03:03feel
03:03like a coming of age project being your third album and live so much life yeah i mean i had
03:09so much
03:09fun making this album obviously my first album was the first album i had never made anything before
03:14and i had no idea how it was gonna like reverberate into the world and obviously so many of those
03:19songs
03:19really stuck with people and i'm very you know grateful for that and um i think the second album
03:24i felt a lot of pressure um after sour you know i felt the need to like follow it up
03:28and i wanted people
03:29to like the music still and yada yada and so i had just a lot of stress and and this
03:33album i went into
03:34just having so much fun i just like love writing songs so much and i hope that my love for
03:39writing
03:40and music comes through in these songs because um i just had a blast and i felt really like free
03:44and happy and i hope that that's uh you know palpable on the record yeah that's amazing it kind of
03:49answers this next question but with being the third album i don't know why but it feels like an
03:53artist third album is kind of like a big deal it's like the um for whatever reason that is um
03:58do you
03:58feel like there's anything to prove or was it that freedom that you worked with throughout it that
04:02really made it like what the product is i mean i guess i guess you always sort of feel something
04:07to prove i mean it's just like a human nature i guess but um i just wanted to make a
04:11record that
04:12i liked first and foremost i think you just want to prove to yourself that you can make something
04:15that really resonates with you and speaks to your experience so i think that's always the foremost
04:19goal and i'm you know setting out on making a project totally yeah and personally heading into a
04:24new era whatever that means to you um do you feel like lighter maybe this time or heavier even from
04:30your last one as you look back and reflect i feel so much lighter i feel i mean so many
04:35of the songs
04:35like are about joy which is really fun to write about for the first time there's obviously a lot
04:39of like sadness and like longing and whatever interject like like um injected into it but um
04:45yeah i i feel really free and i i feel like more myself than ever and um yeah i'm just
04:52really
04:52really excited for people to hear the whole album i think they're gonna like it that's amazing that's
04:55the goal right yeah and i can't wait to hear it too i mean drop dead is so good
04:59and i can't wait to hear what else you came up with um you described as your most experimental
05:04album right or maybe it was others but just with that in mind um what was it like to i
05:10guess
05:10actually you know push yourself this time in the studio what does that look like to experiment
05:15yeah i mean i think the most experience like like the challenge for me was to write um songs about
05:21like romantic love like positively um i think when i set out to write this album i was really in
05:26love
05:26and in sort of my first like big girl relationship and so it was sort of a challenge to sit
05:31at the
05:31piano and write something that felt meaningful you know writing a song about happiness is a lot harder
05:36than writing a song about heartbreak i think and so for me it was um sort of challenging myself to
05:41make a love song and also sort of talk about like some of the more negative feelings that go along
05:46with being in romantic relationships like you know longing and yearning and like jealousy and like
05:52missing your partner where they're away and and um i that was kind of the the challenge for me is
05:56to
05:56try to marry those two worlds absolutely yeah and then while you're making the album i'm always
06:00curious does life experiences change maybe what the vision was in the beginning of an album yeah i was
06:07making this album for a year and a half and like so much stuff happened in my personal life and
06:12you
06:12know you learn so much about music and like i feel like i'm always like finding new things that inspire
06:17me so i think it's like a it's a you know ever evolving type of thing yeah and talking about
06:23the
06:23inspirations i heard london was a big inspo for the album i'm always curious what a place does to
06:30inspire songwriting is it like the people is it the the places and energy is it the weather like what
06:35is that for your process at least yeah all of the above i think um i like love living in
06:41london i think
06:42it's so amazing and i i walked around a bunch i think when you're just walking around a bunch you
06:46just like ideas just come through yeah you're just headphones in and just like feeling inspired and
06:51i think i was like really inspired by um english bands too i think hopefully that sort of soaked into
06:57my psyche and subconscious while i was hanging out there and i don't know i i think that there are
07:02some like specific lines that are like literally like kind of about england and you pick up an accent
07:06midway through yeah in the middle of it i'm like hello that'd be great um and you're so great at
07:12world building so i'm always curious when you're creating that are you thinking about the visuals
07:16and moments or do you you know come out with the music and then let that kind of create that
07:20world
07:20yeah i mean i think the sentiment always comes first for me even in like the production it's always
07:25like what do i want to say and like how can the production enhance that and how can the visuals
07:30enhance that so it always just you know kind of boils down to like the lyrics really for me but
07:34um yeah i just really wanted to feel like myself in the visuals i kind of wanted to feel like
07:40stripped back i didn't want to feel too glam i like wanted to feel sort of like more my everyday
07:44life and um a lot of it takes place outside i think i wanted to feel like really free and
07:49kind
07:49of springy and summery and um so the visuals reflect that but uh it was really fun it's always
07:54a fun fun process to make an album and then be like what do i want it to look like
07:57it's a really
07:57interesting creative fun thing oh my gosh it literally is world building like there's just so much
08:02that you can world your oyster it's so fun absolutely and the first oyster that's lead
08:06us off is drop dead which is such a mic drop moment i don't know what that transition was
08:11never heard a song it's an oyster but when you heard that song and it's like finished it's all
08:15done it's produced and everything was there a light bulb moment that you're like this is the
08:19the one to introduce a new era yeah i think when i wrote it uh i wrote it maybe like
08:23a year ago or two
08:24years ago or something like that but i think when i wrote it i always knew that i wanted to
08:28lead the
08:28campaign with it just because it feels like the first step in the journey of you seem pretty sad
08:33for a girl so in love it's about a first date and so i think there's this like new beginning
08:39feeling
08:39to it it's about like finding someone you really like and like wondering if they like you back and
08:43feeling really excited but also a little anxious and um i don't know it just felt like the beginning
08:48to me yeah and as a person i feel you're so intentional and you're so uh articulate or whatever
08:54the word might be for um you know which phase will be in and which song and you obviously think
08:59far
08:59enough ahead do you ever think about what these songs will be like live like are you thinking
09:03about which parts that your fans will sing back to you or what that looks like on a tour yeah
09:07for
09:07sure for sure there's definitely some songs i'm like oh god i hope that this is like a sing-along
09:11moment like i really want this to hit um yeah i mean and that was so fun also uh performing
09:16with
09:17addison the other day coachella it was like so fun to see a song exist in real life you know
09:21because you
09:21can just like listen to it on your headphones till the cows come home and you can like listen to
09:24it
09:24in the studio and it like sounds like pretty good on the studio speakers but um yeah hearing it exist
09:29in the real world is a totally different experience yeah i feel like i'd black out so fast but like
09:34if
09:34you're on stage there are you watching at all to see the reaction to the crowd see what lines people
09:39are resonating with or i know it's a new song but what'd you see up there yeah it was and
09:43it was
09:43really sweet that people like already knew the lyrics too sometimes i i was like kind of blown away by
09:47that
09:47because the song obviously just came out but um yeah i mean i think the audience is the most
09:51important part of any show i always tell myself that when i'm getting nervous for a performance i'm
09:55like most of this is just the audience like that's the only thing that's important like you're kind
09:59of just like a backdrop i think but um yeah it was really fun yeah well for the actual title
10:04you seem
10:05pretty sad for a girl so in love um it's so specific and what was the the moment that that
10:10title was
10:11what you were going to go with because i mean i just think of the past you know two and
10:14it's
10:14not a drastic change but it's just such a very intentional title yeah i always knew that when
10:20i set out to make this album from the very beginning i was like i want to try to capture
10:23or i want to try to master i guess for myself like the art of a sad love song because
10:27those are always
10:28my favorite love songs ones that are like kind of depressing and like kind of dark um and so i
10:33always knew that that was like kind of the challenge and so i was having a conversation with
10:37producer dan about something and he was like oh you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love just
10:41in
10:41conversation i was like bars that's it that's it that's gonna be that that's gonna be album title
10:45so um yeah i'm really happy with it it really captured i think the entire like thesis statement
10:50of of what i was trying to do so it's kind of a mouthful but the more i practice it
10:55the easier it
10:55is to well i mean look at our buddy harry styles i mean it's the era of long album titles
10:59i think
11:00you'll be all right yeah is there any others that you flirted with that you were like this is really
11:03good or like it's you know you had a hard time deciding yeah i mean honestly it was always this
11:08it
11:08was this for a really long time yeah um but i had some really other emo bad ones that i
11:13like i would
11:14never say maybe if maybe maybe in a few years but i love that so the next interview when i
11:18see you in
11:19a couple years we'll talk about those ones there's something really layered with that idea of the
11:23album title that you talked about like being in love but still carrying a lot of heaviness was that
11:28a theme you found yourself coming back to a lot i mean obviously he brought it up one of your
11:32producers but did it relate in real life as well yeah i also like the title because it's kind of
11:37like
11:38a little bit doubtful and like almost like you know like trying to poke holes in something um
11:43i just like love the attitude that it sort of conveys and so i think that's also a theme that's
11:49like
11:49sort of in the album too is like poking holes and like wondering and and like i don't know
11:54doubting and stuff like that so yeah there's there's lots of lots of things to unpack in the record
11:58oh my gosh talking about unpacking things you have gotten so good at these easter eggs
12:02i can't even keep up i'm like there's another one i feel like everything i look at might be an
12:07easter
12:07egg how much fun do you plan in those i feel like that's such a cool thing that artists really
12:11like
12:11get to you know connect with the fans in a unique way yeah i mean this album role has been
12:17so fun
12:17already i mean we're just started but i i think it's so fun to like do things in real life
12:22also like
12:23the wall and like painting it and like having like a gum on like i did this thing um for
12:28drop dead
12:28putting like locks on all these various like bridges and stuff in different countries and
12:33it's just so much fun i like i music should be fun and like silly and i like love stuff
12:38like that and
12:38i also just love the way that it brings people like outside and like connects them in a real
12:43tangible way like i love connecting with people over social media but there's something different
12:46about like like i drove by the the pink wall in la the other day and there was a bunch
12:50of girls like
12:51hanging out there and i was like that's so cool that this could be the backdrop for like people
12:54connecting in real life yeah um and so yeah it's been really fun i'm i'm very lucky that i like
12:59have the resources to pull off fun things like that of course what an easter egg in itself to be
13:03like
13:03okay olivia might be around we're spying on us right now you're like pokemon go you're bringing
13:09us together remember getting out walking around public we need that that was that was a crazy time
13:14everyone was out everyone was out still on their screens but still out but it was still fun
13:17a little counterproductive but hey we got our steps in for sure um if you ever fell down a rabbit
13:22hole
13:22of like a fan theory where you're like this is unhinged but also like genius and you wish you
13:27maybe thought of it totally yeah sometimes what was that i saw one the other day that was like
13:31these are all the marketing tools that olivia should do and was like she needs the four letter
13:35word to be like the wordle of the day and i was like oh man is wordle four letters or
13:39five letters
13:39maybe five letters five letters they were like she needs to work with the new york times in the world
13:42i was like these people are brilliant like i gotta get new york times on the phone this is amazing
13:47mr times yeah but uh people have really great theories and um yeah lots of brilliant minds
13:54yeah on stan twitter gosh that's that's a i didn't know you could do that either maybe you can't but
14:01a couple other quick things i want to touch on the music video was so much fun at the palace
14:05of
14:05versailles um i filmed there for the olympics actually 2024 and i remember it being so like
14:10obviously it blew me away just like i don't know if it was your first time there um filming a
14:14music
14:14video yeah unreal and it was like tough because we filmed there so there's a lot of like rules and
14:19stipulations what did you come across filming there that was like so unique to something you've never
14:22done before yeah it was just so awesome i mean you've been it's like the most beautiful place
14:26on the planet it's so stunning and we were lucky enough to be able to film there like basically alone
14:32yeah for like a night which was so rad i felt like i was in night at the museum like
14:36i felt like the
14:37statues were gonna like come alive um but it was it was so special and i think that that song
14:44also dropped dead it's sort of about like falling for someone and like i think like dreaming so big
14:49and like having like all these high hopes and so i think like the palace of versailles is such a
14:53great
14:53backdrop for it because there's so much opulence and so much like glitz and glamour and when you're
14:57like falling in love with someone for the first time i think that that's like sort of what it feels
15:00like yeah um or that's what you're hoping for and so uh i'm really happy with it turned out oh
15:05it
15:05was so cool and so overnight type of shoot i feel like that's when you have to do something like
15:09that
15:09yeah it was magic do you get to explore any other little rooms like the property is so huge
15:13but like i think they have like like it's insane amount of rooms yeah it's like 3 000 rooms it's
15:19like all gold yeah it's all gold there's like all these beautiful paintings and beautiful statues and
15:23yeah it was it was pretty insane i got to explore a little bit explore the grounds and explore all
15:28the rooms and yeah it was once a yeah what a once in a lifetime thing to get to experience
15:32and
15:33as a fan too of like history it'd be so fun to just yeah peek around while you're filming i
15:36mean
15:36that's what you should do just pick iconic locations you want to go to yeah pyramids next
15:41music video i'm ready to see it um speaking of different locations all across the country we're
15:45gonna have karaoke parties which is so cool i can't wait to hopefully be a part of some of these
15:50with
15:50our stations um what is the most karaokeable it's a new word song on the album i mean drop dead's
15:56obviously uh you probably can't say them but oh yeah i don't know or track yeah yeah yeah drop that
16:01is
16:01pretty karaokeable yeah i'm trying to think there's a few others there's the next single
16:08is karaokeable if you're sad well i mean gosh you have so many karaoke songs it's not like
16:14driver's license has to be one of the top uh songs on the machines nowadays what about for you what's
16:19a song you love to belt if you get the opportunity yeah um dancing queen by alba is my favorite
16:24one i
16:24also really like doing um bohemian rhapsody by queen wow because you commit yeah yeah but then if you do
16:29it
16:29with different friends it's like you can do all the different parts like yeah what part are you
16:33yeah i do the high parts and my friends do the low parts okay perfect if you need a bass
16:37guy i'll try
16:37my best that'd be so fun um okay and then last time we talked to you we talked about how
16:42long you
16:43sleep do you still do you still do that 16 hours right you're like a koala so funny yeah i
16:49mean i i'm
16:50still that girl for sure that's so funny that i talked about that just to i mean i feel like
16:55sleep is
16:55so important what are some tips for for getting a good night's sleep you know i've said it before
16:59but i just feel like it's having a clean conscience wow like i'm like i don't regret anything you know
17:04everything's i keep it keep it 100 and so i just yeah no melatonin needed when you got a clean
17:11conscience like yeah that's so fun there you go anyone sleeping four hours you got to look inward
17:15i love that is there anything else to know about the album that um we should before we get it
17:19june 12th
17:20um yeah i'm just really excited about it i uh i'm really proud of it i think there's a song
17:26on it
17:27for so many situations and um i'm yeah i'm really proud of it and uh worked really hard so i'm
17:33excited
17:34well congrats i mean two years is a lot of time to put into a project and let people in
17:40on such a
17:40vulnerable thing that you work on so thank you for sharing that and congratulations on all the
17:43continued success
17:44you
Comments