Olivia Rodrigo Talks Drivers License, Her Writing Process & Following Up A #1 Song

hello beautiful human thanks for clicking on our conversation with olivia rodrigo we have a lot to discuss obviously driver's license but album touring everything i really want to know about her writing process and how it all works so yeah leave your honest feedback in the comment section below please like the video and even if you hate us subscribe and this conversation is sponsored by total wireless do amazing with total wireless let's do this hello beautiful human uh i'm zach that's dan and we welcome to the couch kind of uh olivia rodrigo hey hi i mean there's a lot of life to discuss here uh can i start with the obvious um sure how you feeling i'm feeling good i'm feeling good it's yeah it's been like the most insane two months of my entire life but um i'm feeling so grateful and so excited for what's to come and yeah it's been just crazy i just say that over and over again but it's just truly like crazy i i can't really wrap my head around all of it you are a genuine music fan is there a song right now that best captures what you're going through in life you know it's such a unique crazy experience i feel like it's something that's like so unique to me and you know but everybody's kind of like felt that sort of pressure and you know like craziness that um this is i suppose but uh there's this one song by lord called still sane um and she wrote it i think after royals came out and she was just talking about like kind of the craziest success that she had had with that song and i listened to that song now and i'm like whoa that's so crazy like i feel like i really resonate with those lyrics so yeah but i i just i don't know i really can't process everything that's happened so i don't know like what song could i don't know do you remember the first song that you ever wrote because you are a songwriter at heart like that is that's your passion that's what you love to do from what i've gathered about you so far yeah yeah that definitely is my thing i've been songwriting for as long as i can remember there wasn't like a moment where i was like okay now i'm gonna become a songwriter like it's just always been a common thread in my life um i truly like don't remember like the first song that i wrote i have like home videos of me when i was like three or four years old making up songs about like being lost in the grocery store and not being a parent or something back like crazy stuff like that but um the first song i wrote on piano was called superman and the hook was i don't even know superman to come and save me come and teach me lessons because i'm a human being and i can clean up my own messes i was probably like nine years old or something and i was like you know a very empowered nine year old i suppose do you write songs every day or do you like block out periods in your life where you force yourself to write i love writing um and so i usually write every day um sometimes when i get really busy i don't have the time but i i'm always constantly thinking about writing songs i'm like sort of like obsessed with it like i literally have like dreams sometimes where like in the dream i'm like yeah that's a really interesting rhyme that's great and it's like this like sweet dream about like making a rhyme for a song um so yeah i write all the time sorry when you have a dream like that do you wake up and take notes about it do you like like how do you document that inspiration i don't really remember like all of my dreams all the time and usually like as soon as i wake up i'll like forget the specifics of it like there has been moments where um there have been moments where i've like had a dream and i've like dreamt up an entire song and i'm like this is brilliant oh my god this is so great this is amazing and then i wake up and i'm like i have absolutely no idea what i was just thinking about and i think that happens to like other people too um so i know like if i could have one superpower it would be um to be able to like record my dreams on vhs and like watch them back i think about this so often i think that would be so cool yeah and also like scary for some but the ability to record and go back and see right it'll be so interesting just like a deep delve into your psyche you'd be so cool how do songs usually start for you i know it's you at a piano but is it you taking notes about what you're going through in life and yes some songs come from a dream but it sounds like a lot of things come from reality yeah uh i'm a big lyricist and so i will like write down like poems in my notes app or in my diary or i'll be thinking about something and i'll be like oh that could be a good line um like the first line that i ever wrote for driver's license was i know we weren't perfect but i've never felt this way for no one and i just can't imagine how you could be so okay now that i'm gone and i like was just like thinking about that while i was sitting in the passenger seat in my mom's car and i just wrote that down in my notes app and then when i like sat down to write at the piano i was like oh that's a good like little bit um so i put that in the chorus and lots of my songs kind of start out that way start out from like a a lyric or like a lyrical concept just because i love lyrics so much but you know it's also different every time and i think that's sort of the magic of songwriting safe to say that car i changed your life i know crazy thing about yeah does driver's license change how you've been making music from that moment on like since you put it out you know i thought after driver's license i would feel really self-conscious or feel a lot of pressure to kind of live up to everything that driver's license has become but i really like haven't lately and i've been writing and i've been writing some really great stuff lately and um i just always remember that i don't write music to put music out or to have music chart i i really just write music because it's my favorite thing in the whole world to do i just love it so much so um yeah if anything driver's license has only really given me confidence there's something special between you and daniel right like there's like i'm watching you guys to your new york times story of a song and it's there's something very unique between this relationship between an artist and a producer which by the way like is a very vital relationship as you choose to make music yeah yeah that's a very valid and interesting observation yeah i spend so much time with him i've spent like like eight hours with him every day for like months on end so um yeah we're definitely like really close and great pals and i really trust him which i think is the biggest thing that you look for in a collaborator and i really trust his taste and i really appreciate someone who will tell me you know what they really think i think writing songs or producing songs with people who are like yes men and just like love everything that you do is not super beneficial and so he's definitely guided me through songwriting and you know my first sort of releases and stuff like that so yeah i'm so grateful for him and i couldn't ask for a better collaborator how do you grow with yes man right how do you grow if you're not being challenged and told uh that sucks but what about this you know right exactly how many songs are you currently sitting on you know what i over the course of my life have probably written like literally thousands of songs i write so much but produced i probably i'm like looking like there's like a tracklist up there like on the whiteboard that you can't see but i like i probably have like produced like maybe like 15 or something like that so i'm see and i'm also like so picky like one i'm like this is great and the next day i'm like i'm never putting this out this is awful so we'll see what happens the infamous whiteboard what does that mean to you when you look right when you look up at that is that pressure is that like what does it mean today yeah you know what i truly like don't feel so much pressure i really feel such excitement at these opportunities that i've been given and that sounds like sort of like like cliche i suppose but it's really true and i i just love making music and i'm so excited that i get to do it and i'm so excited that people are gonna listen hopefully like that's just so surreal and you know it's everything i've ever dreamed him since i was a little girl so yeah i'm just so stoked how do you know when a song is finished you don't i literally like until like they were like okay olivia you have to turn in driver's license i was like no this has to be different this has to be this drum sound isn't right this is like i just like obsess over it so you know i think there's certainly an art to knowing when to stop but i haven't totally figured that out yet but i think i'll i'll get a grip on it as i sort of grow and grow in my songwriting and my musical abilities did you have another one of the songs you wrote picked out to be a debut single before writing driver's license no i think driver's license was always the one um i think it was i really liked having that be my introduction to the world it's such a vulnerable song that really feels so much like me and so it's really cool that my first song is this like really intimate glimpse into my feelings i think i wouldn't have it any other way does making music come easy to you no no um i love it but it doesn't always come easy i think there's periods where you know you don't have writer's block and it's just flows and you're really inspired but lots of time it's like work and lots of times i have to sit down on my piano and be like oh hello you're going to write for an hour and then if you don't like it that's fine but you're going to at least try and um i just recently watched the billy eilish documentary which is so amazing i don't know if you guys have watched it but it's so great if you haven't we don't want to bring it but we're in it did you see us did you see us we know you were yeah we are oh my god shut up it's amazing i totally missed that that's so great congratulations we were at different phases of our lives then dan had pink hair i was wearing glasses we were different people okay i'm like it's like coming back to me it's coming out you don't have to pretend like you remember i'm not pretending but i remember her doing like radio interviews but i think i was just like so like focused on like what she was saying but like that's still so sick that's amazing but she is like how sometimes it's really hard to write songs you just get like really like insecure i feel like at least i do it's like like some days i'm like this is amazing this is my passion this is what i love to do and other days i'm like oh my god this is so bad i don't know why anyone is listening to this i can't do this and you know i think that's just part of like being an artist and making art that's like really personal and vulnerable i think that's just part of it a hundred percent and you know i've heard people like sean mendes say like genius doesn't strike every day so to put pressure on yourself to do it every day it's like but but at the same time there's also writers who write songs every day to get good at it you know you know i think there's something to writing every day i think ideas flow more easily when you're constantly showing up i think i don't know i believe in like cosmic energy and like you know higher powers and stuff with creativity and i think that if you you know show the universe that you're willing to put the work in then you will like receive great ideas more often i don't know don't mean to you know get on a soapbox but by the way amen i i totally agree when you tap in but what you put out is what you get back right and i think so many different layers of life and exactly totally well since the song has blown up have you been writing a lot of songs that you're liking yeah i actually have which is has been surprising i i guess i sort of thought that i was gonna be like sitting on my piano like trying to write the next driver's license or like trying to write something that would top it but you know i really just you know have i've gotten actually a lot of confidence from driver's license and a lot of confidence in my ability and strength and my voice and so it's actually been really wonderful and i i didn't think it was going to be like that i thought i was going to be freaking out but you know i'm really happy that i'm not yet at least knock on wood yeah exactly it's real wood don't worry i'm not going to okay thank you thank you i don't have anyone near me what do your parents think of all this i mean you've been on this ride with them for a very long time i mean you've been acting you've been creating some sort of art in some fashion for a minute and they've been by your side yeah i have the most lovely parents in the whole world and they have sacrificed so much um to see me live my dreams and they're just so happy for me and so proud of me and um but at the end of the day it's so nice because they're like they're just my parents and you know all this crazy stuff is happening and my mom's like you need to clean your room and put gas in your car olivia like you know what i mean like it's it's uh it's nice to have some sense of like normalcy and my parents are definitely that for me and by the way you don't want it any other way like as an artist when you think of it do you want a normal life or do you want this glitzy glamour life right is it easier to create music where like what headspace i have no idea i don't think my life is glitzy or glammy at all i literally every day i do my like environmental science homework and go in the studio and hang with people and then come home and like go to sleep like it's not it's not some like crazy thing but you know i just feel really lucky that i get to do what i love every day and um feel so lucky that you know this song that i love has been super successful can we talk about the bridge which could be the greatest bridge ever oh you're so sweet thank you at one point in the song was that written was it mostly done and then you added that did that come first and you built around it the very last thing that we wrote um and i wrote that together um and i just remember like playing it on the piano and being like whoa this is so great this is like so powerful and um you know we like laid a bunch of vocals in there and i was like oh my god it sounds like lord in the best way and so it was really incredible that people loved it as much as we did because i think that's one of my favorite parts of the song was there any discussions about like should you use the f word should you not use the f word or is that just like you're like i'm doing it i don't really care i mean there is like a radio edit but um i always just like love people swearing in songs and i also feel like it was sort of like necessary like it wasn't just throwing it in there just throw it in there like i feel like it like added a lot to the song and it sort of served that purpose of you know being like the angry lyric i think there's so much like anger that goes along with sadness and so i think to have like a little sprinkle of anger in there was really necessary and and sort of made the song what it was on the whiteboard right now do you see that as an ep do you see that as an album do you see that as a string of singles what is it that is for me to know and you to find out soon is there a cohesive story that is like connects all the songs that sits on your whiteboard or are they all individual like pieces do you understand yeah i try to make all of my songs especially on a project i haven't got a project before you know it's first time everything but i try to make them cohesive but i i think that they're going to be different in in um subject matter and also like found and i think those are kind of my favorite records that have a little something for everybody amazing today as we sit here olivia rodrigo how do you measure success in music and in life wow and they're two different things right yeah no that's a deep question honestly i think for me i felt really successful making a song that i felt like was a true representation of what i was feeling and what i was going through that to me is the hardest thing to do and the most gratifying and so you know all of the the charts and the records and stuff is just icing on the cake of of me being able to write a song that really resonates with me so yeah so success is genuine honest art i suppose i think so yeah making art that you like and and that helps you i guess do you think about touring at all i think what's wrong all the time i've never played a show with my own music in my life um so it's it's going to be really crazy to get to kind of do that for the first time when the world opens up and i'm so excited so are we thanks were you still filming high school musical while all this was going on with driver's license like out there blowing up yeah yeah we just wrapped maybe like four days ago so that was that was really exciting to celebrate that yeah what was life like on set as you have like the biggest song in the world and you still have to concentrate on a tv show you're shooting yeah um you know all of my cast members are so supportive and wonderful so it was um it was really nice to see that olivia rodrigo i can't thank you enough for taking time today and giving us energy in any capacity album ep time please come back and hang out and i would love to go through it all i'm really excited to hear uh what's next and i thank you and and by the way the music you write for uh high school musical the musical is absolutely exceptional and thank you as somebody whose life has been heavily influenced by high school musical the joy that it brings me to hear those songs re-cut it is yeah you are phenomenal thank you you are so kind i really really appreciate that i have a question off that quickly when you're writing for the show compared to your own music do you do it differently or is it basically the same thing i always try to like insert pieces of my real life and my real emotions into songs because or into the songs that i write for a high school musical because i just feel like songs are better that way and i feel like people can tell when something is honest and coming from a real place versus when it's not but it is really interesting to write for a character and i think that's fun and i think restrictions like that sort of make you more creative and so it was a really awesome challenge and i'm really grateful that they let me do that well that's it and you know that when you run out of life or want to live less life you can always you know put yourself into somebody else's shoes and crap exactly i'm pretty sure that sam smith wrote half of their second album i think about somebody else or a collection of different people i think that's so great i i do that all the time too that's one of the most fun parts of being a songwriter is you get to be whoever you want to be olivia rodrigo i thank you so much for hanging out with us i really appreciate you giving us time thank you thank you guys so much i really appreciate it i'll talk soon have a great day bye bye hey beautiful human thanks for watching our full interview but i get it like full interviews a lot so we got a clips channel we don't expect you to watch the full thing anymore so we just gave you the highlights please subscribe and uh notifications and all that stuff okay cool i love you

Channel: Zach Sang Show

Views: 175,659

Rating: 4.9633598 out of 5

Keywords: Olivia Rodrigo, Drivers License, high school musical, high school musical the musical, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, hsmtmts, zach sang show, zach sang, dan zolot

Id: EFM5cJJWBYw

Length: 19min 19sec (1159 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 03 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/idoakmwntkf]

Apocalyptic crush better be one of those 15 songs on her whiteboard!!

[u/cloudcakerun]

So excited about her. Really want another put together, polished pop girl who writes her own stuff.