i first realized songwriting was like
sort of viable option
for my life when i got to write a song
called all i want for high school
musical the musical the series
before that um i sort of just kept my
songs to myself and like played them for
my mom
and my friends but that was sort of the
first experience where
i wrote something that people like
really believed in that i believed in
and kind of
got hurt by a lot of people so it gave
me a lot of confidence driver's license
coming out has sort of
immensely affected my songwriting
process and my music
you know making brain i guess but i i
thought actually when it came out
and when it you know started getting to
be really successful i thought that i
was going to get in my head about my
writing and be like oh i'm never going
to write anything as good as driver's
license oh and like
fret about everything but i actually
really think it gave me a lot of
confidence
in my voice and in what makes my
songwriting special which i feel like is
my vulnerability and honesty and so kind
of learning that that's what people
resonated with kind of
helps me with writing all of my other
music hey i'm olivia rodrigo and these
are my top five songwriting tips
[Music]
my first tip which i think is the most
important one
is listen to music like a songwriter
i have grown exponentially from doing
this i think
it is the best way to grow as an artist
in any way is to draw on
inspiration from people that you look up
to i literally will like
listen to music that my idol made watch
all of their interviews and then go back
and be like okay i'm gonna like try to
write a song like as if
they were writing this song and it just
like completely like broadens your
horizons
and helps make your music just like that
much better
i'm obsessed with the way that taylor
paints pictures and
her imagery is fantastic and her
storytelling is just like
insane so i don't think i'm as good of a
storyteller as she is yet but i always
try to like put aspects of that sort of
narrative
singer songwritery type lyricism in my
songs
i think lord really teaches me a lot
about like production and like actual
music music
i think she always makes such
interesting choices and so i try to do
that and also she's a brilliant lyricist
as well and she's super poetic
and you can tell that like lots of her
songs started out as poetry
and so some of my songs start out that
way too when i try to emulate her
also a big like lyrical inspiration for
me is phoebe bridgers
she's just like so like brutally honest
and says stuff that you like wouldn't
think of being in a song and i think
that's impactful and beautiful and so i
sort of try to do that as well another
songwriting tip
that i have is finished is sometimes
better than perfect
i can't tell you how many times i've
like sat at a piano and like been
writing a song and been like
this is terrible i should just quit like
this is so bad
but i like force myself to finish it or
at least like finish the idea
or whatever or like finish the verse in
chorus and
lots of the times i come back and i'm
like oh wait that was actually great
like i was getting like really in my
head about it and so you're never gonna
learn
from something if you just like throw it
away the second you think it's not good
and you're never gonna learn how to like
craft something good
if you just like are waiting for like
just like lock in a bolt of inspiration
to strike you
number three i think this sort of goes
along with number two a little bit
really like showing up um for your
creativity and not just
waiting for like a lightning bolt idea
or like something
to inspire you i think sometimes you
just have to
work and write and create even when you
don't feel particularly inspired because
i think when you continuously
show up you like show the universe that
you are capable of bringing this
idea to life and you know manifesting it
in the way that it's supposed to be
manifested and like
like spiritual in that way where i think
that like the universe like pays
attention to that and then we'll give
you better ideas
so you know that was sort of the
exercise that i did over quarantine is i
like force myself to write a song not
force myself that sounds like
that sounds sad and scary but like i sat
down at the piano and was like okay i'm
gonna write a song every day of
quarantine and i feel like that made me
a much better songwriter and you know i
think
some of the ideas i i wouldn't have you
know gotten to jot down if i didn't you
know make myself do that every day so i
think showing up
is really important it's more important
than being talented or good at anything
because you can be
super talented but if you don't show up
what's the point all right fourth tip
is to write songs for yourself and
because you
love it and you like to do it the second
that you sort of start writing a song
with the intention of it being liked by
other people it loses its magic at least
for me
like if i ever like go on like twitter
or like whatever like look at people
like
consuming my song or you know
criticizing it or whatever
and then i take that with me in my
writing and i'm like oh wait but people
won't like this if i do this or like oh
i have to do this if people like it
it just absolutely like ruins it and i
think you just have to be
true to you when you're like writing all
that stuff and try to stay out of your
head and do it because you love it don't
do it for
you know other people that's those are
the best types of songs
it's actually super super cool to see
people relate to my songs
for a while i felt like i was like kind
of weirded out because i was like i kind
of have this like really weird life like
i've been homeschooled since i was
in seventh grade i like i'm on a set all
day with like a bunch of like 45 year
old dudes like is what i say going to
resonate
with other people my age and so putting
on driver's license and seeing
people of actually all ages male female
everyone
sort of being like whoa like that took
me back to a time where i was feeling
like that or oh i'm feeling like that
right now this helps me so much
like that was so cool to me to realize
that you know honesty is always
relatable and you don't have to like
try to relate to like large audiences
you just have to tell your story because
you know humans are all
so much more alike than we are different
and we're all feeling so much of the
same things that we just don't talk
about
the last songwriting tip i have is to
read poetry
as much poetry as you can i feel like
that's really informs
my lyricism i think i have to start a
song with
a lyrical concept or idea i'm like a
fairy lyric
narrative story based songwriter and
everything else kind of is secondary to
that so
in order to write a song that i like it
has to be either a poem that i like or
like a concept or like a play on words
that i can
sort of go from the hook of deja vu is
when she's with you do you get deja vu
and it's this sort of concept that i am
really obsessed with and i think
something that my friends and i were
going through
where it's like sometimes when you break
up with someone and they get with
somebody else it sort of feels like
everything that they're doing is
recycled which happens in every
relationship
i think and uh for the music video we
kind of didn't want it to be like super
on the nose like relationshipy
so i thought it would be really fun to
do like a like
female stalker type music video because
i'm obsessed
with killing eve that's my favorite show
of all time and i was like i want to do
a music video like killing eve and also
i think it really ties into that like
do you get deja vu thing because it's
like these two girls like living really
similar lives
because they like want to be like each
other so yeah i had a lot of fun making
that music video i think it's like
a really kind of convoluted weird
awesome
music video i think it's like perfectly
creepy in the best way