Olivia Rodrigo's Songwriting Tips — Full Transcript & Summar

[00:00] 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 to Musical to Series. Before that, I sort of just kept my songs to myself and played them for my mom and my friends, but that was sort of the first experience where I wrote something that people really believed in and that I believed in and kind of got hurt by a lot of people, so it gave me a lot of confidence.

[00:22] Driver's license coming out has sort of immensely affected my songwriting process and my music, you know, making brain I guess, but I thought actually when it came out and when, 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 that's good as Driver's license on, 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.

[00:51] 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.

[01:03] 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.

[01:19] 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 going to like try to write a song like as if they were writing this song. And it's just like completely like broadens their horizons and helps make your music just like that much better.

[01:35] 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 as a storyteller as she is yet, but I always try to like put aspects of that sort of narrative, singer-songwriter-type lyricism in my songs.

[01:53] 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 brilliant lyricist as well, and she's super poetic, and you can tell that like lots of her songs started out as poetry.

[02:07] 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.

[02:19] 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 say how many times I've like sat at a piano and like been writing a song, and then like, this is terrible.

[02:35] I should just quit like this is so bad. But I like forced myself to finish it, or at least like finish the idea, or whatever, like finish the verse in chorus, and lots of the times I come back. And I'm like, oh wait, that was actually the grade.

[02:47] Like I was getting like really in my head about it. And so you're never going to learn from something if you just like throw away the second you think it's not good. And you're never going to learn how to like craft something good. If you just like are waiting for just like lock in a bolt of inspiration to strike you.

[03:00] Number three, I think this sort of goes along with number two a little bit really like showing up 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

[03:17] 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 and 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 will give you better ideas.

[03:33] So, you know, that was sort of the exercise that I did over quarantine is I like forced myself to write a song. Not forced myself. That sounds like that's on sad and scary. But like I sat down in the piano and was like, okay, I'm going to write a song every day of quarantine and I feel like that made me a much better songwriter.

[03:46] And, you know, I think some of the ideas I wouldn't have gotten to jot down if I didn't 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 it can be super talented but if you don't show up, what's the point?

[04:01] Alright, 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.

[04:14] 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.

[04:26] They're like, oh I have to do this if people like it, it just absolutely ruins it. And I think you just have to be true to you when you're like writing all of 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, those are the best types of songs.

[04:39] It's actually super, super cool to see people relate to my songs. For a while, I felt like I was like, kind of read it up because I was like, oh I kind of have this like really weird life. Like I've been home school since I was in seventh grade.

[04:51] I like, I'm on a set all day with like, went to 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 I'm feeling like that right now.

[05:09] This helped 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 and you just have to tell your story because, you know, humans are all so much more alike. And we are different and we're all feeling so much of the same things that we just don't talk about.

[05:24] The last song running 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 very lyric narrative story based songwriter and everything else kind of is secondary to that.

[05:40] 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 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,

[05:56] 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 for the music video, we kind of didn't want it to be like super on the nose, like relationship-y.

[06:10] 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.

[06:22] 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.

[06:38] I think it's like perfectly creepy in the best way.