Olivia Rodrigo has shared the advice that both Jack White and St. Vincent have given her while writing her album ‘Guts’.
- READ MORE: The NME Big Read – Olivia Rodrigo: “It’s important for me to be taken seriously as a songwriter”
In a recent interview with The New York Times, Rodrigo explained how she turned to White for help amid the pressure of creating her new album.
“He wrote me this letter the first time I met him that said, ‘Your only job is to write music that you would want to hear on the radio,’” she said. The singer then added: “I mean, writing songs that you would like to hear on the radio is in fact very hard.”
St. Vincent was another musician who Rodrigo spoke to during the creation of her album and who she cites as a mentor. In a phone interview for The New York Times, St Vincent – real name Annie Clark – said: “I’ve never met anyone so young and so effortlessly self-possessed. [Rodrigo] knows who she is and what she wants — and doesn’t seem to be in any way afraid of voicing that. And just a really lovely girl too,” she added. “I’ve never heard her say a bad word about anyone.”
Bikini Kill‘s Kathleen Hanna also commented on the pop star saying: “She’s a revelation… It’s a fascinating thing to watch these young women, and especially Olivia, because she seems to be so advanced as a songwriter, expressing themselves in these really complicated ways.”
Hanna also shared her joy Rodrigo embracing the Riot Grrrl scene saying: “That’s so great, to see this underground musical style being graphically referenced in the mainstream by a person who’s actually a music lover.”
Rodrigo recently revealed the full tracklist for ‘Guts’ which is the follow-up to the artist’s Grammy-winning debut ‘Sour’. It will feature the cuts ‘All American Bitch’, ‘Ballad Of A Homeschooled Girl’, ‘Love Is Embarrassing’, ‘Pretty Isn’t Pretty’ and more.
In other news, Rodrigo recently became the youngest person ever to receive the BRIT Billion Award.
The 20-year-old singer scored the landmark achievement in mid-July, but was presented with the award last weekend (August 17) while the singer was in the UK to promote her latest single ‘Bad Idea Right?’.
Earlier this summer, the singer explained that she had already come up with the title for her forthcoming second album before ‘Sour’ had even seen the light of day. “I had it in my head. I’m like, ‘Four letters, all caps, just like ‘Sour’,” she recalled. “I love it. I just think it’s an interesting word.”
Rodrigo’s 2021 debut album ‘Sour’ scored a four-star review from NME upon its release, with Rhian Daly writing: “When your first release is a track as ubiquitous as ‘drivers license’, it must be tough going to make a whole album that matches up. For the most part, Rodrigo has passed the bar she set on that single, sharing with us an almost-masterpiece that’s equal parts confident, cool and exhilaratingly real. This is no flash-in-the-pan artist, but one we’ll be living with for years to come.”
