There's a reason Olivia Rodrigo's debut album is called Sour , not Spicy . Despite claiming to be "the least fan of spicy food" and finding bell peppers "spicy," the 18-year-old high school graduate visited the set of Hot Ones and tried his hand at the show's notoriously spicy dish. Answer questions about her astronomy career. Spicy chicken wings.
Of course, that includes discussion surrounding her record-breaking hit single "Drivers License," but it also offers an in-depth look at her stylistic choices on the album and a glimpse into her songwriting process. The interview also answered a lingering question surrounding Rodrigo's smooth crooning single "Hope You're Alright" and the meaning behind the fan-favorite lyrics: "Write the letters onto my butterfly wings hole; nothing lasts forever and nothing is as good as it seems."
But, to the surprise of fans, Olivia revealed that she also had "no idea" what the verse really meant. "I don't know! I don't know. That sounds cool!" she said with a laugh. "We wanted something a little abstract for you to interpret. I love butterflies and this was like a sour theme, so [we] incorporated that into it."
As the wings got hotter, so did Rodrigo's take on songwriting, especially how to craft a stellar bridge. Her advice? "I think the coolest thing about bridges is talking about things you're not talking about in the rest of the song," she says. "I'm a super energetic songwriter; I like songs that are really quiet and then get really big, so I always try to have a drop bridge and make it really quiet and introspective, or really big. "
She also revealed the creative decisions she made on the single "Deja Vu" and how different the song would have sounded had she not been involved. According to Rodrigo, the song's dreamy chorus was originally supposed to utilize vocal cords, an idea she quickly shot down. "Everyone said, 'It sounds great, it's so cool and stylish!' I was like, “I’d really rather die than put vocals in my songs.” There’s no shade to anyone who does that; that’s not my thing! ” she said. “I wanted to put that really cool, thick, crunchy synthesized sound in there—it sounded like an electric guitar, but it was actually a synthesizer—and I had to work really hard to get it recorded. Down, but it happens. "
With a debut album grounded in early '00s rock, emo, psychedelic pop, and indie folk, it makes sense that Rodrigo thinks "the coolest thing about making music in 2021" is getting better Being more "genreless" creates more room for experimentation. "I feel like sometimes it doesn't always have to be so linear. Some of my favorite music is very upbeat music, but the lyrics are very depressing," she said. "You can do whatever you want." If it creates a number one like "good 4 u," then we're definitely on board.
