Fresh off the buzz of her inaugural Daisy Chain Fields festival, the pop star headed to the Grammy Museum on Tuesday night (Sept. 1) for a conversation with filmmaker Cameron Crowe celebrating Olivia Rodrigo:“the cure” Unraveled, a new exhibit inspired by the tactile, handmade universe of her “the cure” music video.
Rodrigo spoke about the process behind the song and its music video’s cinematic details, but she also didn’t hesitate to dive right in to the behind-the-scenes process of her other songs and previous albums as well. Specifically, she touched on the pressure she dealt with surrounding her sophomore studio album GUTS, and why she learned to embrace joy — and imperfection — in her songwriting on You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love.
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Rodrigo’s first two albums set a high bar for the singer/songwriter, with both 2021’s SOUR and 2023’s GUTS debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Her latest LP, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, continued that streak, becoming her third consecutive chart-topper when it debuted atop the tally in June.
But while reflecting on the making of GUTS, Rodrigo admitted that following the massive success of her debut came with its share of challenges. “My second record, there was so much pressure,” she told Crowe. “There was so much anxiety, there were voices in my head.”
The experience stood in contrast to making You Seem Pretty Sad, which Rodrigo said allowed her to reconnect with the joy that first drew her to songwriting. “I just had so much fun making this record,” she said. “Music is so joyful for me. It is, like, my favorite thing in the world.”
Rodrigo said she hoped that newfound sense of freedom would shine in the finished product, adding, “I hope that joy and passion is palpable in the recordings because I just had a ball making them.”
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That joy, however, didn’t mean Rodrigo abandoned the emotional complexity that has become a hallmark of her songwriting. The 23-year-old explained that she initially challenged herself to write more positive love songs for the album, only to discover that the songs she found most moving usually contained a bit of sadness.
“I think that’s why it’s called You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love,” she said. “Over the course of trying to write these love songs, I very quickly realized that what made my favorite love songs so moving is that there was a bit of melancholy in them, or there was a bit of fragility or something broken in the love song.”
Rodrigo also gave some advice for songwriters who are struggling to pinpoint and write down every single idea: Write through the bad ones.
The singer admitted that she writes far more than she realizes, ultimately ending up with pieces that remain unreleased. Sometimes, she finds herself salvaging a single lyric from a song that otherwise doesn’t make the cut.
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“Sometimes I’ll write a really bad song with only one lyric that’s really great in it and then I’ll take that lyric and make something good out of it,” she said. “I try not to be precious. I think that perfectionism doesn’t serve you when you’re writing songs.”
This approach presents itself on her third studio album, especially considering the varied timelines behind its tracks. Rodrigo said “honeybee” came together quickly, while “stupid song” took roughly a year and a half to complete, with its production and melodies still being tweaked about a week before she had to turn in the album.
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Rodrigo also traced the origins of “the cure” back to a day when she didn’t particularly feel like writing at all. Still, she pushed herself to pick up her guitar — a practice she attributed to “creative discipline” — and began playing a set of chords she loved.
The result became one of her favorite songs she has ever made, it helped drive the creative process behind her third album.
Rodrigo finished the night by performing five songs from the new set: “Drop Dead,” “Stupid Song,” “Maggots for Brains,” “Less” and, of course, “The Cure.”
