Olivia Rodrigo forced herself not to write any music for six months after the release of her debut album Sour.
The 20-year-old singer shot to stardom in 2021 with the release of the album, which spawned singles such as Drivers License, Deja Vu and Good 4 U, and she is gearing up to release its follow-up, Guts, in September.
In a cover interview with Vogue magazine, Olivia revealed that she stopped herself from creating new songs after Sour’s release because she knew she needed to live her life in order to write about it.
She noted that the process felt different when she returned to songwriting after the self-imposed break, saying, “I’m not going on 17, going through my first heartbreak, crying, with words just pouring out of me.”
Olivia also realised that she had been crowding her life with distractions and carved out solitary time for writing music.
“I would hang out with my friends every single night and have a sleepover, or I’d cling to a boyfriend, anything to not process what was actually happening in my life,” she explained. “(Now) I wake up and make my little matcha and I make bacon for myself, and then I sit at the piano and try to write something, even if it’s s**t.”
As she kicks off press for her upcoming album, the Vampire hitmaker has been thinking about who she was when she promoted Sour.
“That girl feels like a different person,” she noted. “I look back at her and I think, ‘Aw. She did well.’ I think she’d be really happy with who she is.”