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How you feeling? I'm good. I'm I'm all the things.
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I'm excited, nervous, like anticipatory. It's but it's good.
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It's >> It it hopefully never gets tired.
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You never ever lose all of those feelings and more when you've been working so hard on finding something to say and then it's time to share with everybody else.
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It's like, "Wow, it's it's the great artistic precipice, isn't it?" Yeah, for sure.
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I I just also feel like you actually hear the song for real the first time that it actually comes out.
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Like when you're so close to it and in this like studio space and playing it for the people you love, like it has a different You don't get to see it like totally honestly.
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And so now I'm just like putting out into the world and I feel like I'll be able to listen to it as a real song for the first time. It's tangible. It's tangible. It has life. It has shape. It has form.
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It's it's not you know what how else do you explain its existence, you know, if not to go and find people's lives and become a part of their lives and it's on a journey of its own. I totally agree.
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That's why I still do live radio, Olivia, cuz it sounds different when you play it on the radio than it does when you're listening to it in a different context, you know? 100%.
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I feel like context is like 75% of music sometimes. Yeah, totally. Which is great. Hey, congratulations. The song is a crush.
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Um you know, I saw I saw the album title and I was like, "Okay, is it a sad album?"
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But we're starting with a big love song.
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I mean, this is a big unapologetic love song.
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The question I'm sure fans want to know is why did you decide to release this one as an introduction to the third album?
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Yeah, it's a great question.
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Um it's one I've been thinking about a lot.
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I think this song has always been the first step on the journey.
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the first step on the journey. If you've seen pretty sad for a girl so in love, it's about a first date and so it just feels like a new beginning and it's just trying to capture all those feelings of meeting someone that you have feelings
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for and just being like nervous and like kind of insecure but super excited and just like love sick over this person and um so yeah, this is this is the first first chapter in the book of you seen pretty sad for a girl so in love and it's it's very joyful. I think I think the the
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I think I think the the feelings start to ebb and flow and arc from here, but this is like the the jumping off point.
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>> I'm glad that you established that there are there are shades to this experience that all great books there's going to be different [laughter] chapters along the way. Um For sure.
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>> But we stay in a love sick space in an album that you rattled off the tongue like it was nothing cuz you've lived with it for way longer than we have.
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Um but you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love there. I just did it too.
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Uh uh Wow, rolled off the tongue good.
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You know what actually like everything you do with your writing, man, uh you know, the words fit together beautifully.
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Um but obviously not to be super meta or actually micro about it, micro meta, one of the two. It's not one word, dude.
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And people are just like, "I thought you were going to give us" Someone said to me the other day, "She broke the rule."
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And I said, "It's her rule.
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She can >> [laughter] >> She can break it whenever she wants."
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But the question is like when did you decide, "You know what, man, I'm not going to be stuck to any dogma.
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I'm just going to do what feels right and I'm not going to follow" cuz you have been thematic at times through these things. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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I think I kind of knew really early on that I sort of wanted to break that mold a little bit.
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I mean, I'm I'm older now.
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This is like an album that I made and I was 22.
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The other albums I made when I was a teenager and it just sort of felt like a natural progression to just sort of switch things up and just artistically wanted to just do something different, but I really love the title.
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I think I set out to make this album and I just wanted to perfect a sad love song cuz I think all of my favorite love songs are so beautiful because there's an element of yearning or melancholy or fear and like that's kind of the thing That unrequited nature. >> Totally.
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Um I think that like grounds it in something real and is is why we resonate with those types of songs so much.
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So um so yeah, I when when when I found the title, I was really excited cuz I think it just sort of really captured the thesis statement of what I was trying to go for.
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It's a beautifully descriptive title.
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Um and you know, you feel what we're about to listen to straight away before you even get a chance to experience it.
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You talked about writing the songs that you were searching for those feelings when you were younger.
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And you know, life doesn't catch up to art.
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Sometimes you're creating before your life can even inform it.
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Um and you know, then you're successful at that and people like, "Wow, you know, you really know yourself."
3:52
But is it safe to say that you've really gotten to know yourself on this album in in a much deeper way?
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Yeah, I mean, I think every album is just journey of self-discovery and also just like learning how to write songs.
4:03
I kind of feel like my whole songwriting journey is just like I'm really practicing writing songs and then like my practice homework is the songs that I like turn into the album.
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Like I just never feel like I'm totally like, "Totally, I know how to do that." You know what I mean?
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It's always just a learning, growing, exploratory thing and I think that's why it's so fun and why I obviously keep like coming back for more is it just never gets old.
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Um but yeah, I think I definitely found a lot of interesting pieces of myself in this album.
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It's the first album that is really about um kind of like joy that touches on a lot of joy and like these being in love infatuation feelings.
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I think my past two albums are pretty angsty and so it was really fun to learn how to write a song about something that wasn't necessarily negative, Mhm. And that's hard. That's a challenge.
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I mean, going into un you know, unapologetic joy without feeling like I've been in experiences like this, right?
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Yeah, you know, or tried or like, "Well, am I just am I just ticking the same boxes?" You know what I mean?
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Making it personal so that it feels unique to us and we can apply to our life cuz it doesn't become ours unless it's yours.
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If it's universal, it doesn't belong it belongs to everyone the second you make it. Do you know what I mean? 100%. 100%.
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Yeah, it just has to mean something to you.
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I mean it always it always happens that way.
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The songs that I'm like, "Oh, this is probably going to be like a really big song."
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It's like people are like, "Ah, whatever."
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But the song that I'm like, "Wow, this means so much to me."
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People always really resonate with.
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So yeah, it's it's a it's a good rule to remember.
5:26
How's the relationship with you and Dan changed on this record if at all?
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Because you know, you've gone back to a familiar friend who you know, was there right at the beginning of your musical journey and you've shared in this experience to some degree in the success together and you obviously have great chemistry, creative chemistry.
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Um but you know, there's there's there's always opportunities to try new things and yet you chose to stay together this time.
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Um you know, what what what drew you back into the room with him at a point where to your to your own words just a few minutes ago, um you know, you were developing new ways of communicating and finding out what you wanted to say.
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Yet you went back to Dan. Why was that?
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Yeah, I mean, Dan is just such a genius. I think he's awesome.
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He knows me so well and knows like my type of songwriting and my like artistic inclination.
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So I can just bring him a song and he has this innate ability to like, "Oh, this song is good because of this.
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Let's bring this out in the song."
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And so I just really value his taste and like producing prowess and ability and we're just really close.
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It was just really fun making this album.
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I think I wanted to make an album where I was like having a lot of fun writing these songs and making these records.
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And so um I think we accomplished that and yeah, we're we're very close.
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So it's it's a it's a very fun experience being in the studio.
6:38
Olivia, were you were you expecting an already for him to slouch on the couch and drop the and drop the bomb that you >> [laughter] >> that you'd made another album?
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That's why I sent you the ambient playlist.
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I was like, "You got to be STRESSING RIGHT NOW."
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>> [laughter] >> THAT'S SO FUNNY.
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Oh my god, I know that picture. He's he's hilarious.
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He He was like in a label meeting like fully horizontal in the label meeting.
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I'm like, "What are we even doing?"
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Like he was he was distressed.
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He had a lot of a lot of things to do, but It's stressful, you know, finishing anything especially when you're putting so much heart and soul into it.
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Has it been a hard album to let go of? Yeah, you know what?
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I actually just finished it.
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I I finished it maybe a month ago.
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Like not really that long ago and so I think I'm still sort of in the process of learning how to let go of it.
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Yeah, you you never feel like you're done with the record.
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I remember turning it in and being like, "But what if I could add one more song? That'd be amazing."
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>> [snorts] >> It's a form of psychosis. Yeah.
7:28
But you could tweet I I I think the I don't know.
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I I also have friends who who's been like, "Yeah, I made a record and then we tweaked it for a year and then I kind of lost what it was initially about." You know what I mean?
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Like losing some of the magic of the spontaneity.
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So I think it's a big big lesson in art is just like when to take your hands off the paper. You know what I mean?
7:45
Um fans really appreciate the way that you rolled this out, you know, going in and creating an evolving shade on these kind of like stable structures and cities and you know, presenting the color scheme and it was it was really interesting.
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I was shopping with my wife and and there was a whole bunch of kids that were sort of rolling in in a steady stream.
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But I was around the corner and I was like, "What is going on around the corner?
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Is there like a pop-up going on around there?
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Is there like a food stall?
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Is is it like what's going on?"
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And I go around and it was just your gigantic pink wall.
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>> [laughter] >> And it was just a steady stream of fans.
8:19
Did you see any Did you drive past any of them and see anybody gathered in front of them?
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Did you did you sneak a look? I did.
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I drove past one of the ones in LA and I was like so nervous. I was like, "Oh my god."
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I like wore a hat in the car and I was like, "It's fine. You're in the car. It's okay."
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But >> [laughter] >> no, it's been really fun.
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I just think so I just like pop music should be so fun and it's so awesome to like be able to have the resources to do something so fun like that and I don't know.
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I I think we're on our phones so much and so much of music consumption is like on the internet and on Twitter and whatever which is gorgeous and wonderful, but there's something so awesome about people coming together.
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That's why I like a concert is so special, but even like the the wall thing, it's so fun that people can like go with their friends and like make a day of it and just do something that's like actually in the real world.
9:01
I I just feel like I'm so drawn to those experiences these days and it's like fun to try to create them in my work. Olivia Rodrigo is back.
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It's official with a brand new song.
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It's a beautiful just unashamed joyous falling in love pop song.
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And you know, the video captures that beautifully as well.
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You know, you and your regular creative collaborator coming together in a very unique location.
9:25
You know, who made the call to to Versailles to get you [laughter] to film in Versailles? How crazy is that?
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I feel so I'm still like pinching myself that they let us do that. It was kind of wild.
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Yeah, I I when I when I wrote the song, I like immediately was like, "Oh, it'd be so cool if you could film in Versailles."
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Cuz it's just the the song to me just feels like running.
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Like whenever I listen to the song, it just feels like running through a garden and I was like, "That'd be perfect to do I bet your label was sitting there going, "If you could just tweak the lyric to you know, your picture framed on the wall on the wall of the mitt" or something that's a little more achievable. THE SOMETHING.
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>> [laughter] >> YEAH, YEAH.
10:01
I DON'T KNOW how that God bless my team. They're amazing. They pulled it off.
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I don't know how, but it was it was such a spectacular day.
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We got to be alone in Versailles for like 9 hours.
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It kind of felt like night at the museum.
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Yeah, I felt like the paintings were going to come off the walls and start like flying around me and yeah, it was really special and I think the music video just really captures that kind of joy and fervor and excitement that that I get when I listen to this song.
10:24
I really want to congratulate you on achieving that on camera as well and then your performance.
10:28
You obviously embodied it in a really real way because you know, for people who are listening right around the world and they think music videos you have all the time in the world.
10:35
Even if you have a location that isn't like, you know, highly sought after and very rarely ever gets filmed in you're still on the clock.
10:40
And I can imagine that for you it's like, okay, we have this space for x amount of time.
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We have to leave here with the essence of the song on film.
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And you know, I wondered if that ever crossed your mind or whether it it it you know, yeah, did I mean was it a different experience moving in that space knowing that like I've got to get it cuz we've got it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
11:02
We got 8 hours and what we get is what we get.
11:06
Yeah, it's kind of awesome though.
11:06
I think that that's sort of like um I don't know it it it it makes you be spontaneous in a way that I think you like wouldn't otherwise be in the video.
11:16
It's supposed to be it's not like choreographed stand on this mark do this thing.
11:19
It's just sort of about like like I wanted to feel like that feeling when you come home when you like first kiss someone for the first time and you like close the door and you're like, "OH MY GOD, THIS IS AMAZING." >> YEAH.
11:29
AND SO THAT WAS SORT OF just the energy that I embodied just running around Versailles just that that first crushy feeling. Yeah, you captured it. Nailed it. Amazing. Video is just stunning.
11:38
You know, one of the other things I wanted to bring up while we've got a couple of minutes for you welcoming you back is that you know, you honor your your newfound friendship and obviously on stage official collaborative experience with one of the greatest songwriters of all time.
11:48
And I love the fact that you referenced Robert Robert Smith in Just Like Heaven and and the idea of those lyrics being a sort of a pay it forward as a writer and as a human, right?
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You know, capturing the experience.
12:00
Did you send him the song? What did he think? What's the vibe?
12:03
What you know, I actually Oh my god, I actually don't know if I played it for him. He might hear it today.
12:07
I played him like You're going to get you're going to get an unexpected season assist.
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No, he's going to be like, no.
12:15
I I played him a bunch of other songs that we have.
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I don't know why I didn't think to play this one for him though. I should. No, no.
12:23
I I I adore him and obviously have gotten a chance to kind of get to know him a little bit over the past year and we sang Glastonbury.
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We sang Just Like Heaven at Glastonbury and one of my favorite memories is I I I wore a t-shirt for the encore that said, "You know all the words to Just Like Heaven" cuz I knew that the song was coming out. >> Yeah.
12:40
And I wanted to do a little Easter egg and I walked backstage when we did the quick change and I found out that Robert took a Sharpie at the bottom of my shirt and said, "Or do you?"
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>> [laughter] >> You know all the words to Just Like Heaven.
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And then he wrote, "Or do you?"
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And I was like, "Oh my god, like he graffitied on this shirt.
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There's a 100,000 people out there.
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Am I going to go out in this shirt that like has this thing on it?"
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And I was like kind of freaking out and I was like, "Whatever, I'm just going to put it on."
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And honestly, it's like my favorite outfit I've ever worn.
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I'm like so happy that he he wrote in Sharpie on it and now it's one of my most prized possessions.
13:08
>> You got to frame that shirt, man.
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You got to frame that shirt. [laughter] I will. I will. I will. Yeah, it's special.
13:16
Really appreciate a few minutes of your time. I know SNL's coming up.
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You're hosting for the first time, not just performing.
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You're doing both double duty. Yeah, I'm so excited.
13:22
It's going to be amazing because I think you've become you've done has you've been so effective and so successful and you've done such a good job of presenting your authentic musical and creative self that I think, you know, many people listening to your music don't realize that obviously, you know, you have this history in front of the camera as well and this ability to be able to carry a different timing.
13:42
And so, you know, how excited are you to be able to go back into that space and to be able to connect the two because they are both parts of your life even though music obviously is to me at least feels like your heart and soul. Yeah, for sure. I'm really excited.
13:56
I mean I did I grew up acting and like doing that sort of like sitcom comedy world.
14:02
But I'm just really honored to be like included and invited. I'm such a fan of SNL.
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I think creatively what they managed to pull off every week is so astounding. >> It's incredible.
14:09
Yeah, they're just so inspiring and so it's just going to be awesome to even just get a peek behind the curtain of how they do all of that stuff and I I feel like I'll learn a lot. So, I'm excited.
14:17
Does it feel I mean obviously it's exciting and you wouldn't put this song out unless you were ready and you wouldn't have made an album unless you had something to say.
14:27
But it to me it feels like you haven't stopped.
14:29
You know, this is your third album and the last album took you all around the world and I'm sure ticked so many incredible boxes for you.
14:35
I mean headlining the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury becoming a bonafide festival headliner and rightfully so.
14:40
Just incredible Olivia what you've achieved already.
14:44
How does your spirit feel going back into a new cycle into a whole new story that you want to bring to life which you'll do with such care.
14:49
How do you feel about that going forward?
14:52
Wow, tugging at my heartstrings. Yeah, it's it's scary.
14:55
I haven't put out music in a long time and it's a really vulnerable thing to be like, this is what I've been going through.
15:00
This is what I've been thinking about.
15:04
It's it's a very unique experience to like be so personal on such a large scale, but I I love it.
15:07
I think it's it's the reason why I love writing songs so much is because I get to process that through myself and then therefore maybe help other people kind of process it and feel it, but it is it's nerve-wracking.
15:18
I'd be lying if I if I said it was, "Oh, it's just totally normal and like intuitive." Yeah.
15:23
But yeah, it's it's part of the fun.
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And at the end of the day it's like, you know, music should be fun and beautiful and it should be a experience that brings people joy.
15:31
You know, it's like stressing too much about it doesn't really do too much.