Olivia Rodrigo on Her Album Title, New Music, and the Guts Tour

With just two albums under her belt, Rodrigo is no stranger to crafting songs that instantly go multi-platinum. But, for her one-night-only event, she’s focusing on a different kind of platinum. As she teased to fans on social media earlier this week, the singer partnered with American Express for the exclusive show, which will highlight expanded benefits to the bank’s Platinum card members. One hundred percent of the proceeds from the show’s ticket sales will go towards Fund 4 Good, a nonprofit Rodrigo launched in 2023 to support women’s equity across the globe. Through Fund 4 Good, Rodrigo has supported the National Network of Abortion Funds, Women’s Shelters Canada, Women Against Violence Europe, and more.

A day before Rodrigo’s return to the stage, she hopped on the phone with Harper’s Bazaar to talk about getting back in the studio, brainstorming album names, and finding musical inspiration.

Do you feel more or less recalibrated since the tour ended? How long does it usually take you to get out of the touring mindset and back into your normal routine?

I honestly feel like I’ve just gotten back to normal recently and I finished three months ago, which is kind of crazy. But yeah, it’s a lot on your body and on your mind to just be traveling all over the world for months and months on end. To be experiencing that kind of energetic rush at the end of the day, it really kind of changes your brain chemistry a little bit—in a good way and maybe also in not a good way sometimes. It’s taken me some time, but I’m really settling back into normal LA life and music-making life, so yeah, it’s been good. Thanks for asking.

As you get back to making music, what has been the most exciting thing about returning to that creative zone?

I love being creative. It’s truly my favorite thing. Touring is wonderful, and everything else about my job is really great, but being able to write and have a feeling in your brain and an idea and be able to flesh it out and make it into something that can exist in the real world is just such a wonderful, euphoric, addicting feeling. I’m having a good time in the studio and having fun and playing around. It’s been really enjoyable.

Under what circumstances do you feel the most inspired creatively?

Honestly, being at home. That’s really boring to say, but when I’m on the road, your brain is kind of so scattered and there’s so many things going on that it’s kind of hard to really center yourself and dig deep. But being at home for a while, it’s been really great. I always come up with ideas in the car, oddly, like driving around. In LA, I’m driving around a lot, so that’s convenient. I always come up with a lot of ideas just on the freeway.

I’m also from LA, so I get that. Something about that rush hour traffic and then you’ve got the sunset with the palm trees.

Totally. And there’s nothing you can do. You just sit there. You can’t go on your phone or anything because your brain’s just working. It’s good for you. Yeah.

Can you describe what an ideal day in the studio looks like to you?

I usually get there around noon. I’ve been working with my producer, and he’s one of my best friends, so we kind of just shoot the shit for an hour and talk about what’s going on or talk about the thing that we read online or something, and then maybe write a song for an hour or two and take lunch. We’ve been making these really delicious turkey sandwiches with brie and arugula, and I’ve been looking forward to it. Everyday I wake up and I’m so excited to eat this sandwich. So probably something like that, and then, I don’t know, work a little more and go home and hopefully have made something listenable that day.

When you’re working on a new album, do you tend to think of a title before you start working on new music, or do you write music first and then the music refines the angle of what you want the title to be?

I had the title of Guts and Sour at the beginning of the album-making process, but for this album, I’m kind of still finding it right now. I have a few options that are twirling around in my brain. I have one that I’m feeling good about, and I think that’ll be the title, but I am not 100 percent positive yet. I’m not writing it in stone quite yet.

Is deciding on a title a gut reaction to you? No pun intended.

Yeah. I think that it has to feel right in your body. I have to sleep on it a few nights before I really decide that that’s the one.

Going back to the Guts Tour really quick, there were so many fun details for the tour. We have that camera under the plexiglass during “Obsessed” and the flying moon during “Enough for You.” I was wondering if there were any ideas you had for the tour that you ultimately ended up not doing?

Oh, man. In the arena tour, we had this moon that was flying around the arena, and initially I was supposed to stand on the moon and play guitar while it went all around, and I thought that the idea was really cool. Then once I saw the moon and saw how high up I was going to be, I was like, “Heck no. Oh my God, I can’t do that.” I was so afraid, but maybe in another world I would’ve been standing on the moon playing guitar and it would’ve looked really cool.

Tomorrow’s concert with American Express, will that be your first time back on stage since the Guts Tour ended?

I think it will be, which is exciting. I’m a little nervous. I hope I’m not too rusty.

Obviously, the vibe will be a little different from the sold-out arenas you played on tour. This one is a more intimate venue. Does that change your mentality or preparation as a performer?

Yeah, I think that it definitely does. I think it changes the way that I approach the songs. I want to do something that’s a little more pared back and intimate because I think that this venue probably lends itself more to that, which is really exciting to me. I haven’t done that in a really long time, so it’s going to be a fun new adventure for me and my band.

Are you bringing back the same band from the Guts Tour?

Yeah, which will be really great. I love those girls so much. It’s been nice to get to hang with them in New York a little bit.

What did you learn about yourself while touring?

Oh my goodness. I learned so much. Touring is so, so hard. I had to take care of my body and myself in a way that I’d never had to before. I was just super careful about exercising and eating all the right foods and making sure I felt nourished and making sure I got enough sleep. I feel like I really had to kind of be an adult and take care of myself for the first time in a while, so I learned a lot about that. But, I mean, the list goes on. It was a very challenging and very rewarding process, both just as a person and as an artist, and so I look back at those times very fondly.

Since you’re working with American Express for tomorrow’s show, I was curious to know if you could share the last thing you bought on your AmEx Platinum card.

It’s so funny. The other day—I have a pointed memory. I have the mirrored card now, the Platinum mirrored card, and I was with my friend and we parked and I was trying to pay the parking meter, and I took out my mirrored Platinum card and they were like, “Whoa. That’s so fancy and cool looking.” And I was like, “Yeah, it’s my AmEx card.” I was like, wow, I wish someone was filming it. It’d be the perfect little AmEx commercial, because it just does look really cool.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.