Songs like deja vu olivia how to#

It may not be possible to take a vacation from your brain - or from anything else at COVID’s height, for that matter - but at least the view is always nicer from the top of the charts.

It was hardly a song made for R&B radio, but it was still undoubtedly what a ton of music listeners wanted to hear as 2020 turned to 2021, becoming one of the first major streaming hits of the early year. The song’s title isn’t a statement or even a prediction, just a blind wish: “Still wanna believe in good days,” the star singer-songwriter sighs along with her backing vocals, while impossibly lush waves of synth and guitar attempt to provide comfort and reassurance. “Good Days” is a languorous, stuck-in-bed slow jam - not the fun kind, though, as its anguished lyrics aren’t focused on getting laid but rather getting outside of your own head just once before the apocalypse. SZA’s first unaccompanied top 10 hit on the Hot 100 wouldn’t have been anyone’s guess for a conventional crossover. There aren’t a ton of breakup ballads you’d consider road trip staples, but “Drivers License” made Rodrigo perhaps pop-rock’s biggest rookie phenom since Alanis Morissette in large part because you could picture her freaking out to it like Alanis from the backseat, shotgun and behind the wheel simultaneously. The heartbreak hymn motors with near-krautrock steadiness and precision, ingenious in every detail of its subtly propulsive production - from the opening car-door-ajar alarm that winds into the song’s primary verse hook to the two-note bass bubble that takes the song from its leveling chorus to its instantly immortal bridge. But while the teenage torch song was massive enough to loom over practically the entire year that followed, what still stuns about “License” in December is how light on its wheels it remains. Max Martin and Joel Little are two Grammy-winning producers she’d like to work with someday, simply to watch them do their thing and learn from their expertise.It’s been 11 months since “Drivers License” made then-17-year-old Olivia Rodrigo the toast of the music world overnight, becoming 2021’s first true runaway blockbuster and entering into permanent pop lore by Groundhog Day. In 2020, she started teaming up with other artists to take her “bedroom piano songs” up a notch. Her music career began in her bedroom, where she’d pen songs by herself-a process “you can only learn so much from,” she said.

Songs like deja vu olivia how to#

“Maybe it wouldn’t even be one that I sing, but I love catchy, anthemic pop songs, and I want to learn how to write one.”Ĭollaborations bring a fresh perspective to Rodrigo’s songwriting. “I love pop pop music, like down the middle, absolute bubblegum pop music… I would love to write a big pop song,” Rodrigo said about what she’d like to explore in the future. This was “out of comfort zone,” she admitted, but it was a chance to try new sounds and see where her powerful voice could take her.

Its bright synths and melodies were challenging to perfect, because they’re so different from the sad breakup ballads she’s known for.

Everybody does it, but after a long time you realize little experiences can be translated into art… I’m learning how to observe the world through a songwriter’s lens.” Getting your driver’s license, it’s very menial. “That’s sometimes a blessing and a curse, but in my songwriting, I feel like it definitely helps… paying attention to little things and being like, oh, maybe that could be a song. “Every little feeling for me is always very heightened,” Rodrigo said about finding magic in the mundane.