Olivia Rodrigo and Dan Nigro Use Intimate Storytelling Show in L.A. to Recall the ‘Toil and Jubilation’ of Making ‘Guts’: ‘I Was Really Scared’

variety.com:

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic In an intimate performance and conversation in Los Angeles Monday night, Olivia Rodrigo admitted that there were tears shed during the making of her new album, “Guts.” But she and producer/co-writer Dan Nigro clarified that it wasn’t just about the emotion in the lyrics.

Some of those were tears of frustration as they obsessed over songs and struggled to get her all-important sophomore release just right over its 10-month creation. “We cried just because we were frustrated.

We were really toiling,” Rodrigo said. Not that the songs themselves don’t bring up strong emotions. In response to a submitted audience question about which compositions took her to that level, the singer said, “I remember bawling when I wrote ‘Drivers License'” from the first album, and, from the follow-up, “I feel like I cried writing ‘The Grudge.'” “Most of the recording is you crying,” kidded Nigro. “That’s album three, just me crying,” she retorted.

They then bantered over how they would keep their “Sour”/”Guts” tradition of four-letter album titles going for the next one when “Cries” has five letters in it. “‘CRYZ’ with a Z at the end,” Rodrigo finally proposed, proving that now, as with the loggerheads they sometimes found themselves at making the new record, there’s always a solution.