close
close

Yiamastaverna

Trusted News & Timely Insights

Olivia Rodrigo On Guts World Tour concert film & more
Tennessee

Olivia Rodrigo On Guts World Tour concert film & more

Olivia Rodrigo spent most of the year touring in support of her second album. OFFALwith over 100 performances in 22 countries and earnings of more than $186 million.

And now, regardless of whether they managed to finish their tour or not, fans will have the opportunity to watch the show from the best seat in the house via their Netflix concert film. Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS World Tour, which launched on the streamer on Tuesday.

Shot during their two nights at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, California, the film shows Rodrigo up close on stage as she performs all of her second album’s frightening hits, like “all-american b*tch” and “get him back!” ” as well as some of the most passionate anthems from their debut album Sourincluding, of course, “driving license” and “déjà vu”.

“I met a lot of people just walking around different cities saying, ‘Oh, I really wanted to get tickets, but it didn’t work out.’ So I feel like they’re going to really enjoy this show,” Rodrigo told Deadline ahead of the film’s premiere. “I’m really proud of it.”

In the following interview, Rodrigo spoke to Deadline about creating the OFFAL World tour, reuniting with Chappell Roan, writing music on the road and more.

DEADLINE: What was it like seeing your show from an outside perspective for the first time?

OLIVIA RODRIGO: It was so strange because I know this show so well. I literally lived with it for a year. That was all I thought about for so long. But I’ve never had the opportunity to be there as a spectator and see the action from a seat. It was so much fun to watch and it kind of gave me a new appreciation for everything. I really enjoyed watching my band, my dancers, and everyone else, and just the way we complimented each other was really fun.

DEADLINE: It seems like you’ve really settled into the show with these last few tour dates in LA. How do you feel you have grown throughout the process and become more comfortable over time?

RODRIGO: I think I’ve grown so much as an artist. I have gained so much confidence. The first few shows we did I was so nervous, almost petrified. I didn’t feel completely myself on stage. And at the end I felt like I could really be myself and just be myself. I have grown a lot as an artist but also as a person. That was my first big arena tour. I was away from home for about nine months and really had to learn how to take care of myself. So these are lessons that I will take with me for the rest of my life. I am grateful that I learned them.

DEADLINE: It was a much bigger tour than Sour. When you think back on those shows, did you take anything away from them that was valuable for this tour?

RODRIGO: I think these tours were completely different just in terms of the size of the venue and also that this tour made me feel like a completely different person. I feel like the last tour really taught me how important it is to take care of yourself, take care of your body, eat right, exercise, make sure you drink enough water – everything the things your mother nags you about makes a world of difference. You’re so much happier. When you feel really healthy and strong, you perform much better. I think I took that information from my last tour and applied it to this tour and it made it much better.

DEADLINE: As you mentioned, the venues were much larger. I love hearing fans sing the lyrics to your songs and I’m glad that’s reflected in the film. How is this experience for you?

RODRIGO: It’s so strange. It never gets boring and I never get used to it, especially in certain countries. It’s really wild for me. I remember being in Japan and hearing all these people in Tokyo shouting these lyrics at me and I thought, “Wow.” “It’s so crazy how universal music can be.” All these people in a place so far from home, knowing all these lyrics I wrote in my bedroom is a pretty wild phenomenon.

DEADLINE: It was fun to see Chappell in the film. The crowd goes crazy. What was it like having her perform again after her own meteoric rise this summer, considering she opened for you at the start of the tour?

RODRIGO: I’m so glad she was in the movie because Chappell was such a big part of the Guts world tour. She opened the first leg. She is just so wonderful and helped me a lot during the touring process, just like a friend. She just inspires me creatively. It was so much fun having her there and I really enjoyed performing “Hot To Go” with her that night. It was one of the highlights of my career. It was like the craziest energy I’ve ever felt in an arena. Everyone was so thrilled and excited to see it and it’s one of my favorite songs. It’s great. I’m really glad it’s captured on film so I can watch it again.

DEADLINE: I remember you talking a little about the pressure you felt to release a second album after the success of Sour. If you could go back and say something to the version of you writing Guts to calm her down, what would you say?

RODRIGO: Oh my God, this is emotional. I would just tell her to keep her head down and keep writing. And when you love a song, that’s really the only thing that matters. You can’t please everyone, and not everyone will like everything you do. So that should never be the goal. I would tell her to just enjoy it and enjoy the process and it will all be worth it.

DEADLINE: What part of the show are you most proud of?

RODRIGO: I really like the parts where I sit at the piano and play. It feels really intimate and vulnerable. And it just seems crazy to me sometimes, like there can be a huge arena full of people, but I’m still just sitting on a piano. It’s just the way I wrote the songs. So I think it’s grounded in a way that I find really beautiful.

DEADLINE: I really love the visual elements of the tour. One of my favorite moments is sitting on the moon and floating around the arena. Tell me about the development of these images and what some of your inspirations were.

RODRIGO: It’s so fun to create your own show because it can be like, “I’m imagining myself flying around space in a moon,” and then all of a sudden there’s this huge silver moon on cables so you can do that can do. It’s so wild. It’s like a creative person’s dream. But I really wanted it to feel interactive. I just wanted everyone in every seat to feel like they were part of the show and involved. In that sense, I really liked the moon aspect because it just feels like it includes everyone and I get to see everyone up close and personal. Another aspect that I really liked is the plexiglass. We replaced one of the boards on the stage with a piece of plexiglass and so we shot underneath. It’s like an elevated recording. I was really excited to do this and really happy that it turned out the way it did.

DEADLINE: That was such a cool shot too. I loved that.

RODRIGO: That was my idea. I really thought that would be so cool, such weird, shitty camera angles. There is a camera angle from the ceiling like from above. But I thought, ‘What if we did it from the bottom?’ That could be so sick.’ And the fact that we made it happen was really great. It’s one of my favorite parts of the show. I actually use it a lot in Obsessed. I am very sexy on the plexiglass. This was one of my favorite things to do every night.

DEADLINE: It was funny to hear you talk about ideas for music that occurs at inconvenient times. Did this happen to you on tour?

RODRIGO: Actually, I had a lot of ideas on stage, which is kind of strange. This has happened a few times. A lot of ideas came to me on the bus, and then I recorded voice notes of them and listened to them, but I couldn’t hear anything because everything was so loud. Writing on the go isn’t always particularly easy, but inspiration just happens at random times. The more you hear it, the more it comes. That’s why I try to never turn it away. I feel something. I’m trying to express it somehow. And then I find that they visit you more often that way.

DEADLINE: How did you deal with it when you had an idea on stage?

RODRIGO: I would just hope and pray that I remember it when I left the stage, and then I leave the stage, go in the shower and record it. But it didn’t always work out that way. Sometimes I forget it.

DEADLINE: There was a lot of growth between Sour and Guts. Do you see a similar evolution from Guts to everything you’ve rewritten?

RODRIGO: Fully. I think as I just grow as a person, learn more about music and have different perspectives, it’s impossible for that not to be reflected in your songwriting. Hopefully when I release my next album it will feel more mature and give a different approach to things. I think that’s what’s so fun about writing songs: you can keep pushing yourself, learning, growing and expanding.

DEADLINE: What are some of the most important things you’ve learned about dealing with fame over the past few years as your success has increased?

RODRIGO: I think it’s just an exercise in putting the blinders on sometimes, especially when you’re trying to be creative. Having other people’s opinions and the public’s opinion in mind is, so to speak, the opposite of inspiration and creativity. I think it’s just a matter of learning how to tune out unimportant voices and trying to listen to your own voice and the people you trust and their opinions. But it’s not always easy and I think it just takes practice.

DEADLINE: What are your big plans now that the tour is over and you probably have some time off?

RODRIGO: I’m really looking forward to cooking something. I’m not much of a cook, but I was traveling for nine months and had no kitchen at all, and for some reason I’m really interested in making a meal. I’m going to go on vacation and just meet all my friends and talk and hang out. Be 21.

LEAVE A RESPONSE

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *