Olivia Rodrigo and Conan Gray give one another “notoriously bad advice”.
The Vampire hitmaker and her 26-year-old pal are always happy to play their new music to one another but because they are so “close”, they find it difficult to give the right feedback and have ended up being spectacularly wrong on occasion.
Speaking in conversation for Interview magazine, Olivia, 22, said to Conan: “We notoriously give each other bad advice sometimes about samples.
“On Superache, you played me Memories, which turned out to be the biggest hit on the album.
“Everyone loved it. And I remember hearing it for the first time being like, ‘I just think you have better songs.’
“When I played you Guts, I played you Vampire and I was like, ‘Isn’t this good?’ And he’s like, ‘Not for a first single.’
“We’re notoriously wrong about each other’s songs. We’re just too close to it and can’t see the forest of the trees.”
Olivia recalled feeling worried about Conan when he was making his latest album Wishbone because she felt he had gotten too “obsessed” – but was thrilled when she heard the end result.
She admitted: “To be honest, I remember being a little worried. You seemed so obsessed with this album and you weren’t doing anything else.
“You were just eating, breathing, and sleeping this album. And I’m like, ‘Oh, I just don’t know if that’s really healthy’.
“Sometimes when I do that, I just don’t write good songs.
“And I remember when you first played me the demos, I was like, ‘Damn, these are so good.’
“It all sounded great in theory, but until I heard the demos, I didn’t really fully contextualise it. And I remember hearing it and being like, ‘Wow.’
“I just remember being so proud of you.
“And I remember being like, ‘You better promote this album. Every breakfast you have, I want it to be on a morning show. Every conversation you have is going to be on a podcast because this album has got to be heard.’ “