Can fans expect some “vault tracks” from Olivia Rodrigo in the future?
Dan Nigro attended the 2024 Pop Awards in Los Angeles on Wednesday, May 8, to accept the award for ASCAP Pop Music Songwriters of the Year. Nigro, 41, worked with Rodrigo, 21, on 2021’s Sour and 2023’s Guts – and the many, many finished songs that didn’t make the albums.
“There are definitely other songs that are in the vaults,” Nigro told Us Weekly exclusively when discussing Rodrigo and his next move. “But, you know, there’s no plan at the moment of like, ‘this song or that song is going to be on the next project.’ We have so many songs that are finished that we like that may see the light of day next year or 10 years from now. They’re there.”
Nigro also lent Us some insight into the “secret sauce” that he and Rodrigo concocted that made her first LPs such smashing successes critically and commercially. At the time, Sour was the most pre-added album ever on Apple Music.
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Rodrigo also set a then-record for the biggest opening week for an album by a female artist in global Spotify history, racking up 385 million streams in its first seven days. Her follow-up, Guts, premiered at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, selling 302,000 album-equivalent units (with 150,000 pure album sales) in its first week.
“Everything is a feeling,” he explained. “It’s like—literally, you have no clue what makes a song. Like what makes ‘Bad Idea Right?’ feel special as opposed to ‘Vampire”? They’re completely different songs. It’s just a gut feeling when you listen to it. You like listening to it, and that’s about as much as you can take.”
Sometimes, fans like songs enough to give them a different spin. Nigro—who worked as part of the indie rock back As Tall as Lions and has co-written songs for Kylie Minogue, Caroline Polacheck, Chappell Roan and Conan Gray—told Us that he enjoys experiencing fan renditions of his work online, especially when they decide to cover his songs in a completely different way.
“I’m like, ‘wow. That’s such an interesting way to do the song.’ I find it fascinating to hear it,” he says. “I always find it fascinating to hear people’s interpretations.”
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As for Rodrigo’s next project, Nigro says that she has “a lot of time to think about it” since she is about to embark on the European leg of her Guts World Tour. She’ll return stateside for a handful of dates in the U.S. before performing in Asia and Australia in September and October.
Roan, 26, presented Nigro with the ASCAP Pop Music Songwriters of the Year award during the ceremony. Charli XCX won the ASCAP Global Impact Award. Rema and Selena Gomez’s “Calm Down” won ASCAP Pop Song of the Year while Universal Music Publishing Group won Publisher of the Year for songs like “Calm Down,” “Cuff It” (Beyoncé), “Lavender Haze” (Taylor Swift) and “Paint the Town Red” (Doja Cat).
With reporting by Kevin Zelman
