I find songwriting very difficult and I find honesty in songwriting very hard and out of my reach and there’s something so special to me about writing about not my life I played it for a friend and we were sitting in the car and I was like like who this about welcome to offs script with The Hollywood Reporter I’m Ivon orgy and we are here at the Georgian a Historic Hotel in Santa Monica California hey question for you have you ever just gotten a song stuck in your head I mean I mean this song just makes you want to do a Bop makes you want to
group it makes you feel so happy you know or maybe it’s a song that just really hits you and like you’re there on the airplane in c32b it’s an aisle and you just start thinking about your ex and you’re like oh my God maybe I should call him but girl you know you should definitely not call him you get what I mean right all right well today you’re are going to meet six amazingly talented songwriters whose music and lyrics have made us feel all of the fields this year while watching some of our favorite movies so sit back relax and get your
groove on with John batist American Symphony Billy ish Barbie Cynthia Revo drift dual Lipa Barbie Julia Michaels wish and Olivia Rodrigo The Hunger Games The Ballad of s birds and SN they are on the record but maybe just a bit off script with The Hollywood Reporter take it away mein thanks Ivon I’m Messin fadu and this is Off Script with The Hollywood Reporter songwriters Round Table how are you guys doing good good thank you I’m so excited that you all could be here such talented group of people I know some of you know each
other some are probably just meeting today maybe perfect well I wanted to ask uh as songwriters do you remember the first song or lyric you wrote I don’t know how old you were but want to hear some of that backstory how about you Cynthia yeah I was 16 and I wrote a song called maybe I think it was given to like a an South aferican girl group or something I mean I guess the first song that I wrote like on piano proper um I was probably 14 or 15 and I wrote this feminist Anthem called super man about how I didn’t need Superman to come and save
me yeah start him young so on the right track yeah gosh I mean when I think about mine it was completely different I was always like making up songs when I was really little and when I was about four or five years old I made up the song Albanian was my first language and so I sang it in Albanian and it was a song that ID made for my mom and I’d walk around the house and I’d be like when I grow up can I borrow your shoes and when I grow up can I wear your dress and when I grow up like can I be just like you and it actually just like stuck
around it’s kind of the one thing that like at home we just always remind ourselves up it was I love that horrible I love that how about you John oh well I was doing a lot of music instrumentally for many years and I started writing lyrics for a Shakespeare play that wanted songs in the play I probably about uh 21 and I started writing it I was like man characters and worlds and the expression of all these interconnected relationships and how I can make all these sounds come together that was the end of it I love that stuff
yeah um I’m trying to think I think that like what comes to mind is probably when I was like eight or something and it was like it was like I’m going down down down into the black hole sweeping up your soul and I was like [Music] today I was just like I was like it’s tight were you going through something at the time as a 8-year-old listen I was writing stories man I feel like the first song that I wrote was probably when I was like uh 11 is or no now that I think about it I think I was okay I was six and it was me and my friend we
were playing the ukulele and it was a song about ukulele I don’t know whatever you guys have good stories yeah I don’t really have a good story I started writing like when I was six as well just B yeah really really bad um but the first thing I ever like got was this theme song for a Disney Channel show when I was like 17 a show called Austin and Alley love that song that was yeah my first like whatever the rest was history my gosh I wanted to ask too uh what’s the first album you remember buying or downloading I think for some
of us for me it was cassettes and CDs CU I’m older for some of you I imagine it’s iTunes or Spotify but do you remember what was that first album that you bought Never Say Never Brandy I was obsessed obsessed with it obsessed and I would play it over and I remember I wrote her a letter I was like 12 or something when I wrote her letter because I just was obsessed with her voice I never heard anyone like that and I something about the sounds that she was making connected me with me really really deeply and I I
think I bought more than one of those wow was this cassette or CD CD Wow and it’s crazy now so many years later burner boys just samp sitting on top of the world full circle wow yeah don’t think I’m not playing that over and over again I am it’s like a nice little throwback to something that was a really sweet memory for me yeah what was do you remember what was in the letter I think I just wrote that she was my favorite singer and I think I must have thanked her for writing the album or something I don’t know I just really connected with
it um and something about the way she used Harmony in her songs was like new to me so it felt like oh I I like that I like what she’s doing with her voice I want to learn to do that with my voice so yeah yeah it was really special yeah how about you Liv I remember getting my first phone was probably like 12 or 13 and the first thing I did was download Lord Pure Heroin I love that record so much and I remember listening to it as I first started writing songs and just being blown away by um by her lyrics that are just about you know being a
teenager living in the suburbs and I just remember never hearing my life be put um into a song like that where you know it just made being young and doing these seemingly unimportant things feel so sacred and beautiful and uh yeah that album is one of my favorites and um she still inspir me a lot to this day I you know when Royals came out the radio did not have that sound on it and I think she definitely opened doors to like not follow Trends and set her own Trends completely yeah I remember hearing that song in the radio for the first time was
like one of those Pinch Me moments where you always remember like snapshot memory like oh my God what is this like changes the trajectory of your life um but yeah that’s my first one now while you guys were speaking I was thinking it was either between Alicia Key’s songs and am minina which I just absolutely love that record but it also wo Nelly by n fard was also a really big one for me and I feel I I wouldn’t be able to know really which one came first but they were like I don’t know it was something about
Alicia’s voice and kind of just like the pain and the love and the feeling and everything that she carried with it was so I don’t know felt really meaningful I felt like I was going through a breakup having never had a boyfriend um and then Nelly Fado as well like I loved how she mixed her like Spanish Roots as as well with all the music that she made I felt really I love that there’s something really cool about the combination of those two singers cuz they both have that sort of the ability to express pain in their voices so like
where Nelly Fado’s voice sits is like they have a ra like yeah there like I love that you found it both of them it’s like interesting really cool yeah and they both came out the same year I remember that year they were both nominated for best new artists at the Grammys and also IND so it was like these three super unique different voices they’re such strong female artists I think they really had their own identity and they knew exactly what they were talking about and they were just so open with their experiences and
that’s why I think people connected so and all around like 21 years old so it’s amazing John what about you do you remember the first well CD or cassette you bought I bought CDs at Blockbuster video from the uh the U CD B I I I was playing gigs from a young age so I had some money I remember I first bought four records can’t remember what the fourth record was but the the it was a cracked copy of Michael Jackson’s dangerous and Erica Badu’s Mama’s gun I love and the uh oh my gosh that record so good it’s like what you
reminded me of with with Nelly and even just the the sound of her voice for sure but the artistic purpose MH every greats like all y’all have such clear just acutely aware profound artistic purposes every great artist has a great artistic purpose I’m still trying to figure mine out but I remember when I heard those records that’s what I heard every one of oh yeah borc uh vespertine that was the fourth one and uh Voodoo D’Angelo those four records I remember that and I was like man it’s super Super Con evicted everything about it is very
much coming from the most pure channel that that space up there that we all try to dip into I like that a lot that album is crazy so and that when I was checking the lineing notes oh lineing notes oh I remember lineing notes yeah so you read the thing oh my gosh D’Angelo wrote this incredible just a uh a mission statement in there and then I looked at I was like like oh wow there’s a lot of similarities Mama’s gun and voodo were recording the year 2000 in Electric Lady Studios and a lot of crossover in terms
of the Personnel then I was like that’s why I got to get to New York yeah I got to get to New York City but uh yeah that Rec Spanish joint Spanish joint Spanish yeah you recorded some of your album yeah there I made lots of my new album at Electric Lady it’s my favorite place ever such good history and was it your first time recording there yeah uhhuh it was so much fun I was used to like roll my eyes at people when they were like I love to go to New York it’s like so inspiring I’m like sure like whatever how inspiring can it be but getting
there yeah The Vibes are just incredible it’s very hallowed Halls that studio you know so much to pull from oh my goodness you in the right place oh that’s the best the best how about you Billy well I had a little blue MP3 player that was like this big and I remember I had hit Clips yeah girl I had I kissed a girl in there let’s go and I was like noting noting how I feel about this but I also the first song I remember like trying to go buy and then download was sale by awal Nation but I didn’t know who it was by I didn’t know what
song it even was and I looked up on iTunes like sale and I just bought the first one that I saw and it was like not the song and so I had only one song for a long time and it was saale by some guy some other song I don’t could tell you what it was but Phineas my brother was really mad that he I did that but I was I Sal’s sick that song is tight but I think um like the albums that I first remember like downloading and listening to like front to back were like Green Day I think like American Idiot yeah American Idiot was my it was a big one
for me and my family yeah it’s funny that what you mentioned about sale that was such a sleeper hit I love when you a song is released and like two years later it climbs and it’s also been licensed literally TV shows car commercials like the amount of money he’s made from that song is pretty magical you know and also I love the idea of like not thinking of that when creating the song and it just having its own life and that’s that song like I don’t care what anyone says like that song is like blew my mind that song was
like the coolest I’d ever heard in my life it change it it like really I don’t know it really inspired me in in in terms of just like different sounding stuff I don’t know I also liked The Walking Dead and there’s a character called who’s the guy do you guys watch that you know when in the first season the guy that gets locked on the Roof oh yeah I always pict I always pictured him screaming S I thought he was singing sale in the song I was like picturing him screaming it yeah kids dude imagination is just good yeah yeah yeah yeah so that’s also
the other cool thing is like a wall nation has one of the biggest hits but I’m forgetting the the lead singer’s name he can walk outside and just have an eny and just like that’s like the perfect life almost yeah pretty ideal mailbox money oh yeah hell Julia I mean the first album I ever like was given for like Christmas was train um I know yeah with like Meet Virginia on it I just loved that song when I was a kid um and then obviously as I got older and angsty jag little pill was like my holy um I just loved her lyricism and just
how Unapologetic she was and um and she was also hot a um yeah did you see her in Dogma do you there’s a film called dog this is me being a GE ailm called dogma and she is spectacular she doesn’t say a word doesn’t say anything doesn’t say anything I think 13 I was homeschooled yeah a couple homeschooled here right yeah ra your hand if you were school so I think like when you you’re kind of like isolated and you’re like kind of angsty she was the one like she was my president you obviously all have amazing film songs that have been out
this year and writing them and putting them together I want to definitely talk to you all about them you the 100th anniversary of Disney did a lot of music for them what was that like and also did you do background B was on Let It Go from Frozen I did yeah wow hold on like I thought I read that somewhere and I was like wait what I did okay first tell us about that cuz you were already in the Disney family yes basically I was I think I was 19 at the time and I was doing demos around the city to sort of meet people and pay my rent and I got a
call from uh someone that was working on the the Demi version of right the song and they’re like hey we need some backgrounds done for this song it’s for a Disney film I like yeah sure like no problem and um funny enough 10 years later cut two the song that I did backgrounds for the movie was directed by the same people that directed the film that I wrote all the songs for so it’s just like a very beautiful serendipitous thing that that happened that unexpectedly like when you getting the call from Disney to cuz how many
songs did you write for this film I did uh seven I believe for this we know Disney songs are huge no pressure yeah and uh dis wish tell us about the inspiration and putting that together I was told that the protagonist in this film was sort of a young activist basically there was a lot of corruption in her town and she basically wanted to fight for things that she found or um just sort of injust and I was like I can do that I kind of know what that is and yeah that was this wish and it’s really beautiful it was the first song I
wrote for the film and it just sort of stood the test of time throughout the threee process of making the movie three years and what like after writing that did that kind of like open the floodgates for you to be able to finish the other songs yeah it was very interesting I’ve never done songs for a film before I’ve only ever really written songs with artists or for myself so this was very new and the process was new cuz I’d be like Oh I’m done and then they call me two days later and be like oh we have a new song
and we need it done in like three weeks I’m like okay but overall it was a really beautiful process and love it and so cool I know you Cynthia’s new film drift she not only Stars it she’s produced it and written music for it so hand clap there so I wonder in addition to the inspiration behind the song what was it also like wearing so many hats I mean as a producer I’m sure you were so hands on yeah with this it was nuts cuz it was you know a little I always Call It The Little Engine That C because it was made for nothing
basically a little Indie movie that we made on location in Greece and we didn’t have much time to do it in so I’m on set but thinking about the schedule and making sure that we can get shots done when we need to get shots done but also being able to like hey we need to finish off this scene are we going to have enough time for that but trying to be in scenes that are really tough really hard but the song I think was the easiest part for me to be honest cuz it sort of was inspired when I was on a run one morning and I listened to this song by
an artist called Laura Mula called far mother and for some reason it uh connected with where I was at that time what I was feeling what I was experiencing and what this movie was about and so I knew automatically that I wanted to work with Laura because I I thought she understood the language of where I where I was and what I was doing so I I text her I didn’t tell anyone else first that is what I wanted to do which is not what you’re supposed to do um I text her and I was like would you be into working with me on on a on a
song for this she said yes then I told them this is who I want to write this with and and that’s what’s going to happen I don’t think I gave yeah I don’t think I gave him a choice and then we sat in a studio after she’d watched the movie and she sent me this message she was like it feels like there’s like water and movement and transition and she was really moved by it and so I felt like she understood and we sat we wrote this song and it didn’t take us very long to write it I think we wrote in like a couple days and then she did lots of
production on it and the first thing I she’s there’s these two chords that she plays I think on the on like the organ it just [Music] goes and I was like oh I’m there so as we started playing with our vocals and trying to figure out what it wanted to be it just sort of made itself really yeah it was it’s I really I’m really proud of it cuz it felt like it was the language of the piece that we were we had made yeah awesome beautiful thank you I know you Olivia Hunger Games everyone is so excited for this to come
out for you what was the inspiration in in creating this song it was so much fun I mean um most of my songs are very like diaristic in nature and kind of about my life and it was such a fun challenge to get to watch this movie Through The Eyes of this character and then go and you know try to capture her experience through um you know my words and my voice I find that there’s so much inspiration in in restricting yourself sometimes I don’t know if you guys ever have this but it’s like you know when you have every color in the palette and
and any canvas you want it’s just so overwhelming that sometimes I think limiting yourself actually makes you just think outside the box and reinvent um and so I think that’s one of the joys about um you know writing a song for a movie is there’s this um you know beautiful storyline that you kind of get to color in with with um your own words so um yeah had a lot of fun and uh it was a very welcome challenge so I’m really happy to do it and John you have a documentary that your song is friend so let us know a little bit about the
documentary and also writing music for this it started out as one thing and then it changed life came into the picture you know I started to write a symphony that was premiered at Carnegie Hall and I wanted to document the process of the last year of going and answering the question of what would a symphony be if it was invented by someone like me in the 21st century who would be on stage what would they play what would that experience be like I wrote this piece called American Symphony so that’s the title of the
documentary but you know we started to film in about a month into filment there was a lot of changes in my life personally as well as in my career you know there was the week of being notified of being nominated for 11 Grammys was the week that you know super cash I mean it was literally happening people knew about that they didn’t know you know my wife she got diagnosed with leukemia so we didn’t know if she was going to make it I remember I got a call from President Biden and we were in the chemotherapy Ward and he was
congratulating me about the nominations while we were getting news about what her treatment would be so then we decided to keep filming so it became the Symphony of life you know like how life has the duality of the highs and lows sometimes all at once sometimes extreme highs and lows all at once so the music in the film is largely the symphony but there was a moment where Matt and I the director we talked about what song would be appropriate as a final statement it’s you’re very moving to think about about so she’s
doing great now I was going to ask thank God just to preface but when she was in the hospital you know it was about two two months where we didn’t know if she was going to make it and in the hospital there all these sounds you know it’s like beeps and all of these people coming in and out of the room and all the the range of things that disturb your rest and I believe rest is important for the spirit to heal and all these things that I wanted to help her with so I started writing her these lullab she’s a writer she would actually
listen to your music your music while she painted cuz she started painting just because her vision was blurred from the medication so she couldn’t write anymore so her creative Outlet was to paint while I would write these lullab none of them were meant to come out but the song came from one of these lullab that I wrote over that course of 30 or 40 days of being in and out of the hospital so that’s what the song The the ethos of the song is from that period which I thought was a beautiful way to kind of tie a bow on this this work that
we didn’t know what we were making when we were doing it and it was hard we had to reassess the decision every single month it’s like 14 hours a day this filmmaker Matthew Hinman is known for being in war zones and embedded in drug cartels and he doesn’t make films like this and it was such a part of our life we’d be in bed he’d be there I’m literally one day I open the door and I’m in the shower I’m like why are you filming and then he was like I’m only shooting from the waist up and I was like do I really want to do this but you
know we did it and I think it’ll help some people and that’s what I’m about so it’s there I hope it moves some people and thank y’all for what y’all do cuz I was very aware of the profundity of what we do in her healing process with music and creativity creativity as an act of survival and I believe in that so strongly I believed in it before but now I’m just like let’s go let’s make more beautiful things I love that you know as creators what is it like when you do hear that your music has really help someone in a hard time uh really just
helping them persevere when when it’s so hard to to think positively it’s hard to take in I find myself like it’s overwhel yeah I don’t really know how to like believe it because I know what it’s like to be in that position and it’s so real and to think that you’re helping somebody who’s in that is really um it’s hard to believe and it’s really astounding and special and almost you feel like undeserving like I didn’t deserve to help you through that but it’s so special and powerful and that’s a great way of put you know
like I feel that way a lot people say some stuff and I’m like you know yeah yeah but it’s so be a part of someone’s like so magical experience it’s very surreal it makes you focus in on the thing that you’re actually doing so there’s lots of noise around the actual art of making something making music making film making TV whatever it is but when a person has taken the time to listen to be there where meet you where you’re at meet you where you were when you made the thing and take that with them in their daily life
and use it as a tool to help them get through whatever they’re getting through you’re a part of their lives you have made something that that sticks with them that they get to carry with them and that is possibly one of the most incredible honors you can have yeah really so that anything else is just not important that is the important thing making things that that people can hang on to when there’s nothing else to hang on to I think to refocus whenever it feels like everything else is out of focus on that I think that’s really
really special you’re so poetic I’m hanging on every word you can just talk yes yes that means a lot cuz you know for me it’s like if I’m honest I don’t know that you could have told me when I was 15 16 that I I would be there I would be here that I could make music and have people listen to it it was like a pine guy dream you know I feel the same so when people I feel completely the same like I thought it was like as unrealistic as cartoon on TV like I would I would watch artists and I’d be like oh my God imagine doing something
like that but never ever thinking that that was even a possibility that same doing this sitting here like making music writing songs putting them out connecting with people going on tour like connecting one toone with people in a room it’s just it’s such a profound experience that it seems so far from reach but it’s real and it’s so cool that it’s real because when there’s uh you know you have like younger fans or people looking up to you listeners like they they can also just see that and be like oh that could actually be me too
and it’s real it’s actually it’s real and it’s possible and it’s it’s so cool to especially as like a songwriter too like growing up with like Shelley pikin and Linda Perry and Lindy Ro like all of the songwriters that wrote for like all of your favorite pop artists you’re like how do you do that like how do you even get there you know and then to be able to like know them write with them be here is like such a beautiful thing too yeah do you guys think about that when you’re writing songs I find it incredibly difficult to think about it
when I’m like actually in the process of it I think it doesn’t hit me the impact of it until like months later like on tour or something I think about this a lot John in your um in your Grammy speech a few years ago you said you were like I show up every day I make music every day CU it’s a spiritual practice for me I think about that all the time and that’s totally what it is if I don’t like write every day or create something I I don’t feel like myself I don’t feel fulf it doesn’t matter if I like put it out you know what I mean it’s it’s just
like it’s something that you need to do just like breathing or eating or you know that’s what it feels like feel more anxious when I completely I feel so anxious it’s like an ex that happens with I mean like I feel like for me like I think just as creatives in general like we have a lot of things that go on in our minds all the time and so writing is sort of like the Deep exhale so just like letting it out and then you have this sort of tangible thing that you can take with you everywhere you’re like okay it’s sort of not in my body it’s
here now this how I feel right here are you all writing every day normally or is it when you’re like I’m going to go create a song I try it’s so hard but I try if I’m not writing I’m writing something not writing necessarily always songs but I write songs almost every day yeah I love it though it’s like I just love it so much well I know we have these Barbie songs that have been just like taken over the entire world first of all the whole album is fire so many amazing different songs on there I want to ask you do a a dance tonight
obviously is killing it what was it like for you putting that song together I mean from the very beginning the most fun experience it was something that I hadn’t done before it was a completely new experience I don’t know it basically the way it way it came to be was Mark Ronson who’s a friend of mine dm’d me on Instagram which that’s amazing which is weird because also we’re like friends so we text but he chose that as a form of a medium yeah exactly um and so he basically hit me up and he was like I’m working on this film with Greta Gerwig
and it’s for Barbie and it’s possibly the funniest script I’ve read and I really want you to write the song for the big dance scene in the film and I was like like this is an absolute no-brainer like 1,000% yes like such a big fan of Greta’s work and I love Mark and it was just it just so such an easy yes I was however on tour at the time so I was like okay when does this song need to be due yeah how much time do we have and when can we get in the studio and I basically I just flew to New York we went in the studio and we just had so
much time like talking to Greta understanding the premise of the film and what I loved is what you were saying about the dualities of life and I think that really comes across in the Barbie film especially for the people who haven’t seen it maybe it’s like the importance of going and understanding like the deeper meaning of the film is so much about you know stereotypical Barbie having an existential crisis and finding out what it’s like to be or to experience essentially like The Human Condition and the way that we are as
people and the emotions that we feel and constantly striving for Perfection but not quite reaching it or trying you know always trying to I don’t know we’re we’re constantly looking or striving for something deeper in a way and I think when making dance a night and Greta saying how inspired by disco she was I just thought about disco and the community it brings and you know the way it brings people together you know a genre of music that was such a release when things weren’t going well in the world or whatever was happening it was
so freeing to be able to go and and release everything that was outside and just enjoy that and so dance and night was created specific specifically for Barbie’s Best Day Ever which then results in her thinking about death so it’s really about those dualities of life and being able to merge the two together and that’s what I love the most like I I love dance crying that’s really like that’s my that’s my genre you know I I it’s there’s nothing that makes me feel more of a releas and I think there’s important to have some
like optimism through the I don’t know through the pain there’s so much happening so it’s good to to have music and dance to to to release and disc when I listened to it I was like this I was immediately thrown into the 70s and I love what you’re saying about the background that it was on cuz that music that disco was the place that all of the The Misfits went to it’s where all of the people that didn’t feel like they belonged went to that’s where they Studio 54 is where everyone went ude to to convene if you didn’t feel like you
were normal if you didn’t feel like you fit in and you wanted to fit somewhere and you wanted to connect with someone that’s where they went and they listened to that and so when I when I was listening to it I was like that’s what it feels like it’s it’s got that energy in it it was really cool oh thank you and I I love a dance song with good lyrics I feel like sometimes because the melody or the beat can be so good sometimes you listen to the lyrics and you’re like what that don’t even rhy you know and so I love that like with a good
dance song with good lyrics the lyrics are almost hidden and you catch them later it’s almost like rewatching a TV show or a film and noticing something else but that’s what I love about that my gosh we we took so much time to like initially we wrote the song and then we went back two weeks later and we kind of watched the scene with the song in it and I was like wait a second this I need to do some changes I need to do some lyric changes and we basically tell little moments to the moves that were happening in the film so you can marry
the moments together um so that was really fun it was like a really interesting jigsa puzzle and something yeah it was it was really special but I just this whole process with the song and even with the new record I never wanted to like let go of a good idea before it used to be like if I didn’t get the whole song that day then it probably wasn’t worth fighting for I don’t know but now I’m like if if there’s one part that I love I’ll just keep digging keep digging I mean Julia knows like I feel like I have dragged
her into my my madness but but I love your process I actually love that about you because there are so many artists that will like give up on a song after one day if it’s not like perfect and you’re the first one to be like this part is exceptional I want to make sure this other part is exceptional and I’m like yeah like it should be got to keep digging that’s Yeah dance and night did a lot digging and I love that y all killed that I was rivy to see I walked into the studio with Mark and I saw all of y’all’s notes hanging on the wall oh
my God he showed me the scene it was just like the amount of excavation that y’all did I that was very impressive I I really believe in that too I love that you said that because sometimes you find something that’s so great and it’s speaking but it just hasn’t met the rest of its tribe yet right so you there’s no reason to put it away for good that’s right but the way the intricacy of that scene he broke it down for me a little bit I hope you all right with that of course but so I was like wow the whole movie is just the whole Barb movie is is
a lot it’s it’s very deep yeah existential that’s woo it’s very Whitman esque it’s got a whole bunch of stuff in it that’s underneath the surface that’s what I I love about a dance song right with a great lyric your lyrics you always have great Melodies and you always make sure the lyrics reach the level of The Melodies thank you cuz dance music my gosh people can get lazy it can be like ring on the be let me that y’ killing that I like I love that oh thank you very much I find myself like throughout most of my days this so
it’s just like in my head a lot I don’t know why it’s catchy girl it’s really good but Barbie song girl so what was take over John yes do it do it please go ahead I want to know like what what’s happening I don’t know why why that that progression of dude I just but it’s just it immediately my heart goes immediately thank you where were you that’s the first thing that I wrote was that like exact Melody um it was okay so it was a a rainy day in January and it was the day after we’d seen it and I was just like it was dark
for me in my life and my brother and I were working and we were trying to make stuff for this album like my album we’re working on and it was just like a day of of nothing it was just like idea after idea after idea of just like no ideas like nothing was happening it was like the least creative we came up with so many different things and it was an instance where we were like yeah we’re scratching these like this isn’t even worth our time and it must have been I think we were doing that for probably like six hours and it was about I want
to say like 800 pm and I was like all right well I’m out of here like this is I’m gonna go home we’re done for the day we tried we’re gonna you know call it quits and then he was like just for shits and giggles what if we tried to write that song MH and I was like you think after the day of like garbage we’ve just made we’re going to make a a perfect song for for something that is so like that needs something really good I was like I don’t even have that in me first of all I didn’t know I would have it in me at all
when it was brought up to me I was like I mean thank you for asking but I don’t know if I can give you what you’re going to need like I want you to have something astounding and hopefully I can get close to that but I don’t know and finus literally sat at the piano and immediately started playing the and um we’ve been using a handheld mic in the room that just plays like through the speakers instead of like headphones and sitting at the I never like use a booth or anything so I was yeah dude yes and so I was sitting um on
the little couch with the handheld and he was playing those chords and it was just like and then then um you know we were talking a lot about the like falling Elegance or the the floating like Elegance of of her and her ability to you know be so smooth and beautiful and perfect all the time and then you know the ju position of her suddenly falling and like can’t do everything perfectly and so immediately it was that I used to float now I just fall down and we immediately wrote that and then I used to know but I’m not sure now and I
immediately was like what I was made for and then we were both like what was I like asking the question after that and then we had that we did that in probably like five minutes it was crazy it was like the it was God it was God I don’t know it was like some other yeah it was just the most perfect example to me of like true true true inspiration and connection and it was living in me that whole day but it wasn’t coming out of me and yeah as soon as we hit the what was I made for line we were both like oh okay and it’s weird cuz we didn’t you
know again we didn’t go into it knowing at all what we were going to make um or if we were going to make anything and it was just so clear that we needed to and like you were saying Olivia like I love writing for like film it’s like one of my favorite things to do not even just film but in like for something because the assignment I really love an assignment I love a prompt and for me you know I’m listening to you especially and everybody talking about songwriting and you’re just so good at it and you just do it and it’s easy and it’s fast
okay don’t laugh and like for me I find songwriting very difficult and I find um honesty in songwriting very hard and out of my reach and there’s something so special to me about writing about not my life and so when we’re writing it you know I’m not thinking about my life I was like this isn’t about me all this is just totally about another girl another character it has nothing to do with my life and I swear on my like I swear to God I never thought about myself one time I was thinking about a character and my brother was thinking about a
character and then we wrote basically the entire song that night aside from the ending verse and then the next day or two later I played it for a friend and we were sitting in the car and I was like I was like what who who this I was like this is singing about me and it was scary it was like I’m like shaky like it was it was scary I felt like it was like if you woke up and like someone had taken a photo of you sleeping like where how are you how did you do that and um I don’t know it was it was crazy and I I felt also
I’m talking a lot but also I was my brother and I both were in a period of like complete I don’t even think writer’s block is necessarily real I just think sometimes we are not able to pull it out of us um but it was that it was a period of time when I just had nothing I had nothing to say I didn’t know how to say what I thought I could say and we really hadn’t written anything in a minute and I felt really worried and I was like damn I honestly was concerned that it was over for me yeah I gotta be honest with
you I really was like cuz where were you in the middle of this new album like had you been trying for a while we’ had been trying and it wasn’t really doing what it usually would do like I in in me and I was honestly like damn like maybe I hit my Peak and I’m don’t know how to write anymore like I don’t know how to do this and crazy thank God for that was do brain and buy sing try something El it was also your brother feeling this way too yeah no it was very I I mean I thank God for Greta man I she saved me
really honestly like getting that request it was like a FaceTime it was a FaceTime and it it brought us both out of it and it put us in a just like immediately we were inspired and wrote so much more after that and being that honest without mean to was a lot and um especially when it came out I was like it was like somebody like reading your you know diary or something did it unlock something in you where like oh I actually can be like extremely vulnerable well and it be like received yes and no but yes because the way that
it rece was received was so shocking to me I guess I forget that everybody feels the same in so many ways and that everything we feel somebody knows you know and like not be the same thing but it’s the same emotion it’s the same emotion exactly and I was really really moved by that and especially the way that it brought women together was like something that I feel so just proud of and I feel so I don’t know like when it came out and and and it was such a a girl a girl thing I was like I don’t know it feel really cool speaking of women how
amazing is this table I’m sorry like so like be doing this at a time where there really is like so much camaraderie with women is so excuse me John but like just like being at a table with people who are genuinely happy for each other is so exciting and it’s very true like it really is true like I love you all like I want you all to win like it’s so sick sorry I mean I felt that way on when trying to book this and get people and as I was like seeing who had songs I was like oh my God we could have this amazing young female songwriters for for
young women to see see all this representation I think is so key and so we got it and John and me so we have y back I saw that when I got the invitation I was like I want to come learn from all of you this is the thing that’s it I love what you said about the diary and about bringing women together especially you’ve been a voice for your generation so so profoundly but I think that’s people want to read your diary but they also want to read their diary yes yes they want to read and it turns out it’s like maybe the same the same
that’s like oh snap do you are connected have like a lyric that you feel like is so personal that you’re like they’re not g to like should I change it they’re not going to understand it and then they get it in a way they internal they see you what I was going to say was when you were talking um about almost kind of manifesting your own life into the song does anybody else feel that when you write you’re almost manifesting things that are about to happen completely like when you’re about to write something and
you’re like should I be putting this in a song cuz I’m be saying this a lot is this a self-fulfilling prophecy exactly I feel that like so much I feel like I I look back at songs that I relate to now more than I ever did wrot them I don’t and some songs Take on completely new meanings I think it’s evidence that songs come from the Divine that sometimes they know things that we don’t know so true we call it sometimes the M like we h vessel I got something for you today I love what you said really about loving writing for movies and for me I mean I
think I’ve only been doing it for maybe two three years and it’s a couple songs here and there and and I really enjoy it because usually I’m in the thing and having to write about the thing that I was in and so there’s this weird sort of like double view that I have to see through and then I have to filter what I’ve experienced what is in the thing into this singular moment for people to listen to but it feels like I’m exposing everything I’ve already been through on the project I’ve been through so it feels like my heart is like beating on
the outside of my chest you’re like naked yeah but I I love that I love that the task is that and so there is no choice but to to do that and the and the only way to do it so that people connect is to be as naked and vulnerable as you possibly can I know I think you don’t give yourself enough credit for being as vulnerable as you are and just because your process is different to someone else’s it doesn’t mean that it’s not a process still you understand if it takes you a year to get to the album that you want to get to it takes you a year to
get to the album it doesn’t mean it’s over it just means that you’re taking time it’s like building a battery up again you know that’s just how it is therapist just so wise I just I also love in terms of writing for film yeah I love a challenge love a challenge cuz you don’t know what you’re going to find and I love a like a kind of get like I don’t know if it’s going to like I love a a not guarantee you know I don’t know what’s I don’t know I think for me I’ve realized that like my whole life is an act of service
I feel the most like of purpose when I can serve something or somebody so whether that’s like an arti artist or a project like I like being there for like the making of and being a part of something and knowing that like I got to like be there for it like that’s such a beautiful thing I mean you have been a part of so many songs they have a list of like some of the artists let’s let’s just do a look Justin be Selena Gomez Bry Spears Lady Gaga Ed Sharon John Legend Shawn Mendes Kelly CL Mar 5 pink Casey mus Graves
Shira Irv Dy lado HR Marin Morris Gwenn Stefani Nick Jonas gon Shay One Republic Kelsey ballerini Lincoln Park Ben plat 5 Seconds of Summer Fifth Harmony Hy steinfield Sabrina Carpenter okay Little Mix Zed R or the frey and also do aifa working together all all and not even everyone so ni my OBS like why does that why is it hard for you to listen I don’t know I like I think I’m just so used to being like in the background that like when like when someone like wants to therapist I don’t know it it really like freaks me out I
said this to another artist I said this or not artist before but I love I love what I do I it’s really important for you we believe you really important for you to be able to sit in the power of being able to make other people’s dreams come true as well that’s a really special thing I know I know but it’s a really but it’s a really special and singular talent that you have and you do yourself and the work you’ve done a disservice to not just sit in it that’s your work I’m horrible with like it’s your anything I’m like I want to be like
I just want to be like a turtle but you deserve it all if you didn’t work for it it wouldn’t come to you you deserve it it’s not you didn’t do the work you did all of the you feel bad for being talented oh my God no I just I don’t know I just I I like I like I said I like it’s such an act of service I’m not like good with people I like I just want to be there for people but you are you’re good because with people you are but I think we I think we assume we get off no like I think it’s so important because I think we think that an active
service doesn’t include it it doesn’t include acknowledging the work that we’ve done and that that is also an act of service because in if another young lady is watching you take ownership of the stuff that you’ve done you’re telling her that it’s okay to take ownership of the stuff that she’s done right that is speak up on my throat you know I know like and it’s important I think we don’t like I think we don’t like take that into account it is important for other people to see us cuz women we don’t do it enough to say yeah
I I did do that and I’m really proud of that because another young lady is going to look at you and go well if she’s okay with doing it if I’m okay with then I’m okay to say I did that I’m really proud of it that is an act of service also it isn’t arrogance to say I’m really proud of the work I’ve done and you’ve done it and you have all thanks and then some thanks yeah you’re good you’re very good okay who else [Laughter] Olivia Hunger Games so you deserve it all you’re the greatest so we’re we’re Clos to uh
wrapping up so we’ll do some rapid fire kind of fun questions so what your go-to karaoke song wannabe Spice Girl oh so good not we don’t need another hero Tina M’s Dancing Queen ABA that’s a good one good one I hate singing at karaoke so I do yeah like my friends hate it it’s all a bit weird but I do changes by tup Park oh yes that was on in the barber shop the other day wow Lose Yourself nice good one when he came out the Academy Awards a couple years ago and did it was firezy yeah how about you I’ve never done K what and you looked at
me like I don’t like to sing she was waiting for the rest of the sentence way you said it anyway anyway not like that I’ve never done it no not even at home and like the fake M like the you know what I had a karaoke like speaker like box when I was a kid when I was like six and it had We Are Family nice and I would sing karaoke that and it had what is that in sync song it’s G to be I don’t know if it was that I think it was it was probably it’s going to be me um it was that and that and and also um I Hope You Dance that’s a great song Hope You Dance
that’s a good one which is like one of myor Le um W no I think so hope we’re not wrong but um but I Hope You Dance We Are Family We are family was like the main karaoke one whole but I’ve never done like the like standing on a stage right we should do that like on our way out how intimidating to walk into karaoke and it’s Billy and do I just feel like haven’t you heard enough amusing I don’t know like I was at a party and they had karaoke and they were like Billy you should do it I was like you don’t need me it’s never fun if the
person can actually sing which I tend to just be like I’ll watch what about uh dream collaboration oh everyone here yeah D there we go this right here oh yeah a super song We Are we did like there was um we were on a late night TV show and I was asked to thinking something and John was playing and I looked over and said can you can you do this yes yeah I can do this and I just I loved that moment so I hope that I want to do again and you I’m chasing after you consistently like you’re all incredible so let me know I remember the first time I heard
you sing on Broadway my whole family oh my god oh oh it it’s insane yeah that’s the Holy Ghost oh my gosh hey so okay I’m derailing the question no no no it’s true because like even though things are not about Awards I mean this woman has won an Emy Tony and Grammy for the amazing work in the color purple it’s like you bleed purple like it’s it’s a gift that keeps on giving but it’s your performance that has allowed you to do that because you just killed it thank you thank you really thankful for all of you guys
joining I mean this is such a dope table we need to do this again friendg but cheers to everyone here amazing song writers gosh with water really I’m not sure what life it’s fine it’s clears it’s fine it’s fine say fine I don’t know about you but I love seeing so many talented women and a man come together in a beautiful harmonious conversation until next time I’m Evon orgy and this is offs script with The Hollywood Reporter
