It's Apple Music One.
You have tapped into me, Rebecca Judd, and joining me in the studio right now, the one and only Olivia Deen, everybody.
I'm back!
You are back!
My absolute queen, you have arrived in the studio once again.
What an absolute joy you are every time you join me.
I wish I could do this literally every single day.
We do have a good time.
We do.
I mean, last time we caught up was actually back in June.
Which feels crazy.
I know, right?
And I remember saying to you next time you join me in the studio, it's going to be for the release of your second album.
I was like, are there any snacks that you want?
And you was like, I love chocolate raisins.
Yes.
I have delivered chocolate raisins.
Chocolate raisins for you.
Here you go, my queen.
Oh, my God.
There we go.
Wow.
You look after me so well.
I will be having some.
You are welcome.
It is so lovely to have you here.
Literally, I'm such a huge fan of you.
I just kind of want to break it down and kick it off like this and kind of put context into how crazy life is for you right now.
Three months ago, you were literally sitting in that exact chair.
You were talking about, you know, getting ready to support Sam Fender at the London Stadium and how huge those shows were going to be.
Now cut to three months later, you have sold out four O2 London shows.
You've been dominating the top 10, three singles in there.
What on earth is going on, Olivia?
Babe, I wish I knew.
What is going on, girl?
I wish I knew.
It sort of feels like all of a sudden it's all got really exciting and everyone's just being so warm and receiving the music.
And it is crazy to think about everything that's happened since I last saw you.
Right?
I can't believe it.
Four O2s.
It's too many.
She said, I love everybody that got tickets, but god blimey, I need to work now.
Yeah, I'm like, damn, let me get in the gym.
Let's go.
For people around the world that maybe don't understand how huge it is to do an O2 show here in London.
I feel like that is on the bucket list for artists here in the UK.
To do that venue is absolutely huge.
That is 20,000 people per night.
You have sold out four shows of them.
That's 80,000 people.
What's actually stopping you from doing your own London Stadium show at this point?
I mean, fear?
No, we'll start with the O2s and I can't wait, honestly.
Like playing live for me is the best bit of what I get to do.
And I'm going to just put everything into those shows.
Like it's my dream, like to build a show in that space and have the opportunity to really realise a lot of ideas that we haven't had the space or the budget to do previously.
So I can't wait for people to see what we're going to do.
You have said, though, the album is about exploring the theme of love.
I mean, are the stories on this album true stories?
Absolutely.
100%.
100%.
I would never, ever write something that wasn't true or didn't happen to me.
It's not interesting to me.
Like, I don't...
It doesn't do anything for me to make it up, because it's like I've got to go out and sing it for maybe the rest of my life.
And so it needs to mean something so that I can make it mean something to you.
Do you feel like, I suppose with that comes actual life experience?
When your life is like really, really just chill.
Are you like, nah, something needs to happen.
I need to make some songs.
You know what I wish my life?
No Rebecca, I wish my life was more chill.
Honestly, sometimes I look at my life and I'm like no way that happened to me.
Yeah, the material is there yeah, and I just also feel like to make the music kind of music that I want to make.
You gotta live like I had a real good chunk of living before I came to that eight weeks, so that there was so much to say and so much to cover.
So yeah, my life is uh, offers the yeah, offers the material.
That's what I mean, though people can really tell that you make music from the heart.
I feel like that's another reason why we resonate with your music so much, because you can tell, like you love this music that you're creating.
Yeah, even when like, you're performing it live, That day seems like the best day of your life.
Having the best time.
You perform live like every single night at this point.
But that one day I'm like, she's having a great time up there.
It's an amazing job I get to do.
And I get to create and make art and share it with people.
And like I'm not doing it for like, I don't make music because I want to be famous, or like, because I want to make loads of cash.
It's like I love making musics so much and um yeah, i just want to make things that last forever hopefully, and they're gonna.
Um, what song would you say has inspired this album?
Lots of different songs.
I was listening to a lot of prince when i was making this album.
I want to be on stage and i want to be dancing and i want to see people dancing out there.
I just think sonically like exploring more kind of 80s influences, synths and different kind of drum grooves than I would normally look at.
Like I felt like a lot of stuff I was making before kind of sat more in a Motown space, which I still really love.
But yeah, I just wanted to try something a little different, and Prince is just just a wealth of inspiration in his discography.
100%.
I mean, speaking of inspirations, you actually went to the Brit School.
I mean, for people around the world that are thinking, what on earth is that?
So it's a performing arts college.
It's a known thing that Adele went there, Ray went there, Jessie J, Amy Winehouse, more recently, Lowly Young as well, of course, yourself.
When you were at Brit School, was the plan to always be a pop star?
I don't know about pop star.
Like I think I was figuring it out at school like kind of where I wanted to take it, but I knew it was always yeah, writing and singing.
And then yeah, it kind of just morphed into doing this now.
But yeah, Brit just allowed me to also be with so many like-minded people in that way, to be around all those people at school and also wanting to do that dream, it felt possible rather than being that one weird kid in your school who wants to sing in all the assemblies and everyone's like we don't want to hear you sing Alicia Keys again, babe.
And again and again.
At the same time though, going to Brit school, performing arts college.
Everybody low-key, has the same dream.
Were you always confident within yourself that what you had was special?
Because there's hundreds of people there all wanting to do the same thing.
How did you know that your talent was special?
I think it's about just having the self-confidence to know that there's space for everybody.
I've never felt like a competitive nature.
Like when I see Lola winning or when I see Ray winning, I'm like, yes.
Yes, women, let's go.
And we're all so different and everyone has so much to bring to the table.
And I just, I always knew that I had something to give.
How did the Brit school help you?
Oh my God, in so many ways.
I mean, I met a lot of my band there, like Finn and Dan.
Yeah, like we met at school and we were saying the other day we've been 10 years, we've been playing music together now, which is crazy.
And you still like each other after 10 years?
Yeah, we're still on the road.
We're still rocking, so...
I think just in that capacity it let me meet amazing musicians and, you know, taught you about the industry a little bit.
And from the smallest things to how to coil a cable properly, how to be a good band member.
You know production.
They had like a production suite or just all sorts, like all the things you wouldn't think about that you need to know going into the industry.
It's an amazing school.
Do you know what?
This leads me nicely into this next part of the chat.
Now, every time you've come into the studio now, we've caught up quite a few times.
Every time you come in, I'm like, I absolutely love you.
I love everything about you.
You know how much of a fan I am of you.
We're gassing each other up.
I love everything about you.
But there's so many people around the UK and the world that are proud of you.
And today during this chat, I've actually got a few surprises for you.
So if you actually, no one's coming in, don't worry.
If you look down at your iPad right now, somebody wants to leave you a message.
Oh, my God.
Hi, Olivia.
It's Mike Offen here, your old form tutor.
Huge congratulations on your new album.
I had a really surreal moment the other day where my new tutees were talking about how good My Nine Need was.
They were so shocked and excited when I told them that you used to be a member of 10MOF and you'd just sold out the O2.
Massive congratulations again.
Hope to see you soon.
Hi, Olivia.
How are you?
Stuart Warden here, Brit School.
How's it going?
Here we are in the OB where you used to sing only a few years ago.
We are wishing you all the best with The Art of Loving.
The tracks we've heard are amazing.
We can't wait to hear the rest of it.
You are extraordinary.
Hopefully see you at the O2 or in cell.
You're trying to make me cry today.
How cute, everybody.
That is so cute.
Does that put stuff into perspective that like, because life can be so quick, quick paced.
When you see messages like that, how does that make you feel, Olivia?
I feel so emotional.
Mr. Offen was my form tutor, and me and my best friend Rosie sang at his wedding.
Really?
Yeah, and like, oh my gosh.
Yeah, I feel really emotional.
That was such a developmental time for me in my life and I really struggled in the school I was in before and I never felt like i found my place and my people and yeah, i really stepped into myself, like with the help of those guys.
So that is so lovely.
Uh, you performed at his wedding anniversaries.
Now you need to tell him the price has gone up.
B, i'll do it.
I'll add it for free then, but it's changed bro listen, the price is up.
No, but if we look back to your first album, it was called messy.
Do you still feel messy?
You know what?
In some ways, not really.
I feel like I've done so much work on myself and got my life a bit together since I wrote that album.
But I think also, yes, at heart, I'm still kind of a mess, but I think that I'm owning it now.
Do you feel more in control now?
Now that you you know.
When you got your debut out, did you feel like OK, now I know what this process feels like.
I'm going to have a little bit more fun with the second one.
Yeah, I think sometimes a second album, people say there's a lot of pressure and it's a bit scary and I was just like, oh no, I want to have even more fun this time.
And I just took that pressure off myself and I was like you know what, at the end of this process, if you can say you had fun doing it, then no one can tell you anything.
You can say you don't like my album but you can't say I didn't have fun.
So if we fast forward all the way or rewind all the way back to the beginning, when starting out, what would you say was the original goal for you in your head?
Like what would you have been happy with?
If you quit music the next day, what was that thing that you wanted to achieve, the original goal?
Well, the first day I met my manager, we went for a coffee when I was 17 in my little dungarees.
Aww.
She said, what do you want?
And I said, I want to play Jools Holland.
I want to make an album.
And I want to play Glastonbury.
And you've done them.
That was it.
You've done them.
That was all I wanted to do.
Wow.
Yeah, that was it.
So I've had to stop trying to think of some new goals.
Yeah, I was going to say, how has it changed?
What's been added to it now?
I'd like to headline Glastonbury one day.
Yes, my girl.
I think it would be a good time.
I'd love to tour like some other parts of the world I've never been to.
Like I'd love to do a tour in South America.
I'd love to, I don't know, maybe go to India.
I don't know.
Just see what's going on over there.
One thing I really love about this album is the fact that you're now two albums in.
No collaborations.
No collabs.
Why is that?
I love the idea of collaborating and I've done so outside of my albums, but I think for me, because it's such personal stories, it would almost feel strange to have another voice, like coming into the mix, like I want it to feel like I'm taking you on a journey.
It's you and me sis, you know you, me and these headphones, and we're working through something.
Come along for the ride.
Exactly, and I just think, At least for these two albums, it just hasn't felt sincere for me to have another voice in that way.
Who knows in the future?
But I think I'm still trying to establish my own voice and it's important for me to do that.
I mean, outside of your albums as well, you don't collaborate that often.
I feel like that's definitely a choice for you, because right now you must be getting requests coming in left, right and centre.
What makes you actually want to work with someone and collaborate?
Is there anything that stands out?
If I think they share a similar passion for music and also if I like the music.
I find it weird sometimes I don't know people collaborate and stuff and it's like do you want to do that?
Who else is going on?
So I just think if it makes sense, you know.
But yeah, all the collaborations I've done have been really amazing.
And I'd like to do more in the future, but only if it really, really felt right.
Yeah.
I mean, like you mentioned, you have dabbled in collaborations.
Reign Me In with Sam Fender absolutely went off.
The one that I really, really love is the hardest part with Leon Bridges.
What did he bring to that song and how fun was it to create with him.
For me that one was crazy because i'd been a huge fan of him before, like mr often when those times when i was that age, like i'd be doing up cover leon bridges songs with my friend rosie yeah, that one i just didn't believe it was gonna happen.
And i remember the day when the mp3 came through with his verse on it and i was just sat there like i can't believe he's singing lyrics that i wrote what's going on.
And then I got to meet him and we got to sing it live together in New York.
And that was the first time I'd ever sung in America like that.
And I was so nervous.
I was backstage and I said to my manager, I can't go out there.
She said, you have to.
Well, we're here now.
You have to.
I said, I can't go out there.
Yeah, that was like the one time I've like almost not gone on stage because I was so nervous.
Yeah.
I mean, I did mention earlier on that I do have a few surprises for you.
If you look down at your iPad again, there should be a lovely message for you, Olivia.
Oh.
I just want to say congratulations on your second album.
I'll never forget the time we got to perform together at LPR two years ago.
And it was so amazing to see you do your thing in that room.
And I knew then that you were headed to great places.
So happy that we crossed paths and it's been incredible to see your growth as an artist.
And I can't wait to see where this record takes you.
You know, I'm always going to be in your corner.
Much love.
How cute is that?
Stop at Beyonce.
Everybody oh, bless him.
But yeah, that's the gig I was talking about when he got.
When I got to sing with him, it was just like such a full circle moment and to be so far from home and have him there and sing that song that means so much to me was yeah, really beautiful.
Now, I did mention Sam Fender earlier on in this chat.
We need to talk about it, man.
You supported him on his stadium tour here in the UK.
And I know that a date that was really special to you was performing at the London Stadium.
Of course, the home of West Ham United.
You are a West Ham fan.
You've been vocal about that.
You've been absolutely screaming it.
How special was that date for you?
Listen, I've been meaning to talk to you about this.
Because I saw you before, right?
And we were gassed.
We were gas for it, yeah.
So you gassed me up.
I went down there yeah, and i was like.
I came out and i was like guys, this is a special day for me because i'm a west ham fan got booed.
Oh no babe, they booed me up no, because they're newcastle fans.
What did you do?
I said oh, and then i went okay, never mind, This one's the hardest part.
Yeah, babe, I got booed.
I got booed.
Thank God I didn't go in my West Ham top because it could have been tomatoes.
I actually have.
I wish you were there.
I know.
I would have been like, come on, irons.
I've actually got something that's going to make you feel a little bit better.
If you look down at your iPad, I have another surprise for you, Olivia.
Take a look at that.
Hey Olivia, it's Jared here.
I hear you're a massive West Ham fan, so I say thank you for your support.
Congratulations on your new album, The Art of Loving.
Looking forward to you at the London Stadium soon.
Take care, all the best.
Hi Olivia, Fionn and Shalina here.
Congratulations on your new album.
We're very excited for it to come out.
And we hear you are a West Ham fan, so thank you for the support.
We would love to have you at the training ground here at Chadwell Heath for one of our matches at Dagenham.
And we are very excited.
We love your music and you're a West Ham fan, so we can be nice to each other.
Guys!
I'm basically on the team.
There we go.
I'm basically on the team.
I needed that.
That makes you feel better about getting booed, right?
Yes.
It does.
How crazy is that, man?
Jared Bowen, captain of the West Ham team.
What's going on?
What's going on?
I told you I had surprises for you, girl.
No booze today.
Instead, we go irons.
There we go.
I do feel like your touring is similar to like classic touring musicians who literally spent years on the road.
I can't remember the last time you had like four months off of not touring.
And I love the fact that you have done the smaller venues as well.
You've really started from the ground up.
You mentioned busking.
Like you've started from the ground up and you've seen these venues get bigger and bigger and bigger.
Now the O2, you've sold out four of them.
How are you mentally ready for this moment?
We're still getting there and working up to like what it's actually going to feel like to walk out on that stage.
I need to keep my emotions.
I don't want to just cry the whole way through because that's not what we want.
We want to just be enjoying it.
But the journey has been crazy.
Like we were talking about, you know, in lockdown, when we were driving around in a van playing music for people.
Like we did a gig for a prawn restaurant.
We did a gig at a prawn restaurant and there were three people in the crowd and two of them were children.
We've done gigs just on the side of the road in Cornwall, like on a beach.
We did a gig actually, I think it was like at a Soho house or something.
Nobody came.
We played for a field.
We played for an empty field.
We came this far.
We're going to play anyway.
Character building.
Listen, my character has been built.
So in that sense, I'm ready for this moment because...
I still enjoyed those shows.
So I think yes, there'll be more people there, but it's a gig's a gig and I'm just I'm lucky to do it.
You're ready.
How do you feel right now?
Your second album, The Art of Loving is out.
Try and summarise these emotions that you're feeling.
Pride.
I feel proud of myself.
I feel healed.
I think making this album brought up a lot of emotions for me and was quite confronting at points.
But I feel healed and ready to share that with people.
And I feel happy.
Yeah, it's a good time in my life.
I love this.
I have been dotting through some surprises throughout this chat.
I've got one more for you, okay?
So if you take one more look at your iPad, I love you, and so many other artists out there love you as well.
Darling Olivia, congratulations on the release of your new album.
Mel!
You are an incredible songwriter, an extraordinary live performer, and I love watching your star continue to rise.
Love you loads.
Olivia Dean, it's Natasha Bedingfield here.
And I just want to say, I'm so glad you're getting your flowers.
You are so wonderful.
And from the moment I first watched you on TikTok years ago, I was like, who is this girl?
You're so amazing.
So just infectiously joyful and ridiculously talented.
And I'm just sending you all the love and congrats on your This is what I'm saying, girl.
We love you.
Natasha!
No!
That's crazy, right?
It is crazy.
I used to sit in my room and cover Natasha Benefield's song.
Which song?
These words?
Do you know what it is though, the the growth of you this year has been.
You can't even describe what's happened for you.
This has been like the dream since you started out to see artists like that that you've grown up listening to, when you just had an idea to even like touch the success that you have already.
How does it feel that these people are supporting?
It's unbelievable.
It just makes me believe that like, anything can happen in life.
If you work really hard and just keep working towards a goal and working towards it because you love it and for the right reasons, like you never know what could happen.
That is crazy.
Do you know what though?
If you were to scroll through like your Instagram comments.
The people that are in there showing you love is mad.
Like Naomi Campbell.
No, don't even get me started on Naomi Campbell.
Like, she's a huge fan of you.
I saw her the other day at the Burberry show and I was sat there and I could see her and I was like okay, I'm going to after this, I'm going to go and speak to her.
I'm going to work up the courage and I'm going to go and speak to her.
She came over to me.
Did she?
And she was like, gave me a hug and I was like, you've got to come to the show.
She said, I'd love to.
And I was like, I can't believe this.
Like I have a book in my room that's just like Naomi Campbell and like you know images from her career, and like she's such an inspiring, like just black female role model for me.
So to feel that love back is, yeah.
What other moments like that have meant a lot to you?
I mean, Elton John.
Yes.
That has been such an amazing experience for me, having support from him and around Glastonbury when we played the Pyramid Stage and getting to meet him.
He called me up the other day and just said, I'm really proud of you.
Wow.
He said, I'm really proud of you and you've been putting a lot of work in and now you're ready.
That's so sweet.
You don't have to do that.
Like he is just, his finger is so on the pulse and he's so supportive of young artists.
And I think that's amazing.
So that's been pretty overwhelming.
How do your parents feel?
Like in their mind, are you just their daughter?
Like go do the washing up, love.
Or, like, how do they feel?
I think they're just, like, just proud.
Like, my mum is so across it.
Like, every show I do, like, she's seen it.
She'll text me.
She'll be like, love this dress tonight, babe.
She was like, venue looked cute.
Like, hope you had a good time.
And then she'll be like, yeah, I was really feeling that one, babe.
I'm like, thanks, mum.
Wow.
Because you know what?
Like when moments happen, like obviously times have changed for when our parents were younger and stuff.
They may not get... you know, the Instagram followers going up.
And if you've got this many followers within a week like, but when they see people like Elton John supporting you, is that when they really understand the levels of what you're doing when things like these happen?
Yeah.
I mean, that's the kind of stuff you can't even really imagine happening. like that it feels like kind of far-fetched you know oh my god it is crazy the Elton stuff like I remember when the Rocketman film came out I went to the cinema by myself to go and see it and like to think that you know he would call me up on the phone now it doesn't It's like, I don't really know what life is.
I need to paint the picture for me though.
Like you're sitting there.
What was happening?
This is actually a really good story.
I went camping with my mates in Wales.
I'd just woken up.
I had a little grill on.
I was making sausage and beans.
Love that.
I get a text from someone on my team and they're like, expect a call from Elton John.
I said, excuse me.
Then my phone rang and I was like, guys, sorry, Elton's on the line.
What?
Yeah.
And then I just sort of walked off to the side and spoke to him.
And then I came back to the campsite and I just fell on the floor and collapsed.
And everyone was like, are you all right?
And I was like, no.
Did you carry on making the sausage and beans?
Yeah, and then I had my sausage and beans.
What i'm saying, man?
You're so grounded, but you know, i really hope that the moments like this continue to keep happening for you.
I would love to know, like some of the, you don't have to say the hardest things that you've been through, but what are some of the things that you wish you know now gosh, i've learned so much.
It's definitely been a roller coaster, like the last 10 years, when i think about when i first met my manager or when i first put my first song out and all the things we've been through and like amazing but also really hard moments.
I think that, I've just got really good at trusting my intuition.
I feel really, I just trust myself.
I know when something's right and I know when it doesn't feel right.
And I do way less stuff that I don't want to do now.
I don't really do anything I don't want to do.
I just eat chocolate raisins and I just make music.
And I think that just being consistently yourself and authentic and making stuff that you love always pays off.
And people might not get it, and that's okay, but I just I feel like I've really always stayed true to myself and I've never done anything to follow a trend or like get an immediate viral hit or like you know, I've just been myself and I think I'm proud of just sticking to that.
Yeah.
I mean, you've really been blessed with great people around you.
The best.
I have the best team.
I have the best band.
And I get to work with amazing people.
And I would never sit here and be like, I do it all myself.
Like, it takes a village to make things and put on a show and, you know, make an album.
And I work with amazing people.
Yeah.
What would you do if you got a number one album here in the UK?
Oh, my God.
Me and my manager were joking we're going to get our belly buttons pierced.
Is that the celebration?
That is so funny.
Anything else you think you'll do?
Any holidays?
No.
Oh, I don't know.
That's just been the joke.
That's what we're going to do.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I haven't thought about it.
Yeah.
Bellybutton spirits, that's so funny.
I want to round off this chat with the final song on the album.
Olivia Dean, I've seen it.
Why did you want to round off the album like this?
I think it was important for me to leave the listeners on a note of reminding them that perhaps maybe, romantic love isn't the forefront of your life right now, but love exists in so many forms.
It's in your friendships, it's in strangers, it's in your parents, and I think that gosh getting emotional.
There is so much love to be shared.
And in the world right now.
I think we need reminding that it's all around us and you just need to look for it.
It's so beautiful.
But I definitely feel like people around the world are finding the love when you continue to make music how you're making it.
We love you, girl.
It's been an absolute pleasure.
Thank you so much for finding time to come back through and have a chat with me.
I am so proud of you.
The art of loving is out.
Do you have any last final words, babes?
Just enjoy it.
I made it for everybody to enjoy and just sit with it and yeah, see what you think.
Olivia Dean, everybody!
We love you!
