Olivia Rodrigo - The Cure

Song Exploder

Olivia Rodrigo and producer Dan Nigro break down the creation of the song 'The Cure' from her 2026 album. They discuss the transition from w

Key takeaways

Olivia Rodrigo intentionally sought to write about the complexity of love rather than just 'happy' or 'braggy' tropes.
The song title 'The Cure' was conceived by Rodrigo while driving on a freeway on-ramp.

Main topics

Songwriting evolution
Emotional complexity in lyrics

Notable quotes

I wanted to challenge myself to figure out what a love song meant to me and what it sounded like coming out of my mouth.

Conclusion

The episode highlights how embracing vulnerability and technical imper

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made. I'm Rishikesh Hirway. This episode contains explicit language. Speaker 1 (0:14) Olivia Rodrigo is a Grammy-winning singer and songwriter. In June 2026, she released her third album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love. The day it came out, it broke streaming records on Spotify and Amazon Music, and it debuted at number one on the Billboard charts. I talked to Olivia here in my studio, and I also visited her longtime producer and co-writer, Dan Nigro, at his studio. Dan Nigro won the Grammy for Producer of the Year in 2025, in part for his work with Olivia Rodrigo. And for this episode, the two of them told me the story of making Olivia's song, The Cure, from the original voice memo to the final version. Speaker 3 (1:34) My name's Olivia Rodrigo. Speaker 4 (1:36) And my name is Dan Nigro. Speaker 3 (1:38) We started working together, I think I must have been 16 or 17, which is crazy because I'm 23 now, so he's known me my entire adult life and, you know, lots of my teenage life. We've collaborated on every song that I've ever put out. Speaker 1 (1:51) Were there any kind of big picture concepts or intentions that you had before you started writing? Speaker 3 (1:58) I set out to write this album and I knew that I wanted to make it about romantic love in more of a positive sense. I think my last two records were heartbroken and angsty and all the feelings that you feel when you're a teenager. And I just sort of wanted to stretch a muscle and try to write love songs. And that's a hard thing to do as a songwriter. I think oftentimes writing a song about a happy and a relationship you are just come across as like... braggy or weird or vapid. And so I kind of wanted to challenge myself to figure out what a love song meant to me and what it sounded like coming out of my mouth. And so we knew we wanted to do that. And I knew that I wanted to kind of twist it a little bit because I knew all of my favorite love songs were really sad, you know, like Love Song by The Cure, First Day of My Life by Bright Eyes or Video Games by Lana Del Rey. These are all songs that are about, quote unquote, being happy in love, but they're kind of devastating. And that's what makes them stick with you and what pulls on your heartstrings so much. I think when you're in a relationship, like a mature sort of relationship, it's like so multifaceted and layered and, you know, not every day is like, oh, sunshine and roses, I'm the happiest person in the world. It's like complex. And I don't know, I think that's a fun challenge as an artist to try to capture that complexity. Speaker 1 (3:08) Where do you think the story of writing this song first starts? Speaker 3 (3:14) I actually remember vividly being in my friend's Jeep and I was sitting in the passenger seat and I was talking to him and I was just like, you know, I'm making this record and I'm in love and I love this person and I'm just like so miserable so much of the time. I'm like very unhappy. And I was like, I don't know why I can't like, I just want to write love songs. Speaker 3 (3:38) I remember him expressly telling me, he's like, you have to write about how you're actually feeling. You can't pretend to write a certain way. You can't write in the way that you think you're supposed to feel. Like you have to be honest with yourself. And that's what's great about music. And like, you just have to tap into that. It's a gift. And I was like, okay, like, Speaker 1 (3:55) sure. Could you tell me more about those simultaneous feelings of knowing that, oh, I'm in love with this person, but also. I'm so unhappy. Was it because of being in love that you were unhappy? Like I'm so in love, I'm miserable. Or were these just two separate rivers running in parallel? Speaker 3 (4:14) I don't know. I mean, I think, I think falling in love can really like hold a mirror to you and show you parts of yourself that maybe before were kind of dormant. And sometimes you're in love and it's not happy because there's something that's not working. And then that's why you're so sad. And so. I remember kind of feeling emboldened after that conversation. I think a few days later I wrote the initial sort of first draft. I'm not great at guitar. I'm like still sort of in a permanent state of learning. But I was trying to play a chord and I played it wrong. I like messed up where my fingers were, but it actually just sounded cool. And I was like, oh, that's great. A wonderful