Olivia Rodrigo on new album, Glastonbury nerves and life in London

Into every life a little rain must fall, but nothing could prepare Olivia Rodrigo for Hampstead Heath in June.

The plan was to film an interview in the park, but the rain came down hard. Lights and cameras were moved into the Victorian kitchen at nearby Kenwood House.

Rodrigo arrived on time and composed after a short walk from her car.

The 23-year-old had already been working that morning, making final changes to a new song called Maggots For Brains while riding over.

"I love that song musically, and there's a lot going on, a lot of harmonies, and literally in the car, I was like, turn that backing vocal up just one decibel," she said.

"I was getting kind of weird about it. Nobody else will notice."

Hampstead Heath was chosen because it is one of Rodrigo's favourite places in London, where she can usually walk without being recognised.

"It's the best place to hang out," she said. "Nobody's ever been weird, I guess because it's so spread out? One time, I even saw someone propose. I was sitting on a bench, and I looked over, and there was a huge commotion, and all the couple's friends were there. It was so sweet."

She said she would like a similar proposal in New York's Central Park, with a bench placard that reads "Will you marry me?"

"So spread the word. Hopefully my future husband will see this," she said.

Rodrigo has already chosen the wedding song: I Melt with You by Modern English.

"Imagine kissing and then walking back down the aisle to that? I love that song," she said.

Her first two albums, Sour in 2021 and Guts in 2023, dealt with heartbreak. She wrote her first true love song in 2024, So American, about English actor Louis Partridge.

She changed the lyrics during her Glastonbury headline set last summer while Partridge watched from the side of the stage.

When she began work on her third album, she aimed to capture romantic joy.

"I really wanted to capture romantic joy and pleasure for the first time, because my last two albums were very heartbroken and really angsty," she said.

The title, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, shows the story did not stay joyful.

"It's a love story that falls apart," she said. "A time capsule of a relationship in a few years of my life."

The album opens in a London pub, where Rodrigo is taken with a boy who "looks like an angel on the walls of Versailles."

By the second track, Stupid Song, they are together and she is too happy to write a clear lyric.

Doubts appear later. Track seven, Purple, begins as a sweet love song but was revised with unresolved chords after the relationship changed.

"It's definitely the part of the album where things start to sour and unravel," she said.

What's Wrong With Me, a duet with Robert Smith of The Cure, was also rewritten after the breakup.

Rodrigo and Smith performed the song at Spain's Primavera Festival last weekend. Smith told BBC 6 Music that he was "slightly in awe of how easy she finds it all."

Their first performance together was at Glastonbury last summer. Rodrigo said she had a near anxiety attack backstage before going on.

"I remember having like a near anxiety attack in the bathroom, like, 'How am I going to do this? I don't know if I'm ready,'" she said.

"But something overcame me the second I stepped on stage and started singing. I felt, like, totally calm and so in my element."

She ate three bowls of sticky toffee pudding at her hotel before the set.

Rodrigo said she feels normal in the UK and enjoys the social life in London.

She has spoken out about reproductive rights in the US and the situation in Gaza, and criticised the Trump administration last year for using her music in videos about ICE deportations.

"I don't think my goal is to be liked by all," she said. "And when you de-centre that as the primary motivation, I think everything becomes a lot more joyful."

She confirmed she has 60% hearing loss in her left ear.

Rodrigo recently parted ways with her managers to take more control of her career.

She said she can write about feeling petty or jealous and get those feelings out in a productive way.

As the rain continued outside Kenwood House, she planned to take friends swimming in the outdoor ponds on Hampstead Heath.

"It wouldn't be a proper English summer without it," she said.