LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Olivia Dean has reached the ranks of Adele. She's the first woman British artist since Adele to have three simultaneous top 10 hits in the U.K. charts.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MAN I NEED")
OLIVIA DEAN: (Singing) Already gave you the time and the place, so don't be shy. Just come be the man I need.
FADEL: And right now she's making her way through the States as the opening act for Sabrina Carpenter's tour. And she has a new album out now called "The Art Of Loving." Olivia Dean is with us now. Thank you for being here.
DEAN: Hello. What a lovely introduction.
FADEL: You're having a year.
DEAN: I can't believe it. It feels like thing after thing at the moment that I just - like, oh, my gosh. Wow.
FADEL: Does it feel like it's happening fast or that it's finally happening?
DEAN: It's sort of a mixture of both. I mean, I've been writing music and putting songs out for almost 10 years now and wanting to do music since I was, like, 8 years old. So...
FADEL: Yeah.
DEAN: ...I feel like I've always been here. But at the same time, it feels like suddenly everybody's sort of looking at me, which is both amazing and also like, ah.
(LAUGHTER)
FADEL: Stop looking at me.
DEAN: Yeah. Guys, stop looking at me. What the hell?
(LAUGHTER)
FADEL: I want to play a little bit of "Something Inbetween."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SOMETHING INBETWEEN")
DEAN: (Singing) I'm not leaving, just feel tightly squeezed in. Love needs breathing. I'm not his. I'm not hers. I'm not your all or nothing. I'm more. Can we still be something in between?
FADEL: A lot of your music deals with romantic love, but there's also references to self-love and platonic love. What inspired this one?
DEAN: I think I used to view love in a bit more of a black-and-white sense and maybe from ideals that you kind of grow up with as a woman that you need a partner, or once you're with a partner, you lose an independence and your own sense of self.
FADEL: Yeah.
DEAN: And I love love, but I also can really function alone. And I was like, well, what is that something in between where I'm in love with you, but I'm also able to remain my own sense of self and my own life outside of this relationship?
FADEL: The music is also very vulnerable, and you've said that's really how you write. I'm going to quote you to you - "the lyrics that you're scared to say are probably the best ones." So which song on this album scared you the most when you first wrote the words?
DEAN: Probably "Loud."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LOUD")
DEAN: (Singing) I never asked for love, no diamond ring.
Vocally, it's quite exposing. You know, it's a single vocal with a guitar and then strings. There was originally one take that was recorded, and then I never sung it again because I just found it to be too intense emotionally.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LOUD")
DEAN: (Singing) The silence is so loud. The silence is so loud.
It's quite a thing, I suppose, to sing to the whole world that you have been let down or that somebody didn't want to fall in love with you and you're broken by it. I think it's something that a lot of people could relate to, but, you know, it's not the most fun thing to share.
(LAUGHTER)
DEAN: You know? So...
FADEL: Yeah.
DEAN: ...I think I'm attracted to that vulnerability.
FADEL: You got heartbreak woven in here throughout this album, but ultimately, there's a hopefulness to it. There's optimism. I'm thinking of the song "So Easy (To Fall In Love)," and I want to play a bit of that.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SO EASY (TO FALL IN LOVE)")
DEAN: (Singing) I could be the twist, the one to make you stop, the icing on your cake, the cherry on the top. There's heaven in my heart, and we could find you some space.
FADEL: We could find you some space...
DEAN: (Laughter).
FADEL: I love how you know your worth in this song. Talk to me about getting to this place of finding how amazing you are (laughter) and letting the world know and letting people who want to be in your life know.
DEAN: I am very lucky that my mum and my auntie are very strong, independent women. You know, my mum worked with the Women's Equality Party, which is a political party in the U.K. So...
FADEL: Wow.
DEAN: ...It's just - would be impossible for me to not be a really strong feminist. And I think I forget sometimes, I suppose, when you live in a bit of an echo chamber maybe that not everybody feels that way. So I feel it's important for me to drum that message home, and this song I'm really proud of. I think often as women we always think about what we could be for somebody else...
FADEL: Yeah.
DEAN: ...And how we could kind of slot into their lives and make it better and forget to think about what that person's bringing to us.
FADEL: Yeah.
DEAN: 'Cause we're fabulous.
FADEL: I hope that people think, hmm - wake up and say, we're fabulous.
DEAN: Right?
FADEL: And we should know that.
DEAN: Oh, my God. Yeah, you'd be lucky to go on a date with me. I'm great.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LADY LADY")
DEAN: (Singing) That lady, lady, she's the man. I think she got a master plan. It's something I don't understand. That lady, lady, she's the...
FADEL: I want to talk about "Lady Lady" since we're talking about women and feminism and making space. What is that one about? I mean, is that being the master of your own destiny?
DEAN: Absolutely not. It's...
(LAUGHTER)
DEAN: I wish. No. So that song, I had a very tumultuous year last year, and I was - remember looking up at the universe. I'm not really a spiritual person, but sort of looking up and going, what is the lesson I'm supposed to be learning (laughter)?
FADEL: Oh, wow.
DEAN: Because I'm not understanding the plan here, Mother Nature.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LADY LADY")
DEAN: (Singing) Keeps rearranging me a little bit. And I was just, I was just getting used to it.
And then I was like, I just got to trust something's coming. And so I guess that song is just about accepting whatever's happening to you is maybe happening for a reason. And the lady upstairs, she's got a master plan for you.
FADEL: Now we're talking as your album's coming out into the world. Where are you today?
DEAN: I think I just feel really proud. The songs are just so real for me that I just feel excitement for it to come out. And I feel so comfortable if someone was to say they didn't like it because I would just be like, well, that's fine. I love it, and it's real. So it will never be bad for me, if that makes any sense.
FADEL: Complete sense. I love that. But I did like the album.
DEAN: OK. Great (laughter).
FADEL: Yeah. No, it's beautiful. Olivia Dean, thank you so much. Your album's out now - "The Art Of Loving." It was so nice to talk to you, and congratulations on your new album.
DEAN: Thank you so much. So nice to talk to you, too.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BABY STEPS")
DEAN: (Singing) If I'm out on Friday night, it'll be me turning on them lights when I come home, but I'll manage. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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