'Crippled by comparisons'
Neither of them was prepared for the way the song took off - but that wild, overnight success also made Rodrigo reassess everything she'd written so far.
"I had an EP ready, like five or six songs. Then Drivers License came out and I was like, 'I'm just not super-proud of this'," she says.
"I knew that, after Drivers License, there'd be so many eyes on [me] that wouldn't have been there before, so I really wanted to put my best foot forward. I didn't feel like the EP was going to do that for me."
Instead of scrapping everything, she doubled down, writing new songs while filming the second series of High School Musical on location in Salt Lake City, and trading files with Nigro at his studio in LA.
The result is Sour, a stunningly-accomplished debut album that (a) proves Drivers License wasn't a fluke and (b) devours genres with an indecent appetite.
Her current single, Good 4 U, channels Alanis Morissette's pop-punk vitriol; Deja Vu finds her taunting her ex-boyfriend over waves of crashing drums and distorted guitars; and Enough For You is the sort of grippingly-told guitar ballad that made Taylor Swift a household name.
Swift is an important touchstone. Her intricate, inter-linking narratives have clearly influenced Rodrigo's writing and, like Swift, the star has a knack for excavating the little observational details that bring a song to life.
On Deja Vu, she recalls singing Billy Joel with her ex (Uptown Girl was their song) and how she's driven crazy by the thought of him sharing it with someone new.
Jealousy, Jealousy, meanwhile, tackles the inferiority she feels after being confronted by the "paper-white teeth and perfect bodies" of celebrities on Instagram.
"I wrote that song at a time when I was borderline addicted to social media and I just felt crippled by the comparisons," she says.
"I don't feel that now, but it's something I wanted to talk about. I am someone who has somewhat of a large following, so I think it's cool that I can be like, 'Yo, I still hate myself. I still compare myself to other girls.'
"Whenever I see people on Instagram do that, it always feel empowering to me - so I hope that I could be that for somebody else." all slot
