Olivia Dean Discusses Perfectionism, Fame in WSJ. Magazine Cover Story
The Grammy winner reflects on her time at the BRIT School and her hit duet with Sam Fender.
Grammy-award winning singer and songwriter Olivia Dean sat down with WSJ. Magazine's Elias Leight for an in-depth conversation about her early career struggles, overcoming self-doubt, her transformative time at the BRIT School and conquering her perfectionism to embrace global pop stardom.
On landing her first music industry job
Olivia Dean scored her first real music industry job in 2017, working as a backing vocalist for the electronic group Rudimental. There was just one problem. 'I was terrible,' she says, beaming. 'I was just along for the ride, and owning that I had no clue what I was doing, but I think I brought a good vibe.'
Upon graduating, Dean worked to sharpen her songwriting. 'I was in every single session you could possibly be in, turning up to studios in London with absolute strangers four or five days a week, and just writing song after song after song. A lot of them were terrible.'
On her hit song 'Man I Need' and meeting Stevie Wonder
'I met Stevie Wonder the night before [the ceremony] and shook his hand, and he was singing along to 'Man I Need,' ' Dean remembers. 'I was just like, OK, that's the only thing I need for the rest of my life. If I ever read a comment where someone's like, 'She's rubbish,' well, Stevie Wonder said that I wasn't.'
Early in her career, Dean would sometimes worry that a lyric might be too personal, only to find that those were the lines that fans would mention when they approached her. 'You get kind of addicted to that feeling,' she continues. 'It's almost like the danger of it: Will I be brave enough to say it?'
Back home, 'Rein Me In,' a springy collaboration with the U.K. rocker Sam Fender, is now the country's longest-running No. 1 male-female duet, toppling Jay-Z and Rihanna's 'Umbrella.' This has been especially disorienting for Dean. ' 'Umbrella' is amazing. Wait, that's me now?'
On her formative years at the BRIT School and embracing her identity
It's easy to imagine students sweating through grueling tests of guitar technique and herculean vocal challenges, but one of Dean's key lessons was about band dynamics. 'You need the talent' to succeed, she says. 'But there's the other half—showing up on time, being good to be around.'
'Being a mixed-race person, sometimes it's quite difficult to figure out which box you should fit in,' Dean continues. 'That was a real stamp of, you can just blend and bring people together and be the best of both worlds.'
On her songwriting, 'pop shame,' and overcoming perfectionism
'I used to have kind of a thing about pop music, like wanting to make pop music is lame,' she explains. ... 'Maybe this is a bit too far, babe?' She decided to push back against her 'pop shame.' The song is 'so joyful,' Dean reasoned. 'Just let go.'
The jubilant rush—'woo hoo,' as she puts it—of music-making is typically followed by a period of obsessive fiddling with production and mixes. 'I'll sit in my room like this,' Dean continues, leaning her head forward as if it's resting on a desk between a pair of imaginary speakers. 'I'm making mix notes on a granular level that is just not necessary.'
'I'm somebody that puts a lot of pressure on myself,' Dean acknowledges. 'I have crippling perfectionism.'
Olivia Dean also participated in WSJ. Magazine's 'The One' interview, where she discussed why being called a one-hit wonder is not an insult, one thing she is still trying to learn and the album that inspired her recent album. The interview can be watched here. The full story can be read here, on WSJ. Magazine's TikTok here.
