Olivia Dean makes a splash across the pond as she visits Genius to unravel the layers of her hit song “Dive.” Produced by Aqualung, Bastian Langebæk, & Tré Jean-Marie, the track was a standout from her debut album, Messy. On today’s episode of Verified, the soul-pop sensation deep dives into the music she enjoys making, artists who inspire her, her creative process and more!
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00:00 I have no interest in immediate virality.
00:03 I just want to make music that lasts and you can come back to, like a good bowl of soup.
00:08 This song is just one of those honest songs.
00:11 It's really pure and from the heart.
00:13 I think people like to fall in love, even though they say they don't.
00:17 I was listening to Diana Ross.
00:26 I was listening to The Supremes.
00:27 I'm very like a Motown head, you know?
00:30 I think I went through a phase of writing a lot of quite sad breakup music and I was
00:34 like, "I want to write something light."
00:36 I was falling in love, which is, you know, crazy, but a nice feeling.
00:43 And it's just really changed my mindset and I think I'm happier because of it.
00:48 I always want to make sure the first lyric I say is poignant and has something quirky
01:04 about it.
01:05 And these lyrics are my favorite lyrics I've ever written.
01:07 I love the imagery of this person being on this tsunami of certainty.
01:12 We are in love.
01:13 This is the real thing.
01:14 I feel it and you feel it too.
01:17 And I'm like, "Ah."
01:18 I don't know if I know what love is.
01:20 I don't know what it looks like anymore.
01:22 I feel so jaded.
01:23 And there's nothing.
01:25 "Capable" is a funny one.
01:48 I think it is in that remembering.
01:50 When you've had your heart broken and it feels cliche, but everybody knows.
01:54 It's like grief.
01:55 Letting go of a life you thought you were going to have with somebody else.
01:59 And you're like, "I'm never going to feel like that again."
02:01 And then suddenly you are and you're capable of opening that little chunk you were holding
02:06 back.
02:07 I met somebody who it just felt very easy with.
02:10 I can be capable.
02:11 I think I'm actually going to be okay.
02:14 "Maybe it's the loving in your eyes I'm here to see through.
02:21 Maybe it's the magic in the wire and I'm feeling this."
02:26 This chorus, I feel like sometimes people get the words wrong.
02:28 So setting the record straight.
02:29 Maybe it's the loving in your eyes.
02:31 And that is that thing where you're looking at somebody directly and you see that glaze
02:36 of love across their eyes.
02:37 And you're like, "Whoa, you love me.
02:40 Wow.
02:41 That is crazy."
02:42 And then my response to that in the backing vocal is like, "I'm here see through.
02:46 I'm completely transparent now."
02:49 And then the next line is like, "Or is it the magic in the wine?
02:52 Are we just drunk?"
02:53 This is the saddest bit of the song, I think.
03:10 The reality part that is that voice in your head reminding you, "If I actually give everything
03:16 that I gave to this last situation, I don't think I can survive again."
03:20 And I think people often hold a piece of themselves back the more and more they go through breakups
03:25 and whatever.
03:26 And so it's scary.
03:27 But you got to do it.
03:29 You have to put everything in to get everything back.
03:32 "Cause the water's warming, nothing wrong, it's all right, yeah.
03:38 I'm coming out and diving in tonight."
03:41 That "I'm coming out" is a little nod to Diana Ross, as in, "I'm coming out," her classic
03:46 smash hit song.
03:47 By this part of the song, you've kind of decided that you're going to get into the water.
03:51 You're wasting.
03:52 You're like, "This is warm.
03:53 I quite like it.
03:54 I think I'm going to enjoy myself and swim out a little further."
03:57 I just wanted to keep this verse short.
03:59 It's half the length.
04:00 And just like, you know, we're in.
04:01 I love a bridge.
04:15 I think I'm pretty traditional in the way that I approach songwriting.
04:20 I'm a sucker for verse, pre-chorus, verse, pre-bridge.
04:24 And then we're out.
04:25 And I think a bridge should be kind of touching on a different thing that you haven't said
04:28 already.
04:29 It should be a release.
04:30 And yeah, I just love the imagery of these two people diving into each other.
04:35 I'm finding out more about you by this point.
04:37 You're finding out more about me.
04:39 And we're just becoming one person, in a way.
04:42 It's funny.
04:45 I'm always like, "Oh, this stuff's so personal.
04:48 Why am I sharing all my personal business out for the whole world?"
04:50 But people aren't thinking about me when they're listening to the music.
04:53 They're thinking about themselves and that person that they want to fall in love with,
04:57 but they're not sure.
04:58 And so it's an act of service.
04:59 It's like, here you go, take it and go forward with that.