Fresh from the debut of her new single, “drop dead,” and an appearance on the Coachella stage, Olivia Rodrigo made her way to our Los Angeles studios for an Audacy Check In conversation with Bru.

Rodrigo's third studio album, 'you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love,' is set to arrive on June 12, packed with freedom, fun, and a personal challenge to herself as a songwriter.

"I just love writing songs so much and I hope that my love for writing and music comes through in these songs,” she says. “I just had a blast and I felt really free and happy and I hope that that's, you know, palpable on the record."

“So many of the songs are about joy, which is really fun to write about for the first time,” Olivia adds. “There's obviously a lot of sadness and longing and whatever I injected into it, but, yeah, I feel really free and I feel like more myself than ever and, I'm just really, really excited for people to hear the whole album.”

Being in what she calls her first “big girl relationship,” Rodrigo took up the challenge of writing something meaningful. “Writing a song about happiness is a lot harder than writing a song about heartbreak, I think.”

“It was sort of challenging myself to make a love song and also sort of talk about some of the more negative feelings that go along with being in romantic relationships, like, longing and yearning and jealousy and missing your partner while they're away, and that was kind of the the challenge for me is to try to marry those two worlds.”

It all fits within the title, which Rodrigo says came from talk with her producer, Dan Nigro. "I was having a conversation with my producer Dan about something and he was like, ‘oh, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love,’ just in conversation. I was like ‘that's it. That's gonna be the album title.’ I'm really happy with it. It really captures, I think, the entire thesis statement of what I was trying to do."

The next chapter for Olivia began earlier this month with “drop dead,” and a visual of her running through the Palace of Versailles. “It's so stunning and we were lucky enough to be able to film there basically alone for like a night, which was so rad,” she reveals. “I felt like I was in ‘Night at the Museum.’ I felt like the statues were gonna like come alive and start jousting or something."

"It was so special and, I think that that song, ‘drop dead,’ is sort of about like falling for someone and dreaming so big and having all these high hopes, and so I think the Palace of Versailles is such a great backdrop for it because there's so much opulence and so much like glitz and glamour and when you're like falling in love with someone for the first time I think that that's sort of what it feels like, or that's what you're hoping for, and so I'm really happy with it.”

For more from Olivia Rodrigo, check out the full conversation above. 'you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love' is out everywhere on June 12.

Fresh off the release of “Who Will You Follow,” Evanescence have revealed plans for their upcoming album, 'Sanctuary,' due out June 5. Amy Lee joined Abe Kanan for an Audacy Check In to talk touring, the inspiration for the album, and what it means to balance motherhood and music.

The album has been a work in progress for "3 years solid," with Amy sharing that the new song, "Who Will You Follow," was the second-to-last track written for the project. “I felt very fueled, by the state of the world creatively,” she says of the song and album. “I feel like I have a ton to get off my chest. This music is a sanctuary for me.".

"I've been kind of underground for the beginning of this year. I just sort of had to disappear and finish all the lyrics, which seemed more important than ever, and finally pulled my head up and we just finished the album.”.

Lee views the music, and the new album 'Sanctuary,' as a personal haven and a space for self-expression without censorship. She also notes that she is now less "precious and insecure" about collaboration than earlier in her career, working with 3 producers on the new project. “It's just like, here it is,” says Amy. “I'm not afraid of rejection. I want to open my heart to hear what somebody else has to say.”.

“I feel like, when we were making our first music, when we were making our first album, I was just shy. It was hard to share with anybody and also, you know, really trying to prove myself in those first couple of albums, especially like as a writer. Everybody knows I'm a singer, but like let me do my s*** all myself, a lot of the time, when it just doesn't have to be that way.” .

“Music is from the universe, like all these things that we share, this is spiritual, this is deeper than one person's journey, but at the same time it's all very, very specifically personal to me in my life.”.

For more from Amy Lee of Evanescence, check out the full conversation above.

Evanescence have offered up the first official sample of their upcoming album, 'Sanctuary,' and Amy Lee stopped by our Los Angeles studios to unpack their latest effort during an Audacy Check In with Kevin Ryder.

Set to arrive on June 5, 'Sanctuary' finds the band in a “huge creative burst,” thanks in part to collaboration with producers Nick Raskulinecz, Zakk Cervini, and Jordan Fish. “We've worked with some incredible people this time around, Three producers actually,” Amy explains. “So as a team, being in there with them and creating these songs, and we just had a huge creative burst. It has been, just a, I don't know, like a new energy. It's hard to really explain, but it feels really special.”

It starts now with the new single, “Who Will You Follow,” which Amy reveals is about breaking through the lies to what’s real. “I feel like we're just inundated with so much information now, with people that have a stake in what we believe,” Lee says. “It feels like truth is for sale. So this for me is about breaking through that into the real world and, the album, you know, it's called ‘Sanctuary,’ it's like that. It's a sanctuary, not an escape from this chaotic, surreal, violent time, but escape from the lies, saying that we're not living in that crazy time.”

“It is a sanctuary of truth and community,” she adds. “Moving from the song to album, I just feel like this music is a sanctuary for me. It has been. It is every time, you know, last time we made an album, it was the pandemic hitting all around us at the same time and kind of wondering what's next and how do we go on tour and will things ever be normal again. I think when we're in these big, in my life, powerful and painful and difficult moments, and also in the outside world going through these wild moments where we feel like we don't have control and things are slipping through our fingers, the music is a place for me to be able to say anything. No censorship, no holding back. Nobody's telling me I can't, anything. It's our world, and it just feels so beautiful also to give somebody else something that gives them joy.”

For much more from Amy Lee of Evanescence, check out the full conversation above.