Olivia Rodrigo Sinks Her Teeth Into New Era and Calls Out a ‘Fame-F-cker’ on ‘Vampire’

For a long time, Olivia Rodrigo has had the title “Vampire” in a Notes App she keeps of potential song ideas. Then one day, after experiencing a personal situation that made her angry at a situation, she started playing around on the piano and brainstorming ideas. A song that felt perfect for that title suddenly poured out of her.

“I just sat down at the piano one day and played these chords that felt kind of gothic to me,” she tells Rolling Stone of her new single. “I think there’s a lot of vampire lore to be played with like ‘You only come out at night’ and stuff like that. There’s a lot of fun songwriting fodder in there.”

On the track, she goes after someone she likens to a fame-hungry energy vampire. It kicks off the rollout of the 20-year-old Grammy winner’s sophomore album Guts, which will be released on September 8th.

Rodrigo co-wrote the song with producer Daniel Nigro, who also worked with the star on her debut album Sour. “Vampire” begins as a big piano ballad in the vein of “Drivers License” before building into a faster, more intense, drum-driven pop anthem where the singer goes scorched-earth on someone who was using and abusing their relationship with her.

“I should’ve known it was strange you only come out at night,” she sings. The song is full of vampire lore references, including the catchy chorus: “Bloodsucker/Fame-fucker/Bleeding me dry like a goddamn vampire.”

For the video, Rodrigo reunited with friend Petra Collins, who directed the “Good 4 U” and “Brutal” visuals as well. They shot the video in downtown LA at night and filled it with vampire references “without being too on the nose.”

Entering a vampire-inspired world may have been a bit of wish fulfillment for the singer/actress: She is a “huge” Twilight fan and has posted about the vampire romance franchise often in the past. While the rollout for Guts was full of clues for her fans to dig up, those posts were not early hints of this song: “I would post about Twilight even if I didn’t have a song called ‘Vampire,’” she jokes.

Rodrigo and Nigro recorded Guts between New York and LA. She first began working on “Vampire” at Electric Lady Studios in late 2022, and not only was it the first song she really loved from their songwriting sessions, but the sound also ended up informing the rest of Guts.

“It felt like a really good progression forward. It didn’t feel so different from everything that I’ve done on the last album but it still felt fresh and exciting to me. That was a really good feeling. It’s something that we tried to do for the rest of the record.”

The big crescendo that happens after the first chorus reflects much of Rodrigo’s favorite music. “I’m a big dynamics girl. All my favorite music is super dynamic and gets really quiet then really loud. I’ve always been drawn to stuff like that,” she explains. The growing speed and intensity of the production also carries an emotional weight, as well.

The song offers incisive details on the “fame-fucker” who betrayed Rodrigo, with references to “six months of torture” and and indication that it may be about someone older with the line “girls your age know better.” “I think it reflects the journey that I was going through and the anger that gets pent up in an experience like the one that the song’s about.”