When Olivia Rodrigo was doing promotion for her second album, 2023's GUTS, she cited two '90s alt. rock bands - Babes In Toyland and Rage Against The Machine - as two key influences on the record.
“I have been listening to so much Rage Against The Machine this year,” she told Rolling Stone magazine. “That’s my favorite band right now. I would just play it over and over again on my way to and from the studio.”
If you saw any of Rodrigo's headline set at Glastonbury festival, or her BST Hyde Park headline show that same weekend, or indeed the Guts World Tour concert film that premiered on Netflix last October, you can't have helped but notice that the 22-year-old singer/songwriter is backed by an incredible, virtuoso band, which currently includes drummer Hayley Brownell, bassist Moa Munoz, and guitarists Daisy Spencer and Arianna Powell, guitar heroes inspiring a new generation.
“We all get DMs on Instagram from fans that are stoked and wanting to play,” Powell tells Guitar World in a new interview. “And I can only hope that inspires them, right? [Olivia] has so many fans who are young girls and young women. It’s important to see that.”
Powell played Rodrigo's very first appearance with a band - a performance of Drivers License on Saturday Night Live in 2021 - and stayed with her during the world tour for the singer's debut album sour, before stepping away from touring to raise her baby daughter.
"I left and came back to a different vibe," the guitarist tells Guitar World, "because with sour we were playing much smaller venues, like [legendary New York venue] Radio City. We weren’t doing arenas or these massive festivals. So it was a completely different vibe. And it’s much more of a rock show – guts is much more of a rock album. sour is a bit more singer-songwriter. It feels like two different gigs in some ways."
"She does love to feature the guitar, which is really cool," Powell says of her boss. "Especially since I’ve been on, she’s extended certain solo sections. She’s added guitar solos.“I think I’ve got, like, at least seven guitar solos throughout the set, which is kind of insane, and that’s totally from her wanting that. The only note I’ve ever gotten about technique is, ‘Just be more virtuosic.’ [Laughs] Like, ‘OK! I’ll be shreddy!’”
The guitarist also reveals in her Guitar World profile that a certain fast-rising US hardcore band influenced her decision to play Jackson guitars - much loved by Megadeth's Dave Mustaine in the '80s and '90s - onstage.
"When the summer shows were coming up, I was starting to get really inspired by this band Turnstile," she tells GuitarWorld.com Editor-in-Chief Michael Astley-Brown. "Everyone in Olivia’s band is a huge fan – Olivia herself is a huge fan of Turnstile. And so I was watching their performances from this year and just thinking, Holy shit, this is so cool. They’re playing Jacksons.... I got a white one. But people were stoked. Everyone was like, ‘Yeah, that’s sick'."
Powell's next gig with Olivia Rodrigo will be headlining Lollapalooza festival in Chicago on August 1.
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