Inside Daniel Nigro’s Hit-Making Process for Olivia Rodrigo & Chappell Roan

How careful songwriting collaborations, Apollo interfaces, and UAD plug-ins fuel Grammy-winning records.

Since moving to Los Angeles in 2011, Daniel Nigro has undergone a transformation few could have predicted. A lifelong guitarist, singer and restless member of Indie rock stalwarts As Tall As Lions, Nigro arrived in LA with a dream, but no clear roadmap beyond "wanting to be a songwriter." 

What began as Nigro's attempt to record his solo record soon turned into something much bigger — a passion for producing and writing music with others. Hot on the heels of his 2025 "Producer of the Year" Grammy, Nigro has shaped the sound of artists like Chappell Roan, Olivia Rodrigo, Sky Ferreira, Joe Jonas, Kylie Minogue, and Caroline Polachek.

All the while, Nigro has honed a signature production style — one that heavily leans into collaboration, as well as Apollo X Gen 2 audio interfaces and UAD plug-ins.

 

"If one part of a song feels really good, I don't care about anything else," says Daniel Nigro. "We can workshop the rest. If it takes a year, fine."

 

Was there a steep learning curve in making the transition from songwriter to producer?
Yes, in the sense that it felt like a massive step backwards because I had to prove that I was a producer. That took about 5 years. When I worked with my old writing partner Justin Raisen (Charli XCX, Drake), he would always be at the computer — he was the producer. I was just a songwriter. But I watched him and picked up how to produce. I also worked a lot with Ariel Rechtshaid (Vampire Weekend, Adele). I learned so much from both of them.

What did you learn from Justin and Ariel?
One thing I didn't understand was that, in the beginning of the creative process, you could just bring a couple of drum loops into a session and write a song around that. When I was in a band, you always wrote songs together in the room. Being able to write over a simple drum loop really opens your mind to the different ways a song can be seen.

Can you elaborate on the multiple ways a song can be seen?
When I first started, my view was "a song is a song," meaning, in terms of production, I couldn't hear it any other way. I always figured, "Well, this is an acoustic song so it has to sound acoustic." 

After working with Ariel and Justin, I was able to start hearing songs in multiple ways, trying to find the right, as I call it, “the clothes.” That became really fun to do. Simple changes, like adding 80's -sounding drums or big 90's rock sounds.

 

"When I moved to LA, my goal wasn't to be a producer," says Daniel Nigro. "I wanted to be a songwriter. It's funny how your goals change."

 

With all of your success, are you constantly asked to collaborate? 
After the success of Driver's License, I was thrown into a world that I never saw myself in.  Out of nowhere A-List artists wanted to work with me, but we'd meet and I realized they liked things in my productions that took weeks for me and Olivia to create — and they wanted to do a track in five hours. To me, that's not how you make music.

 

“Out of nowhere, A-List artists wanted to work with me… and do a track in five hours. To me, that's not how you make music.”

Daniel Nigro

 

A lot of producers pride themselves on how many songs they make in a day. I take it you're not one of those.
I make like 25 songs a year. If I can make one good song every two weeks, I am pumped! I don't understand the whole quantity thing. When you look back at records, all the best records that we loved growing up, you're talking about 10 songs or 12 songs that were made over two or three years.

If I can make four good songs in a year, four really good songs in a year, that's all I need. I know that sounds crazy, but it really takes time to make music that's gonna last forever. 

You can't produce a good song in an hour. You could write a good song in an hour, for sure. Because writing songs is so expressive that sometimes the shorter period of time it takes to write it actually does mean it's better. But in terms of making a great song, I feel like that at least for me, it takes a long time to figure out what that is.

 

“If I can make four really good songs in a year, that's all I need. It takes time to make music that's gonna last.”

Daniel Nigro

 

Why do you think you enjoy collaborating so much?
One reason is, I think I have a band mentality.

What do you mean by a "band mentality?"
When I produce an artist, I look at it like I'm your band. If you're the artist and you're the lead singer, I'm your drummer, bass player and guitarist. We're here. If you want my opinion on things, I will give you my opinion. I could be really annoying or I could shut up and play the drums. I'm probably going to be really opinionated anyway. I like being involved.

You really like that camaraderie.
Yeah. I want to experience something with the artist and feel like we're a team. I think that comes from being in a band and being able to share the wins and losses together. I want to be in the trenches and be like, "Yo, we got to win!" I had a weird experience with one of my first hit songs, where the artist and I weren’t friends and the song came out and we didn't even talk.

 

"The Roland Juno 60 gets the most use," says Daniel Nigro. "Mainly on sub pads for choruses."

 

How do you maintain perspective on a song after working on it for a while?
I always want to know, how is someone going to react to this the first time they hear it?  And if you've been working on it for days and days, you have no clue because you've heard it 500 times. At a certain point you're emotionally numb to it.

But if you've taken two months off from the song, you can kind of hear it for the first time, again. You're like, "Wow, that's good." Or sometimes, "Wow, that's really bad. That's what it sounded like?" I constantly need to step away to see what a song is.

In a session, I can only last maybe five hours. Five hours before everything to me, I'm like, I don't like any of this. I need to constantly forget about the song.

 

“The UAD Brigade Chorus is a ‘writing trick’ plug-in. You put it on, and everyone in the room reacts — it’s instantly inspiring.”

Daniel Nigro

 

How long will you take a break from listening to it?
Sometimes I need to not listen to it for a week — or a month. And then if I can renew my own excitement about it, and I listen to it for the first time in two months and I go, "Whoa, that's pretty cool."

Is it fair to say that  most of everything you've produced has taken place in this house? 
Yeah like on Olivia's album, Guts, the tracks "Bad Idea Right?” and “Vampire”, the drums were recorded here, whereas “All American Bitch” and “Ballad of a Homeschool Girl” were done at EastWest studios because those needed to be "big rock drums," you know? I can't get them to sound like that here.

 

From Olivia Rodrigo's 2023 album, Guts, producer Dan Nigro plays guitar, percussion, and bass.

 

For Sour, Olivia's first record, we recorded everything at Ariel Rechtshaid’s studio. There's only a few songs that have live drums but those were recorded there because also I was living here at the time so we didn't have a drum setup.

On Chappell’s record there's not actually a lot of live drums, but “Casual” was recorded here.

 

From Chappell Roan's 2022 album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.

 

“The most essential plug-in to my drum sound is the SPL Transient Designer.”

Daniel Nigro

 

What are the UAD plug-ins you're reaching for daily?
Yes. I use the 1176 compressor plug-in, specifically the Rev A "bluestripe" on every song, and probably on every vocal that I'm working on. Every once in a while, depending on the vocal, I'll switch out to the Rev E "blackface" version, but I'd say that like 99% of the time I use the Rev-A.

However, I think my favorite UAD plug-in is the SPL Transient Designer. I love it and use it on almost all my drums.

Do you have any special settings for the SPL Transient Designer?
Honestly, I adjust the Sustain control more than anything. If I'm working on a live drum sound, I'll find a spot where I can kind of blow the drums out a little bit more. It really colors the sound for me in a way that I love.

Do you have any other "go-to" UAD plug-ins?
My other favorite UAD plug-in is the UAD Brigade Chorus. I use that on bass all the time. It's the sound on Caroline Polachek on “The Door” and “I Give Up,” the bass is running through a brigade chorus on that. It's also running on the acoustic guitars in her song "Look at Me Now."

I have a new Chappell song coming out soon where the acoustic guitars are run through the Brigade Chorus. You can really hear it on the "rubber bridge" guitars throughout Olivia's "Hope You're Okay."

 

From Olivia Rodrigo's album, Sour, the UAD Brigade Chorus plug-in is featured throughout.

 

My favorite thing about the Brigade Chorus plug-in is I can be working on a song, and everyone's in the room,  and I'll put it on a bass guitar and the whole room says "Ooh, I like that!" And all of a sudden everyone is excited.

 

“The way a verse flows into a chorus is everything. I’ll spend days just working on transitions to get that perfect lift”

Daniel Nigro

 

So the Brigade Chorus actually works as inspiration.
Totally. It's one of those "writing trick"plug-ins.  You put that on while you're writing and everyone's like, "Oh yeah, that sound!"

When you come back to a track with fresh ears, do you find yourself adding or subtracting?
Often it's a lot of reduction. In fact, I'd say reduction is a big thing. I'm actually working on a song right now, where after I listened to it in the car for the first time it was clear I made the chorus too big. I could tell my ears got tired and I pumped it up too much.

Throughout your productions, one thing that stands out are your strong choruses.
More importantly, the way the verse feeds into a chorus, those moments are everything. To me, it's all about that first five to ten seconds of feeling when the chorus hits.

That's when the nuances of production really come in, because you know you might have a great song, but now it's your job as a producer to figure out that moment and how to best make the hair on your neck stand up. I'm always searching to get to that spot and it's very often trial and error. I could spend three days working on that transition from verse to chorus!

 

— UA Staff