Meet Dan Nigro, the LIer behind Olivia Rodrigo's smash 'Drivers License'

How does a songwriter find out he has a hit? For Long Island native Dan Nigro, co-writer and producer of Olivia Rodrigo’s ubiquitous debut single "Drivers License," he didn’t hear it playing in a supermarket or blasting from a passing car. He just checked his phone.

"The way the music industry has changed in the last few years is so weird," said Nigro. His big "That’s my song!" moment came in January when Spotify announced that "Drivers License" had been streamed 15 million times in one day, a record for a non-holiday song, causing Nigro’s phone to light up with messages. The song broke that record again two days later, then broke yet another record, for most streams in a single week.

"I’m getting texts and calls from my friends at the record label and from Olivia," Nigro recalled, "and we’re all just talking and going, ‘What the hell is going on?’"

A minimalist ballad built around a rainy-day piano and crying-in-the-car lyrics, "Drivers License" went to No. 1 in the U.S. (staying at the top of the Billboard Hot 100s for eight weeks), the U.K. and other territories and has been certified double platinum, all of which has made Rodrigo, a Disney Channel actress, a pop sensation. As for Nigro, he’s happy to cede the spotlight. After years spent fronting a modestly successful rock band during Long Island’s emo boom in the 2000s, Nigro lost his love of the stage and began pursuing a career behind the scenes. Now he’s a writer-producer who picks and chooses his artists and works out of his home studio in Los Angeles’ hip Highland Park neighborhood.

"I like this side of it," Nigro said.

Nigro, 38, was raised in Massapequa Park and formed his musical taste during the late 1990s and early 2000s. One of his first loves was Nirvana; in grade school he and some friends made a lip-sync music video to the band’s "Smells Like Teen Spirit" while running around East Farmingdale’s Adventureland amusement park. He also developed a wide-ranging ear that took in Bjork, No Doubt, Elbow and Radiohead.

In 2001, while in high school, Nigro put together As Tall as Lions with several friends. A self-released EP, "Blood and Aphorisms," earned some buzz the following year, and by 2003 the band had a deal with Triple Crown Records, a small but taste-making label founded by Fred Feldman, who now lives in Great Neck.

The mid-2000s was a great time to be an emo band on Long Island. Local heroes Brand New, also signed to Triple Crown, scored a hit with their 2003 album "Deja Entendu," which eventually went gold. Another local band, Taking Back Sunday, was speeding toward commercial success with a pair of hit albums, 2002’s "Tell All Your Friends" and 2005’s "Where You Want to Be," which debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard album chart.

For As Tall as Lions, there was one problem: They didn’t want to be an emo band. Nigro was a crooner, not a screamer, and his songs tended toward dreamy ballads rather than cathartic blowouts. (Listen to the Lions’ "Love, Love, Love," a swooning track from 2006, and you may hear a foreshadowing of "Drivers License.")

"The band themselves were always trying to write these anthemic songs, which is what attracted me," said Feldman. "There was frustration within the band that they got tagged with the emo label. And Triple Crown was having success in that lane at the time. Each release sort of got them out of that, but they could never shake that tag."

After three full-length releases, culminating in 2009’s "You Can’t Take It with You," Nigro dissolved the band. In 2010, Nigro had temporarily moved to Los Angeles to write songs, and the rest of the band flew out to play a festival on the Santa Monica pier. That’s where Nigro broke the news.

"I was just like, ‘I don't think I want to be doing this,’" Nigro said. A farewell tour followed. (Later, in 2015, the band would play two reunion shows at Manhattan’s Webster Hall.)

It was a childhood friend, Justin Raisen, also from Massapequa Park (and raised partly in Amityville), who put Nigro on a new path. Raisen, too, had done time in a Long Island band, the Kites, but his restless creative spirit kept him from building momentum.

"That was always my problem – there were too many things I liked," said Raisen, a fast-talking 38-year-old. "Whenever we got a fan base or a record deal, we’d be playing a whole new set."

Raisen moved to L.A. and established himself as a songwriter and producer, working on commercials but also with pop acts under the guidance of Ariel Rechtshaid, whose production credits range from the rock band Plain White T’s to the R&B singer Usher. When Nigro came to visit, Raisen encouraged his old friend to follow his lead.

Nigro did, moving to L.A. permanently in January 2011. Initially he supported himself working four nights a week as a host at the Cat and Fiddle pub (a well-known rock-musician hangout) while collaborating with Raisen in his spare time. Raisen taught Nigro the basics of Pro Tools, the widely used production software, and encouraged him to write fast.

Raisen’s advice: "It’s cool that you focused on 12 to 15 songs a year, because you cared about every single one," he said. "But when you’re playing this game, you gotta fly these out. Get into the mind of whoever you’re working with."

For Nigro, watching Raisen work was a revelation. "I remember being just dumbfounded by what he did. And then one day it kind of clicked in my head," Nigro said. "I was like, ‘Wait, you can come into the studio and write a song? And it doesn't necessarily have to be from personal experience? You can just write a fun song?’"

He added, "That felt like a really freeing experience for me."

Raisen and Nigro had some early success writing for Sky Ferreira’s 2013 album, "Night Time, My Time." Raisen also worked with Ariel Pink, Charli XCX and Santigold, while Nigro worked with Carly Rae Jepsen and Conan Grey.

About a year ago, a friend suggested Nigro check out Rodrigo’s Instagram page. By that time, Nigro said, he could afford to be choosy – but Rodrigo impressed him. "She's just such an incredible songwriter," he said. "Her lyrical content, for her age, to me felt so smart and witty and well thought-out. I just fell in love with it. So I reached out to her."

The two worked together at his home studio during the summer months of the pandemic. Between her knack for lyrics and Nigro’s ear for melody and instrumentation, the two came up with a song about nursing a broken heart while driving through the suburbs. "She comes in with ideas and I kind of run them through my filter," Nigro said. "I don’t know, it just works."

The massive success of "Drivers License" has been gratifying but also somewhat stressful, Nigro said. He is collaborating with Rodrigo on "a whole body of work" while trying to meet previous commitments to other artists and projects.

"It is interesting now that the song is doing what it's doing, because I feel like it's brought me more notoriety than being on stage every day," Nigro said. "Which is kind of funny in its own way, you know?"