Maggie Rogers explains how going to Harvard Divinity School changed the way she performs onstage

In 2021, at the height of her fame as a singer-songwriter, Maggie Rogers entered the graduate program at Harvard Divinity School. At that point, she had already released two albums, performed on Saturday Night Live and been nominated for best new artist at the Grammys.

One of the unexpected consequences of becoming so successful was that fans would come to her in times of crisis looking for spiritual advice or answers to some of life's big questions.

"When I became a musician, the sort of pressure of expectation of the role that I was being asked to perform was not one that I had ever really thought about," Rogers tells Q's Tom Power in an interview. "I didn't feel qualified for it. I was like, 'I'm 25, I don't know the answer to this.'"

On top of those expectations, Rogers was burnt out and her own mental health was suffering. The gruelling demands of life on the road left her looking for more structure and balance.

"I needed to go really think about what I believed and really create a structure that could be sustainable," she says. "I realized that if I didn't spend a year really thinking about what does it mean to me to be an artist and where are those boundaries … then it was never going to work."

When I came back from Divinity School, I had a completely different routine around rehearsal.- Maggie Rogers

In her graduate program, Rogers says she studied "the philosophy around the way people talk and write about religious traditions, and the way that people come together to create meaning." She then took those learnings and applied them to her live performances.

"There were times on tour or on stage where I remember feeling so much pressure to hold the room," she explains. "And when I went to school and was looking at all these different ceremonies and traditions, no one ever holds the space alone — you hold the space in a group.

"I was completely ignoring the fact that I was on stage with this unbelievable band that had my back and was holding the space as much as I was. So when I came back from Divinity School, I had a completely different routine around rehearsal, around being on stage, around the way my bandmates are positioned around me."

Now, Rogers has released her third album, Don't Forget Me, which she wrote in five days in tracklist order.

"What was amazing about it is that the pressure was really off," she says. "The music feels so loose and free and unguarded…. I think what was awesome about this record is my critic was nowhere in the room because I didn't think I was making a record. I thought I was just writing songs for fun."

Rogers just wrapped up a major stadium tour with Coldplay, which she says she felt prepared for this time around.

"I think the beginning of my career was so fast that there were a lot of these big moments where I felt kind of overwhelmed or like I was growing into it really quickly," she says. "In the last four or five years, it's just the timing has been really gradual and really wonderful. It's so nice to be able to arrive at a big milestone and feel really ready for it."

The full interview with Maggie Rogers is available on our YouTube channel and on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Interview with Maggie Rogers produced by Glory Omotayo.