Songfacts®:

• On "Nice To Each Other" Olivia Dean explores relationship dynamics, focusing on the balance between intimacy and individuality. She highlights the importance of kindness and presence in romantic connections.
  
  "'Nice To Each Other' is a song about the push and pull of exploring your independence in dating," she said. "It's about enjoying someone in the present and allowing it to be both light and meaningful."
• Dean is no stranger to writing from the heart. Her 2023 single "Messy," for instance, is a kind of ode to life's glorious imperfections - part pep talk, part hug. "Nice To Each Other" picks up that thread and gently tugs it further, wrapping themes of honesty, presence, and romantic decency into three and a half very well-mannered minutes.
• Dean wrote the song with her regular collaborator Matt Hales, also known as Aqualung, he of the 2002 hit "Strange and Beautiful (I'll Put a Spell on You)." Hales and Dean have been a team since about 2021, releasing their first track, "Slowly," that year. Hales went on to produce most of her debut album, Messy.
• Dean co-produced the track alongside Zach Nahome, who is known for his work with artists like PinkPantheress and Maverick Sabre. Nahome also co-produced "It Isn't Perfect But It Might Be," the end credits song Dean recorded for Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.
• Directed by Jake Erland, known for his work with artists like Joy Crookes and Beabadoobee, the music video is a one-take production. It follows Dean as she glides through a world that rearranges itself around her in gentle, dreamlike fashion.
• Olivia Dean's line "I don't want a boyfriend" struck a chord with listeners and went viral across social media. Its blunt honesty captured a sentiment that many found refreshingly real, and even freeing. Speaking to Elle magazine about the unexpected reaction, Dean admitted her surprise: "It's crazy. I wasn't trying to egg that on. I guess it's a refreshing thing to say out loud."
  
  Dean said she's comfortable being single and doesn't feel she needs to be in a relationship to survive. "It should be additional, as opposed to filling an absence," she said.
• "Nice to Each Other" was released as the lead single from The Art of Loving album. While recording the record, Dean transformed her studio into a personal space she called "the house of loving." To ensure the music reflected the warmth of home, she brought in personal comforts like her upright piano, slippers, framed photos, and favorite incense. Dean told the Today Show these personal touches "just brought a warmth and comfortability to all the songs."
• Olivia Dean wrote "Nice to Each Other" in a burst of low-pressure creativity at home. The song came together over just a couple of days, starting on her piano with the opening line, "nice to each other, wrong for each other, right for each other," before she fleshed it out.