Taylor Swift joined Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 to celebrate the debut of her highly-anticipated 12th studio album, 'The Life of a Showgirl.' In the conversation, the GRAMMY Award-winning singer-songwriter talks about embracing humour in her creative process and how she is processing fan reactions to the album.
Taylor Swift talks with Apple Music about embracing humour on 'The Life of a Showgirl'
This album by personality was a funnier album. It was like coming off of 'Tortured Poets Department'. The character attributes I was highlighting in that writing process were much more serious and sensitive and introspective, and oftentimes more earnest and stoic, and the characteristics of a poet. This one was like showgirls are mischievous, fun, scandalous, sexy, fun, flirty, hilarious.
Taylor Swift talks about writing track 5 of 'The Life of a Showgirl’, 'Eldest Daughter'
Sometimes I'll use specific vernacular to be satirical. The entire first verse of 'Eldest Daughter' is somebody trying to figure out how to say things that they've read on the internet, whether it be like apathy is hot, or memes and trolling, and how do I keep up with how we're supposed to talk in order to describe how much we don't care when really we all care about something … So then you go to the pre-chorus and I go more into my own voice of "I've been afflicted by a terminal uniqueness. I've been dying just from trying to seem cool". That's the talent. So that's the kind of flip of every way in which I was speaking in this entire first verse was me trying to assimilate to the way culture tells us to be. Which is weird, because honestly, I feel like going back to the idea of a showgirl, they are tough in a way that's actually kind of old school tough where they're going to smile on the outside and they might have a storm going on in their lives.
Taylor Swift talks about how tough the life of a showgirl really is
That's the kind of toughness that I have tried to aspire to for the last two and a half years of my life that I've been preparing for and being on this very exhaustive tour. But there's also this kind of cultural thing now where we sort of talk about softness and sadness, and these feelings of being hurt and feeling like ... Those feelings, we talk about them, but we're not allowed to express wanting love, wanting these things in life. There's this aversion to actually seeming like you could need anything or that you could need or want anyone. You're supposed to accidentally have love. You're supposed to accidentally end up on vacation.
Taylor Swift talks about how life with Travis inspired 'Wi$h Li$t'
When I met Travis, I started to feel a little bit like I could be like a person who could have romantic whims and have these dreams. And the song, 'Wi$h Li$t’, is like that chorus, like you were just talking about the verses, which were so fun and funny to write, but it gets very sincere in the chorus … I don't know if you've seen the movie 'Happy Gilmore', but he has this happy place where he goes into this utopia of this is exactly what he would want and this is where he escapes to mentally in times of stress, pressure, anxiety or chaos. And that chorus of that song is me just describing what my happy place is.
Taylor Swift talks about feeling the love from her fans
The fans are unbelievable. I don't even know how to thank them for what they've done this week and for how much they've loved this music and how they've just immediately gotten it.
Taylor Swift talks about legacy and processing reactions to 'The Life of a Showgirl'
I welcome the chaos. The rule of showbusiness is if it's the first week of my album release and you are saying either my name or my album title, you're helping. And art, I have a lot of respect for people's subjective opinions on art. I'm not the art police. It's like everybody is allowed to feel exactly how they want. And what our goal is as entertainers is to be a mirror … Oftentimes, an album is a really, really wild way to look at yourself. What you're going through in your life is going to affect whether you relate to the music that I'm putting out at any given moment. And what I often love seeing my fans say is, "I used to be someone who didn't relate to ‘Reputation'. And now that I've been through some other things in my life, that's my favourite album." Or, "I used to be a ‘Fearless' girlie, now I'm obsessed with ‘Evermore'." We're doing this thing for keeps. I have such an eye on legacy when I'm making my music. I know what I made. I know I adore it, and I know that on the theme of what the Showgirl is, all of this is part of it.
Taylor Swift talks about putting Easter eggs into her art
I had a list of just... It was like over a hundred Easter eggs to put into that video, and I was just going through my list and checking them off one by one as we were going through our production design process. It's a blast because the fans have made it a blast, because they know that this all points to current art, past art or future art. That's pretty much the realm of the Easter egg thing. So the fact that they care that much about the sort of canon of albums that I've made or plans I may have in the future, it's like I just am very honoured by it, and it seems like they're still having fun with it. As long as this is something that's fun for them, it's going to be fun for me to plan.
Taylor Swift talks about what she is taking away from writing 'The Life of a Showgirl'
Making this album was really something I've been wanting to do for my entire career, because I have always wanted to have fun in this type of way. To have fun to exhibit mischief and be flirty, and fun, and make jokes, and get to have that side of my personality. That's a huge part of my personality. A lot of people who are friends with me and when we meet in person and stuff, people realise that, oftentimes, I get so serious or I'm really known for a lot of my sad songs, my cathartic songs or breakup songs or whatever because I love to write those things, but that's not the place I'm in my life. So what I have left behind is something that really exhibits who I am in this moment pays homage to the most important moment of my life, which was the exuberance and electricity of The Eras Tour. I'm so proud of this song craft. I'm so proud of these melodies and these lyrics and these stories, and going in and out of character and kind of playing with your style speak. It's interesting, I oftentimes have a recorder going while we're writing, and me and Max [Martin] and Johan [Schuster (Shellback)], our vibe is very like stream of consciousness. "You sing this line, I sing the next line. Wait, wait, wait, wait, what did you say two minutes ago? That second note was better in that. Can we go back? Run it back. What did you say there?” I actually just put this out on the iTunes is Voice Memos from when we were writing, because you actually get to hear us come up with these ideas, stream of conscious, in the moment, in real time, and it's pretty wild. I'm very lucky to get to experience that with people like them who are just ... I mean, they're geniuses in my opinion, and I feel elevated every time we work together.
