are you a good secret keeper? - Girl Scouts Heart Of Central California

H&N: You know not many girls have that
one person that they can REALLY trust…
Taylor: Yeah. It’s tough in school to find
someone that you can trust and won’t tell
everybody your secrets, so you know having
that best friend has been the best thing
for me. Abigail and I relate to each other
because we are both really disciplined in
what we do and what we want to do and
what our dreams are.
H&N: Where do you like to shop?
Taylor: Basically anywhere, I love Forever21
and Nordstrom and BCBG. Anywhere I find
that is just really cute; I will shop anywhere, I
am not a snob. *laughs*
H&N: Who’s your favorite designer?
Taylor: My favorite designer is a girl who
makes all my dresses, her name is Sandi
Spika and she is unbelievable. She made
my custom gowns for the ACMs (Academy
of Country Music Awards), my Teardrops On
My Guitar video, and the one I am wearing
in my new video for Our Song.
H&N: What was your inspiration for the
song "Tim McGraw"?
Taylor: I wrote it about a guy I was dating
who was going off to college and I knew
that we were going to break up and I just
wanted to write a song about all of the
things that I knew would make him think of
me. One of the first things that came to mind
was my favorite song, a Tim McGraw song. It was
the first song that we danced to, and I knew
that every time he heard that song he would
go right back there. I didn’t think about how it
would get peoples attention and that people
would be able to relate to it. I didn’t think about
any of that. I wrote that song in 15 minutes. It
wasn’t written to be the first single or even be
on an album. It was just written ‘cause I needed
to write it.
H&N: What’s your favorite song of your’s?
Taylor: My favorite song of mine lyrically would
be “Cold As You” on my album. It’s got really,
really personal, vulnerable lyrics. It’s a song that
I am just really proud of—just the whole way that
that song is crafted. That guy never knew I wrote
that song about him and now he is hearing it
like two years later on the radio. He’s called me
and as much as I am over it, I have never called
him back. *laughs* Oops…
H&N: What is “Tied Together
with a Smile” about?
Taylor: "Tied Together with
a Smile" is about a friend of
mine who suffered with an
eating disorder. That song is
more about confidence and
having confidence than
anything else.
H&N: It’s hot here (Texas),
California is already
getting cold.
Taylor: Yeah, it is hot
here. I love California.
The greatest thing about
California is In-N-Out Burger. I
would eat that for every meal. We need that
here, we need that everywhere.
We went to her sound check
before the show and watched her
warm up for her performance.
H&N: Once you are done with this tour are
you on a break?
Taylor: Actually, I will be recording the next
album and then I go on tour with Rascal
Flatts. *smiles*
H&N: What do you tell other girls that want
to be an artist like you?
Taylor: I tell them that there are a million ways
to do it. I first started working as a song writer
and it took two years in Nashville and then did a
showcase and got a record deal.
I thought when I got a record
deal I had it made, but that is
just where the work begins. You
have to play shows that aren’t
that glamorous. That is what you
have to do to work your way up.
H&N: What do you tell girls who
say that they think that you are amazing and
that really look up to you?
Taylor: I give out as many hugs as possible! I
appreciate it so much. As soon as somebody
says something like that they are automatically
a friend. I don’t have a really tough process
to becoming my friend. If you like me, if you’re
nice to me…I’m you’re friend. I think I owe it
to those people to consider them in that light
because people have done so much for me in
this past year and a half.
H&N: When you sit down to write a song, what
things do you need besides paper and pen?
Taylor: A lot of times I have written songs when
I didn’t even have my guitar and then I just go
to my guitar and it all comes out. Like when I
wrote Tim McGraw I was sitting in math class
and wrote the entire chorus. Like sometimes it
will just hit you and you need to write it down. I
was 15 when I wrote that song.
H&N: So what about “Our Song”…
Taylor: That was a song I wrote about a guy
I was dating freshman year. My life revolved
around music and we didn’t have a song, it
bothered me, so I wrote us one.
H&N: Does the guy know the song is about
him?
Taylor: Yeah, I ended up singing it at the talent
show freshman year. He’s the same guy I wrote
“Tim McGraw” about. His new girlfriend doesn’t
really like me. *laughs*
H&N: Have you already started writing songs
for the next album?
Taylor: Um, yes. I have a lot of songs for the
next album actually. We always write songs
in the studio last minute. “Should’ve Said No”
was actually last minute. It happened literally
because I had extra time in the studio; it wasn’t
even on the schedule for the album. My label is
really cool; they have been awesome to me.
H&N: So…tell us something we don’t know…
Taylor: Well in the lyrics to the album, I capitalized
certain letters in the lyric and it
spells out messages.
In “Should’ve Said
No” it says, SAM,
SAM, SAM…*laughs*
There was even an
article about it in USA
Today and his dad
saw it while reading
the paper. *laughs*
Taylor on stage doing her
thing. The crowd loved her!
Left: Taylor & Mandy; Above: Autumn,
H&N Publisher, Mandy and Taylor
during the interview on the tour bus.
Mandy’s Diary of a
Weekend in Houston
November 2nd—Off we go…Waking up knowing you
are going to fl y half way across the
country to meet your favorite singer is a
good feeling. I hopped out of bed so fast
that I nearly fell to the ground. My mom
and I piled into the car and drove to the
airport. As the plane was taking off I held
my breath and thought about how in 24
hours I would be talking to one of my
idols, Taylor Swift. As the plane landed we got our rental car
and headed to our hotel. We didn’t hesitate to immediately
check out the food and shopping. It was fun to listen to the
fun southern accents and observe the change of culture.
We then returned to the hotel, I could barely fall asleep as I
thought about what was ahead of us.
November 3rd—A day to remember…If I thought
yesterday was exciting than I had no idea what I would
be feeling at this moment. I took the fastest shower in my
life and ate my breakfast so fast. Since we had to be at
Taylor’s bus at 4 pm we had a
lot of time to kill, so we took
advantage of being in Texas
and found a store called Steve
and Barry’s that sold a lot of
cute stuff for under $20. At
about 2:30 we raced to the
hotel to get ready. I threw on
my sparkling gold dress and
my black leggings. Autumn,
the publisher of H&N, and I
then went over the questions
we would ask Taylor and I was
shaking with excitement. We
ran out to the car and drove
to the concert venue. We were
escorted to Taylor’s bus by her
manager and when we got to
her HUGE tour bus, we were
introduced to Taylor Swift. We
interviewed Taylor for about
an hour. I was so excited to learn that Taylor was just like
my best friend; she was everything I’d hoped she would
be. She was nice and was most thankful person I have
ever met. She showed us pictures on her computer and
fi lled us in on the background of her songs and her life.
We got to go to her other interviews but also went to her
sound check, meet and greet, and got a backstage tour
with Taylor and her dad. I got to sit FRONT ROW! Can you
imagine? I was so excited that I would have a front row
seat to watch Taylor Swift up close and personal. The
whole time I danced and sang and took tons of pictures.
November 4th—Departure...It was hard to fl y away
from a city that had given me so much enjoyment. I would
like to personally thank everyone who helped to make this
happen from the Girl Scouts Heart of Central California
to Taylor Swift’s staff and family. This trip was everything I
thought it would be and I wouldn’t change it for anything.
This experience made me realize that Girl Scouts is truly
not boring or uncool. It is a great way to learn, grow,
share and take advantage of so many
opportunities and activities in our
community. Thanks Girl Scouts!
Check her out at TaylorSwift.com and on her
MySpace page at myspace.com/taylorswift