TruSource Technology DL2 Integrated Digital Mixer

Music Connection: Your album had a huge debut.
A great iTunes countdown roll-out of the
songs. It’s not foreign for you to come out of the
gate this strong, of course. Do you get used to
it, or have to fight getting used to it?
Taylor Swift: I never get used to that. I don’t naturally
feel like I am entitled to win. I don’t naturally
feel like if I put out a song it will go to number
one in hours. It’s like I got so used to having to
fight to get the song up the charts and having to
wait and having to hope that people would hear
it, that’s kind of where my mind stayed. And so
when we have something like this album, where
all the songs that we put out on the iTunes countdown
have gone to number one, it is absolutely
mind-blowing to me that the fans are that reactive
and that they’re that fast and that there are that
many of them who are so clued-in. It’s something
that I’m never going to get used to. I can’t imagine
getting used to it.
MC: The iTunes countdown for the new songs
was an interesting way to roll things out. What
was it like to watch it happen?
Swift: It’s so exciting to reveal, track by track,
songs that are so different from each other and
kind of keep people on their toes about what
could possibly be coming next.
MC: Red is your fourth album. You’ve been
through the big debut, the follow-up to show it
was no fluke and then the third one. What does
a fourth album mean?
Swift: Actually, the way I kind of categorize them
is like the first one came out and some people noticed
and we were really lucky and it sold millions
of copies, but I hadn’t had anything cross over.
So the second album, for me, felt like a breakthrough,
and then it felt like the third album was to
prove that it wasn’t a fluke.
MC: Which makes this one...?
Swift: This one is for the sake of adventure. I think
I try to veer away from whatever comfort zone I
developed in making my last record, and for my
last record, Speak Now, my comfort zone became
writing songs alone. It just became what I
fell back on and what I always did and just kind of
felt like what I naturally gravitated towards.
This time I wanted to challenge myself as a
writer. I wanted to challenge myself as an artist.
So I called up a bunch of people that I admired in
the songwriting-producing artists world, and I just
wanted to see if they would work with me and collaborate.
It was such an educational and amazing,
adventurous experience being in the studio with
people who I had always admired and people who
make music that’s different from the kind of music
I make, so you have a blending of two worlds.
MC: Did you have a hit list? What was the criteria
for the kind of folks you wanted to work
with?
Swift: Well, I would come up with an idea and
I’d think, “What do I want the production for this
to sound like?” and a name would just pop into
my head. I’d come up with like a partial idea
for a song and I’d think Dan Wilson. Or, “Jeff
Bhasker would nail the drums on this.” Or, “Max
Martin would kill this.” And I’d bring them those
ideas, and that’s kind of how it worked. I had a
short list of people that I’ve been admiring for
years, not only because of being a fan of what
they do but being a fan of their ability to adapt
and change. Jack Bhasker produces fun., but
he also has done some amazing stuff for Alicia
Keys, and it’s all different sounding––the same
way that Max really reinvents himself all the time.
MC: Let’s hear about the Swedish adventure
with Max and Shellback, since we heard “We
Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” right
out of the box. What was it like working with
those guys?
Swift: Working with Max and Shellback was such
an exhilarating experience as a writer, because
they’re so in the moment and they’re so present
and they’re so excited, and that’s exactly how I
am. So you get us all in a room and it’s just like an
immediate green light. We just start writing and we
don’t stop and we would write several songs a day.
I love to work fast, and I love to work with people
who love making music. When there’s that level of
excitement in the room it makes me so excited to
get up and go in the studio with them the next day.
It’s just like, “What are we going to do tomorrow?!”
MC: How early did you nail “We Are Never Ever
Getting Back Together” with them?
Swift: We wrote a few songs before that, and
that was the song that we really kind of realized,
“We’re on to something here.” And from that point
we wrote two other songs that ended up making
the record.
MC: Tell me about one of those, “I Knew You
Were Trouble.”
Swift: The song is about an experience where I
knew that this guy was going to be bad news the
first time I saw him, and I had all these red flags
pop up and I ignored all of them and I believed
him anyway and fell for and ended up brokenhearted
like I knew I was going to. But instead of
thinking, “Shame on you, you broke my heart,” I
actually ended up feeling like “shame on ME, I let
you break my heart. I knew you were gonna do
that!” You know? It’s kind of an interesting feeling
when you realize that you’ve already learned
this lesson and you just ignored all of the common
sense that you’ve gathered up to this point.
MC: You’ve never been shy about taking care
of the guys who done you wrong in song, have
you?
Swift: Writing about my life...helps me figure out
how I feel about things sometimes. Emotions can
be so messy and all over the place, and you can
44 December 2012 www.musicconnection.com