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Post by Admin on Nov 18, 2020 23:43:14 GMT
If you're a Swiftie, the latest Taylor Swift interview breaking down the making of her classic fourth album Red was an absolute feast. During Taylor's interview on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums podcast, she revealed that the fan favorite "All Too Well" was initially 10 minutes long.  Swift also opened up about the personal fears and doubts she conquered while making Red. "I've always been very aware of my own relevancy and mortality," she stated. "My career started when I was 16 putting out albums, so by 22, I was already feeling like old news." "I was already watching newer, cooler artists come out every week. I was already feeling like, 'You know, shit. I'm on my fourth record, what can I offer people?'" And it was at this creative crossroads that Swift decided to reach beyond her established sound to make Red the eclectic classic that it is. "That was sort of when I was like, 'No, you know what? I don't want this to be the part of me that stays in this one place musically forever and bores people to death,'" she said. "It was an interesting wrestling match with my own fears of remaining stagnant that made Red the kind of joyride that it ended up being." And that's why we're still spinning Red more than eight years later. |
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Post by Admin on Nov 19, 2020 19:31:01 GMT
The superstar singer switched up her look while accepting the award for Apple Music's Songwriter of the Year. For her video speech, Swift, who has been rocking curly hair throughout her folklore era, sported straight hair reminiscent of her Red album cycle.
"Winning Songwriter of the Year in any capacity in any year would be so exciting, but I think it's really special this particular year because songwriting was the one thing that kept me connected to my fans," the Grammy winner said in her acceptance speech. "It means a lot to me because the way that fans respond to the songs I write, and the emotional exchange, is what has really kept me going this year. So I really want to say thank you to the fans for that, and to everyone at Apple Music, thank you for everything that you do."
After the video of Swift with her straightened hair and curly bangs surfaced on social media, Swifties quickly began to theorize about the 30-year-old's hair choice. After all, the singer is known for her love of Easter eggs.
"She straightened her hair with bangs! Again, she straightened her hair withbangs!" one fan tweeted. "When was the last time she did that? RED ERA! 10-minute All Too Well version is coming!"
As fans may know, Swift—who has been in a battle to obtain her album masters—is currently re-recording her early music. So, is this T.Swift's subtle way of letting fans know she's re-recording songs from Red? It might be!
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Post by Admin on Nov 20, 2020 6:11:18 GMT
The creation of Taylor Swift’s transformational album Red began at a rehearsal for the singer-songwriter’s tour supporting her 2010 album Speak Now. Hurting after a recent breakup, Swift began ad-libbing heartsick lyrics over a four-chord riff as her touring band spontaneously joined in behind her. “I think they could tell I was really going through it,” Swift says. The rehearsal jam would end up serving as a rough 10-minute sketch for “All Too Well,” Red’s emotional centerpiece.
After writing all of Speak Now alone as a way to show her critics that she didn’t need to use co-writers, Swift was ready for a new creative challenge when it came time to craft her fourth album. “I’ve always been aware of what my detractors say, because I use it as a springboard for what to do next,” she says. “With Red, I had a different thing I wanted to prove: a thirst for learning.”
A half-dozen years into her career, Swift was already fearful of being seen as a has-been, and was worried about remaining creatively static. She wanted to reach outside of Nashville for the first time, working with her favorite pop songwriters, from Max Martin and Jeff Bhasker to Dan Wilson and Butch Walker. “It actually was an interesting wrestling match with my own fears of remaining stagnant that made Red the kind of joy ride that it ended up being,” she says.
Swift’s fourth album also marked a country-pop crossroads for the singer, the fleeting stage of her career when she was introducing herself fully to the world of Top 40 while still successfully servicing her more rootsy singles to country radio. “I was standing on a state line,” the singer says, “and I had a foot on either side of the border line.”
She began writing the record in her comfort zone, working with Nathan Chapman and Liz Rose for her left-field Nashville originals like “Red,” “State of Grace,” and “All Too Well” before she headed to L.A.
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Post by Admin on Nov 20, 2020 19:51:16 GMT
When she began writing with producers like Martin, Swift was eager to welcome in outside inspiration. “I wanted to go in as a student,” she says. Swift wanted to add a dubstep drop to the ballad she had written called “Trouble,” but it wasn’t until the producer Shellback suggested adding a frantic drum beat to the song’s verse that it morphed into “I Knew You Were Trouble.” On “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” Martin and Shellback proposed drawing out the first word of the chorus (“we-eeeeeee”’), “like little kids on a playground.”
Swift was overflowing with material during the writing of Red, coming up with ideas for tracks like “Treacherous” on the way to the studio. When it came time to actually record, she had written 30 songs.
Swift trimmed those 30 down to 16, and the end result was her most sprawling, uninhibited work, an album whose messy sonic contradictions anchored the emotionally chaotic story Swift was trying to tell. “It was sort of a metaphor for how messy a real breakup is, and this is my only true breakup album,” says Swift. “I love Jackson Pollock, and I see this album as my splatter-paint album, using all the colors and throwing it at the wall and seeing what sticks.”
In hindsight, Red was a second career beginning of sorts for the pop star, the moment when she amassed the fresh songwriting tools and pop sensibilities that she’d spend the following decade deploying in full. “It was sort of like my college years of going out and trying stuff,” she says. “This was me being, ‘What do I want from a songwriting session?’ And picking up little bits as you go. … It was really sort of the beginning of everything that I’m doing now.”
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Post by Admin on Nov 27, 2020 3:34:34 GMT
Last year, Swift confirmed her plans to re-record songs from her first six records in a bid to take control over her music once again after music manager Scooter Braun and his media holding company, Ithaca Holdings LLC, acquired Swift’s old label, Big Machine Label Group, back in June 2019.
The story has hit headlines again this week after Swift confirmed that the ownership of her back catalogue has changed hands again for the second time within two years.
During an appearance on Good Morning America yesterday (November 25), the singer spoke of the process of re-recording the music, and revealed which song she has had most fun recreating so far.
“I’m having a really good time… it’s a really amazing, fun adventure,” she said. “So far, of the ones I’ve recorded, I think it’s been the most fun doing ‘Love Story’ because the older music, my voice was so teenaged and I sometimes, when I hear my older music and my older young teenage voice, it makes me feel like I’m a different singer now.
“So it’s been the most fun to re-record ones that I feel like I could actually possibly improve upon the song.”
Earlier this week, Swift skipped the American Music Awards in order to carry on the re-recording process, as she revealed while virtually accepting an award.
“The reason I’m not there tonight is I’m actually recording all of my old music in the studio where we originally recorded it,” Swift told the virtual audience while accepting the Artist of the Year. “So it’s been amazing and I can’t wait for you to hear it.”
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