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Taylor Swift has a new interview with Rolling Stone, although I don’t think she’s taken the cover or anything. Sidenote: The latest cover RS cover story seems to be Matt Taibbi’s epic investigation into Mitt Romney’s financial dealings over the past four decades – you can read the full piece here (Yes, I’m mainly encouraging people to read Taibbi’s story because I have a wonk-crush on him. Matt Taibbi is BOSS. And Chris Hayes too.) Anyway, back to Swifty. Much to her credit (?), she doesn’t completely avoid questions about dating a Kennedy teenager, but she manages to avoid saying Conor Kennedy’s name and she only talks around the whole buying-a-house-right-beside-the-Kennedy-compound thing. Mostly, she talks about music and how she wrote her new album:
“I went through a few roller coasters,” says Taylor Swift, reflecting on her relationships over the past two years. She channeled the turmoil into her fourth studio LP, Red, out October 22nd. “Trying to chronicle each step of the way was challenging, because you go to some really dark places with the lyrics. Then in the next track, you’re talking about how amazing it is to meet somebody new.”
After writing 2010′s smash Speak Now by herself, Swift veered in the opposite direction, co-writing with pop hitmakers such as Max Martin and Adele collaborator Dan Wilson. She wound up with nearly 40 potential songs; in between stops on the yearlong world tour that she wrapped in March, Swift joined her writing partners in L.A. and Nashville.
“I felt like an apprentice,” Swift says. “They taught me so much about melodic sense, and they let me do what I love, which is the lyrics.”
The result is Swift’s most eclectic set ever, ranging from “State of Grace,” a howling, U2-style epic with reverb-drenched guitars, to a sweet acoustic duet with U.K. singer Ed Sheeran. Another key track even features a dubstep-inspired bass breakdown. So far, the new direction isn’t hurting Swift’s career: Lead single “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” a bitter breakup anthem with a hip-hop-flavored Max Martin beat, has shattered chart records, selling a stunning 623,000 digital singles in its first week. To Swift, the musical excursions aren’t surprising, given how much hip-hop and R&B she listens to. “I have so many playlists full of Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, Chris Brown,” she says. “I love Wiz Khalifa.”
Lyrically, the album is full of Swift’s usual themes of romance and heartbreak. “I know general things about love,” she says. “How to treat people well, what you deserve and when to walk away. Other than that, love is a complete mystery – and that’s why I like to write about it.”
Swift has spent much of the summer with her new boyfriend, Conor Kennedy (the son of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.), in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. She’s even looked into buying a house near the Kennedy compound. “That would be so amazing,” she says.
But Swift won’t be resting for long: She’s already thinking about how to top her last tour, which featured aerialists, costume changes and a mock wedding onstage every night. “I really want to go out on the road in the spring,” she says. “After I write a song, I always end up laying awake at night thinking, ‘What are the lighting cues going to be on this? How big is the pit going to be?’ I have been thinking of some big moments that are going to happen.”
Swifty listens to Wiz Khalifa? Lil Wayne? Lil Swifty is down, yo. And NO to listening to Chris Brown. Just NO. But I guess she can’t name Kanye West, can she? Not after what he did to her at the VMAs. *sniffle*
As for her verb tense on the “That WOULD be so amazing” to the Hyannis Port question – maybe this interview was conducted before she signed the mortgage papers? Whatever, dude, I’m not going to analyze it that hard.
Here’s a sneak peak of Swifty’s music video for “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”. It’s predictably juvenile.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Written by Kaiser
Posted in Taylor Swift
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Thanks for reminding me of the melancholy walk alone wearing black in London. *smirk*
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Also, it is not helping that as she grows older, she is starting to look like a stately, sophisticated ice queen. Her icy, calculating appearance is in stark contrast with the wide-eyed sweetheart girl next door thing she’s been selling for years. Every time I see her now, I am reminded of a young Nicole Kidman- and you would NEVER see Nicole Kidman strumming her banjo and singing about how a mini man in her past did her wrong.
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she just warbles things that a 15 year old would write on her trapper-keeper. i really cant stand her and her immature vindictiveness. why did her stylist insist on that ashy ashy 1983 hair color.
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Right? She doesn’t know anything about growing up, why not write about that.
I have no real clue about what it means to be an adult. I think that should have been her real quote.
Also, if you don’t know about love, you go look for it with a high school junior?
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Love your comment & Had to laugh… Hmmm yes, 1986-1988 I lightened my dark brunette to that shade of Ash Bonde (very pretty gray then) as it was the in & Clairol thing to do. Is she trying to be a more demure Kelly Osborn thing? I guess her stylist forgot to inform her it doesn’t work if your mousy…. You have to have more than a faux virginal every man does me wrong schtick…
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Shes going to feel really stupid about all the times she “fell in love” when she actually does find love. Shes very naïve.
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I’ve said it again and I’ll say it again; I should not obsess over this but it BUGS ME TO DEATH that she always wears the same color lipstick. Maybe she got permanent lipstick; remember when that was in? Permanent eyeliner? She reminds me of a Stepford Wife.
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That’s her natural color.
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Yeah, right, she wears her natural color on the red carpet , too, then.
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Uggggh. She just smacks of insincerity to me. That Lonely-London photo with the umbrella and the swan always cracks me up!
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I know, that photo is priceless.
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She’s as mysterious as wonder bread.
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Brin, don’t pick on Wonder Bread! Wonder bread IS a mystery. How it can be bread and a sponge at the same time is beyond me.
Taylor… well, I’ve seen molds that were more interesting…
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That song is terrible..
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It seriously sucks.
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Ugh. She’s tarnishing Ed Sheeran’s good name by ‘singing’ with him.
It really says something about the quality of a song when even my little cousin hates it.
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Ode to Connor
Oh Connor, let me tell you, about a boy called Jonas
Oh Connor, let me tell you, I only held his hand for a contract bonus
Oh Connor, let me tell you, about a cute boy called Jake G
Oh Connor, let me tell you, we secured our love over starbucks coffee and ice-tea
Oh Connor, let me tell you,about a little fling called Mayer
Oh Connor, let me tell you,that boy didn’t know he was messing with fire,
He thought he could hit it and quit it some day, but John forgot why they call me cray-cray
Oh Connor, why you running, boy I’m not done with your loving
Oh Connor, why you crying, calling your daddy to come get you
Oh Connor, don’t worried, I made two pots of bunny stew
Oh Connor, who are these people trying to get between me and you,
They put me in a white coat that fastens at the back, now I live in a house that padded front to back
When they split it will be epic!
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You seriously need a Grammy or a job on SNL
Conpletely made my lunch break!
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LOL!!
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Awesomely ouststanding lyrics I daresay you’ve out swiftied swifty
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You’ve made my day! That’s better than anything Taylor has ever written
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How old is she? 22? 23? Isn’t she a little old to be penning lyrics like this?
Also I love how all the recent T. Swift posts have been ending with her staring at swans in Hyde Park. Is that from when she was supposed to be in Les Mis and then for some reason got booted from the movie?
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This. When I was 22, I was working at a nonprofit and had moved in with my now husband. Life had transitioned into true adulthood. If I had shown interest in an 18 year old I think my friends would have called me a child predator.
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Her hair looks grey!
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Vintage Clairol 1986-1988 “ash blonde” gray at that…
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Say what you want, but the girl has made millions doing her thing……. And no I am not a fan, would be lucky to name three of her song titles…..
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“Epic” and “Taylor Swift Song” should never be written in the same sentence
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I’ll say something nice: i like her jacket.
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You know what that video confirms to me? Taylors bolt ons.
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I love her.
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Me too
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Me three.
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I like her music style, even if it’s more likely for teenagers, I hope she doesn’t change to electro-dance-pop which seem to obsess everyone.
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The rate Swifty has gone thru Men & well now on to a teenager… I think she pretends to know LESS of “love” & experiences @ 23, than I pretend to KNOW MORE of at 47!! The I’m so virginal thing is a joke. She’s been w/ more guys in her 22 yrs than I have been my 47. After the first guy Swifty it’s pretty lame to try to carry on the ethereal virginal thing…. It’s not even close to cute.
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Huh, she has never claimed to be a virgin? Her very first single, “Tim McGraw”, was about messing around with a boy in a car “on back roads at night”. There are also clear sexual references in “Sparks Fly” and “Mine”.
She has dated four guys (Jonas, Lautner, Gyllenhaal and now Kennedy). Plus that fling with Mayer. That’s not many in six years. And even if she had fucked half of Hollywood, get it girl.
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She’s dated a lot more guys in six years than those. Some you don’t even know about.
There’s Lucas Till, Martin Johnson, the guy who Mine is about…for starters.
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I don’t get her. I don’t get her music. She is going to be the next Mariah Carey. Tons of money, living in la-la land until she finds her boytoy of significant years younger who knocks her up and marries her (or other way) but if Mariah has the butterfly effect what does Taylor have I wonder? Teddy bears? :L
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I don’t care about Swifty but I want that jacket. I want it to be Fall already!
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I am a few weeks older than Taylor Swift and I really dislike how she gives women in my age range a bad name. She is really immature and boy crazy. Since she is one of the most famous people in my age range people think that all 22 year olds are like her.
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Amen! We should hang out together! I’m about 6 months older than her and I HATE that she “represents” our age group. I’ve posted a lot about it on here. Too much probably, but still. I also hate that people justify what she does because she’s “so young” and ‘just a kid”. No no no no. She should know better by now. A lot of us do because we want to be adults! It’s a learning process, yes, but at least we try.
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Before this summer, she was single for 18 months.
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Leave Swift alone you guys! She was diagnosed with Peter Pan Syndrome, which in summary, is the inability to grow up. It’s serious in Hollywood..you can become emotionally stunted for your whole life!
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Now that “Never ever..” is out can we expect a whole album of songs about puffy pony stickers soon?
Come on haters, she’s writing songs that kids can listen to when there done watching “Blue’s Clues”
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Yes, Swifty, love is mysterious. And as long as you have the emotional maturity of a fruit fly, you have no hope of even a faint understanding of it.
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There are a lot of things I like about her, namely that she’s got manners, that she seems very sweet and not at all sleezy, but well put together; however, I’m not sure why she keeps singing songs to ex-boyfriends, about relationships that have gone bad? This seems a little strange, really. One song, okay, but let’s mix it up a little and sing about something else? Otherwise, it seems like she’s just hurt and then has to get back at the guy by making her song about him/them.
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I agree, I love her style (its so refreshing to see a young starlet not out in a belly baring top or her boobs hanging out. BUT I don’t have the patience for her music. It’s all the same crap. But I do like that she has manners and is grateful for all she has.
I LOVE what she’s wearing here but the way she’s just walking around Hyde Park with the umbrella looking all contemplative is so hilarious to me! lol
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