Taylor Swift has a very Taylor Swifty new interview with Rolling Stone. She did the interview on the road during her Red tour, which is grossing crazy money at this point. You can read the full RS piece here – there are some interesting details about random stuff, like Taylor knows a lot about hydraulic stage-lift systems and she’s pretty much touring only on weekends (which I didn’t know). I found Taylor’s pop culture references more interesting, which I’ll get to at the end. I’ll just say that I think Tay-Tay has finally been reading some Kerouac.

RS: Onstage, you discussed writing a lot of songs in your bedroom at 2 a.m. What’s it like to go from that to playing it for a huge stadium?
TS: I think the most miraculous process is watching a song go from a tiny idea that you have in the middle of the night to a song that a group of 55,000 people is singing back to you so loudly that you can hear it louder than your own voice coming out of the speakers, in a concert in a stadium. And I think that for me, that’s the final part of the process. You know, I’m still so in love with songwriting because it’s never the same. You never get the same fragment of information as an idea. It’s never just a chorus or a first line – it’s always something different. And to piece it together in the crossword puzzle that ends up being your song and have it end up here is so rewarding, you know.

You also talked about the “fiery, difficult, complicated emotions” that drive those songs. You seem very comfortable talking about those emotions at length onstage.
I am getting to a point where the only love worth being in is the love worth singing about. And kind of mad love. I think that for me, when you experience something that’s worth writing a song about, chances are it’s the same kind of intense feeling that someone else has felt, and it has led them to be sitting on a bedroom floor crying, or walking through a crowded room feeling alone or feeling misunderstood by the person who’s supposed to know them better than anybody else. Those are things that make you feel really alone, and if someone’s singing a song about that feeling, then you feel bonded to that person, and I guess that’s the only way I can find an explanation why 55,000 people would want to come see me sing.

The show gets pretty dark. During “Red,” there’s a moment where what looks like blood is spilling across the video screens. Is that somebody’s blood?
Actually, no. I’ve never been into shock value and gory and scaring people. It’s actually paint, so it’s actually just supposed to be the general concept of something red and something flowing – just red things. Like, there’s red fabric, red paint being thrown against a wall. It’s not blood. “God, we went to Taylor’s show – it was really violent!”

How do you feel you have grown as a performer, especially in stadiums?
I feel like you have to push yourself in order to become a better performer, and I never want a fan to leave the show saying, “That was just like the last tour.” I like touring extensively because I think the more hours you spend onstage, the more you know who you are onstage. The more you throw yourself out of your comfort zone in the studio, the more colors you have to paint with when you go into the design stages of your tour. At the end of the day, the sound of a screaming crowd is my favorite sound, and the sight of a sold-out stadium is my favorite view. Everything derives from that and revolves around making those people dance, sing along, feel like they aren’t alone, and ultimately want to come back and see me next time.

You posted some images from your Fourth of July party you had this summer. What are your other favorite offstage moments of the summer so far?
I think the Fourth of July was way up there, just because anytime there’s face-painting and frolicking involved, I’m really excited about all of those things. I’ve loved really being with my girlfriends a lot. Like, there have been a lot of kitchen dance parties with my girlfriends. The wonderful thing about playing a lot of stadiums is it’s the equivalent to playing three or four arenas, so you have a few more days off. So I’ve really enjoyed getting to have a summer and also have a really high-intensity job waiting for me.

So you’ve been hanging out in Rhode Island a lot?
I’ve been in Rhode Island a lot. I’ve been in L.A. a little bit. Man, Rhode Island’s a good place. It’s a really good place.

Are you reading or listening to anything at the moment that you’re excited about?
I’m going back and revisiting Carly Simon a lot. I’m listening to a lot of Carly Simon. And I have a copy of [F. Scott Fitzgerald’s] Tender Is the Night that I’m about to start reading, because I read it a long time ago and I want to reread it. I’ve been reading a lot of different things, but I really like [Gillian Flynn’s] Gone Girl and [Jess Walters’] Beautiful Ruins. They’re great stories. They kind of take you away.

[From Rolling Stone]

I have Beautiful Ruins sitting beside my bed, but I haven’t started it yet. But anyone who describes Gone Girl as a “great story” which “takes you away” might not have really read it. Gone Girl is a good book, for sure, but it messes with your mind. Unless Taylor is acknowledging that she might be cut from the same cloth as Amazing Amy? That’s not such a stretch. And of course she’s reading F. Scott Fitzgerald – that reference is so obvious! But her talk about “mad love” seems like a reference to some Beat Generation literature.

“I am getting to a point where the only love worth being in is the love worth singing about” = she’s going to keep on singing songs about all of her boyfriends. Forever and ever. That’s her shtick and she’s shticking to it.

Photos courtesy of WENN.