Even on her 12th time around, every release remains different for Taylor Swift. The GRAMMY-winning, actively iconic artist took time out of The Life of a Showgirl premiere weekend to talk with Bru about release rituals, the making of the album, and more during a very special Audacy Check In.
LISTEN NOW: Audacy Check In with Taylor Swift
"I do it differently every single time. Honestly, based on how an album feels," reveals Taylor about her album release rituals. "I'll make it, you know, a year ahead of time or something, right? I always really try to put a lot of effort and intention into the planning of how to release it and trying to make it as fun for my fans as possible. So I want to like make vinyl for them, I want to make a music video, I want to create a situation like with this one where we have these release parties in the movie theater, so they can go and they can get kind of a peek behind the curtain of how I made the music video, get to see the music video on a big screen, so that stuff takes time."
"When you make the album ahead of time, it can oftentimes be like a year before you put the album out. This time everything feels like it completely lines up with how my life feels."
"But with an album, like with 'Torture Poets Department,' my ritual was like I went away on vacation with my boyfriend and my friends, boyfriend then fiancé now, and friends," she clarifies, "and put my phone in a drawer and was just like, 'I'm putting this album out into the world, but it doesn't match with how my life feels now.' So that felt right at this time. With this one I'm just like so happy that it's out, so proud, so excited to hear people's favorite songs, it just feels very different. It feels like a really joyful, fun, hilarious experience."
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After just a few days, fans are already picking favorites and investigating themes and storylines from within the words of The Life of a Showgirl. When asked, Taylor currently is interested in the takes on "Father Figure," as listeners relate differently depending on their standpoint. She also says she's currently most proud of her lyrics on "Wi$h Li$t."
"Oh my God, oh my God, there's so many," Swift shares when first asked. "I'd say 'Wi$h Li$t' was a song that was really, really fun to write just in terms of, it's a song that kind of chronicles all these different wishes that different people have for what they want in their life, their aspirations, what they want to buy, where they want to go, how they want their life to look. So I kind of was able to write all these descriptions of different lives that people want, and that was really fun to do, and then culminating in the chorus where in the course I talk about what I want, and I think that, right now, that's kind of one that I'm like, 'I'm pretty proud of that one.'"
Offering a glimpse into the making of The Life of a Showgirl, Taylor says that she would often scroll through her notes app for inspiration. "When we're working on an idea and, you know, Shellback will be playing guitar and I'll be sitting at piano, or we'll just be kind of riffing off of an idea melodically, I'll go scrolling through these ideas that I have and it'll be like a theme that I like, or a word that I've always thought sounded really exquisite, and that's what's so fun. Cause, you know, in the middle of the night, you could wake up and have an idea that you swear you will remember it in the morning. You absolutely will not. If you do not write it down, it's just gone."
"I've learned over the years that if I have any kind of semblance of a thought that I think might be like clever, interesting, funny, whatever, I have to write it down."
Having won the GRAMMY for Album of the Year 4 times, coming off one of the most successful tour in history, and being one of the world's top-selling artists, Taylor can pretty much do what she wants when it comes to making music these days. However, the singer tells Bru that she always keeps the listener in mind, creating for both herself and her fans. "It is my passion in life and my job to entertain people. You can't ever lose track of that, right?"
"I think that with this album, one of the things that I wanted to do was toe that line between painting a really clear picture of how my life felt, but also knowing the kind of things that my fans love in terms of, from a lyrical perspective, from a story perspective. There is a lot of, kind of character cosplay woven throughout these personal songs, and that was something I, just as I go on, I kind of pick up things that I think they seem to like along the way. But I'm just so grateful for the way that they've received this record and the way they've gone out to the movie theaters to see the music video, and gone to Target. It's so much work, and fun work, to try to surprise and delight them, and then when they show that that they liked what I did, it is really, really exciting and gratifying."
To hear more from Taylor Swift about her favorite Swiftie inside jokes, how she kept the continuity of The Life of a Showgirl while on The Eras Tour, and so much more, listen to the full Audacy Check In with Bru above.