- 2 days ago
Taylor Swifts talks with Bru to talk about her new album, 'The Life of a Showgirl,' her feelings on release weekend, the making of the album and more.
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00:00What's up? It's Brew and today a very special Odyssey check-in with one of the biggest pop stars in the world
00:05Fresh off of wrapping up her era's tour and back with a new album
00:09The Life of a Showgirl and freshly engaged to Taylor Swift. Hi Taylor. How you doing?
00:14How are you? So good. How are you doing? I'm fantastic. It's great to talk to you
00:19It is so nice to meet you. Thank you so much for the time and congratulations on everything
00:23There's so many things to congrats you on but I mean the big one Life of a Showgirl is officially out
00:28How are you feeling? It's been a few days. I'm feeling so good. Oh my god. It's been so exciting
00:34I was over in London just doing like some promo and talking about the record and it's just like
00:40I'm so excited that it's finally out because it's been something that i've been
00:45So excited about but it's kind of like
00:47I don't know. It just kind of feels like a secret
00:50You know when you like are really stoked about the christmas present that you've gotten your family member
00:54But it's not christmas yet and you're just like so excited for them to get it
00:58Um, and yeah now i'm just i've never felt so much like an album matched up with the way my life actually feels
01:05It feels so right
01:07Um, and yeah, yeah, so that's how i'm feeling. I love that and I love that feeling too
01:12I have a closet full of those things right now. I'm like I can't wait
01:14Yeah, you've already started. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That says a lot about you. That's amazing
01:20I'm trying to make up for last year. It was too last minute
01:22But um, when it comes to putting that out like do you have any pre
01:27Album release rituals like what do you do when you're about to put that out because I feel like even posting instagram
01:32I'll be so nervous and i'm like, oh my god, here we go
01:34So I can't imagine putting out a big project like this. I I do it differently every single time like honestly
01:40based on how
01:42An album feels you know how like i'll make i'll make it, uh, you know
01:47A year ahead of time or something right and then you you want to
01:51I always really try to put a lot of effort and intention into like
01:55The planning of how to release it and trying to make it as fun for my fans as possible
02:00So I want to like make vinyl for them. I want to make a music video
02:03I want to create like a situation like with this one
02:05Where we have um, these release parties in the movie theater so they can go
02:10And they can get a kind of a peek behind the curtain of how
02:13I made the music video get to see the music video on a big screen. So that stuff takes time
02:18So when you make the album ahead of time
02:20It it can oftentimes be like a year before you put the album out this time everything feels like
02:26It completely lines up with how my life feels but with an album like
02:31with torture post department like my ritual was like I went away on vacation
02:37Like with my boyfriend and my friends
02:39Boyfriend then fiance now and friends and like put my phone in a drawer and was just like
02:44I'm putting this album out into the world, but it doesn't match with how my life feels now. So
02:50That felt right at this time with this one. I'm just like
02:53So happy that it's out so proud so excited to hear people's favorite songs like
02:58It just feels very different. It feels like a really joyful
03:02fun
03:03Hilarious
03:05Experience that's amazing and it's so fun within the first few days where everyone is like breaking lyrics down
03:11They try to figure out what every single thing is that you mean
03:13Is there any inspiration for a song?
03:16Um or a lyric that isn't like super obvious or we wouldn't have guessed was about on the album?
03:21Well, I will you know one thing that I will say is like
03:24I think that every the song father figure is a story about like um
03:30A mentor and their protege
03:33and and I think people
03:35When they listen to that song they they see different storylines depending on their experience or depending on
03:42Movies they've seen or stories they've seen about power and it was really really fun to write a song about power and about
03:48You know kind of the idea of a protege biting the hand that feeds them and which character people relate to more because I relate
03:57To both of them at different times
03:58When I listen to it
04:00Wow
04:01Interesting and there's I mean there's so many good lyrics just like looking down list of these
04:04What's a lyric that you're like particularly proud of on this album?
04:08Oh my god. Oh my god. There's so many
04:10Um, okay
04:12So i'd say wish list was a song that was really really fun to write just in terms of
04:18um
04:19It's a song that kind of chronicles all these different wishes that different people have for like what they want in their life
04:24Their aspirations what they want to buy where they want to go how they want their life to look and
04:30Um, so I kind of was able to write all these descriptions of different lives that people want and that was
04:36Really fun to do. Um, and then culminating in the chorus where in the course I talk about what I want
04:42um, and I I think that
04:44Right now that's kind of one that i'm like. Oh, i'm pretty proud of that one. You killed that one. I love that
04:50You
04:50You've talked about the rolodex of like words you have is it in your notes app or whatever that you keep that you want to use and songs
04:57If you can like sprinkle those in
04:59Um, did any of those make this album that you're all so proud of?
05:02Oh, I mean like all of all of them. I mean like all of the ones
05:05I'll pretty much
05:06When we're working on an idea and like, you know shellback will be playing guitar and i'll be sitting at piano or or
05:14We'll just be kind of riffing off of an idea melodically
05:17I'll just be i'll go i'll go scrolling through
05:20These 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
05:26um
05:27And that's what's so fun because you know
05:30In the middle of the night you could wake up and have an idea that
05:34You swear you will remember it in the morning. You absolutely will not if you if you do not write it down
05:41It's just gone
05:42um, so i've learned over the years that if I have any kind of semblance of a thought that I think might be like clever
05:48interesting funny
05:49Whatever i'll just I have to write it down got to track it at this point though. Have you ever thought about if you?
05:55make music for yourself or for others, you know, it is my passion in life and my job to entertain people
06:02That's like you can't ever lose track of that right like um, and I think that with this album
06:09one of the things that I wanted to do was like toe that line between
06:13Painting a really clear picture of of how my life felt
06:17um, but also like
06:19knowing the kind of things that my fans love in terms of from a lyrical perspective from a story perspective like there is a lot of like
06:28you know kind of character cosplay
06:31Woven throughout these personal songs and that was something I've just as I go on
06:37I kind of pick up things that I think they seem to like along the way
06:41um
06:42But i'm just so grateful for the way that they've like received this record and the way they've gone out to the movie theaters to see the
06:48the music video and gone to target like
06:52It's so much work
06:54And fun work but to try to surprise and delight them and then when they
06:58Show that that they liked what I did it it is really
07:02Really exciting and like gratifying. So yeah, yeah, beautiful thing
07:06Um and working on this album during the heiress tour you're flying back and forth from sweden
07:11I was just curious. How do you maintain like a type of continuity or the vision that you have?
07:16Um for an era and an album because I feel like just like location energy levels. It changes everything I do
07:22Yeah, I mean this one was really uh
07:25I felt really sort of woven together like the
07:28the concept of the life of a showgirl is like
07:31really kind of
07:33Runs as a parallel line with my experience being on the heiress tour where
07:37I learned lessons on this tour that
07:40I
07:40Have never learned before and i've been touring since I was 16
07:45um, and so experiencing a very like
07:48A very exciting wild
07:51Crazy life and having a lot going on like in my personal life that was
07:57Exciting and wonderful and and new
07:59um
08:01It felt kind of fun like doing it under the motif of this showgirl idea because it
08:06It all really went hand in hand like this theme has felt really really congruent
08:11With um
08:12With having just finished the biggest tour of my entire life. Yeah, if that makes sense. Absolutely and congrats on all the success of that
08:18Obviously, it's just like mind-blowing when you look at how that all came together and everything you did
08:24Um, and the tracklist easter egg was fantastic. You have to give an ode to one of the biggest moments of your life
08:29How much work did it take to make that happen?
08:31Did you like retitle songs at all have to move them around in order or like how did they come together?
08:36No, I mean it kind of made sense the track
08:39I love the tracklist because I think that it it runs really well and really fluidly like to me
08:44The tracklist is sort of perfect the way it is
08:47um, and it just so happened that
08:50It lined up that way and I was thinking about changing one of the orders and then I realized oh, this looks like the stage
08:56I'm not that's insane that how crazy like that's how you know, it's
09:00Unreal. Yeah, a lot of those easter eggs are like like
09:04Like they're like part accident part on purpose
09:08Yeah, all
09:09Magic you love the ones that are like talks to you like, you know, just happen on its its own
09:13um
09:15Speaking of the heiress tour was there any memorable
09:17Bracelet that comes to mind maybe the most unhinged that you saw during tour you had to see
09:22Possibly millions there were like a lot of like my fans. They have so many
09:27um
09:28Inside jokes amongst them that that I also feel like i'm in on like
09:33They'll like they'll give me a bracelet that says five holes in the fence, which
09:37If you know, you know like that was one of the craziest
09:41Most unhinged moments we've ever had in terms of like easter eggdom
09:45Um, so that always makes me laugh. I'll get like a bracelet that says like yes whale
09:49Which will be like a video?
09:51I posted in 2014 when I was on vacation with my friends and we saw a whale come out of the ocean
09:57And I was just like screaming like yes whale like I'll be like you guys are hilarious
10:03My fans I think are some of the funniest people i've ever seen in my life and they're
10:08Like their responses to songs
10:11Are my favorite honestly?
10:13Maybe I just like put out albums so that I can see them respond to them because they're just so animated
10:20They're so funny. They're so witty. They're so smart
10:23Um, and it's just been such a fun week full of that, you know, that's the best
10:28I love that well
10:29Touring's not on the mind right now obviously a well-deserved break
10:32But I feel like the wheels are always going to be turning for you on different ideas
10:35Um, does anything
10:37Pique your interest in terms of like something like a lover fest or anything that would have you excited to see in the future that you might want to do?
10:43uh, right now i'm focused on this album and trying to
10:48like
10:49Just trying to soak in this moment. I feel of like sort of pride and joy for what I made
10:55um
10:56because
10:57I don't necessarily know if i've ever been so happy about a record before like
11:01There's just it's it's kind of a foreign feeling for me to feel so
11:07Joyful because usually there's just like a lot of stress in an album release week
11:12And this week i'm just like I feel very uncomplicated feelings about this record
11:16That's new so i'm like let's just ride out this feeling for a second
11:21um
11:22But yeah, oh lover fest not happening was a very
11:26Oh, that was a sad one to let go of but I tried really hard to like
11:30Like like pay like to honor lover fest by making it the first era of the heiress tour show
11:37Like I knew that the fans really liked cruel summer and so I was like I want to start this show
11:43With cruel summer being the first full song that we play and and so
11:46Everything that even things that kind of like fall apart
11:49You try to figure out a way to like put the pieces back into a place that that kind of makes
11:56Makes it better like I I really feel like you can't expect in life that everything's always going to go your way
12:02But it's the way you react to it that matters the most so that's
12:05I'm, so happy lover was the first era that we played on that tour and it wouldn't have been
12:09I don't think it would have been the first thing that we came out and played
12:12In that show if if lover fest had gotten to happen the way that it was going to so that's my one shred of little like
12:18Of like, maybe there's a silver lining that we never got to do that, you know, yeah
12:22I love that. Well, thanks for sharing this and enjoy like you said
12:25You deserve it to just soak it up. Enjoy all the the good things around the life of a showgirl
12:29Um, and enjoy a little bit of downtime like for the first time in in years
12:33Obviously, we're watching all the sourdough
12:35Videos send me the recipe by the way
12:38Um, what are some other hobbies you're so excited to get back
12:40Literally starter flower starter flower water and salt go crazy yours looks so good
12:46I don't know how you do it. Thank you so much. Thank you for acknowledging my my baking obsession
12:51I really appreciate it. I feel very seen right now. Of course. Absolutely. Thank you so much for the time to give us some
12:55More insight on the album. Um, congrats on all the fun great great questions
12:59By the way, you really came at me with some great questions. You're the best. I mean you have to you crushed it
13:05It's taylor swift. We have to do it
13:07Thank you so much for the time and uh, it's so nice to talk to you. Awesome. See you later
13:12You
13:22You
13:32You
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