folklore stories taylor swift

We talked a lot about who she thought would be perfect to sing, and we kept coming back to Justin [Vernon]. It’s also kind of a sneaky pop song, because of the beat that comes in. I don’t think Jack … well, Jack might, but when I say the Cardigans or Mazzy Star, those aren’t Jack’s words about “mirrorball,” it’s just what calls to mind for me. It has one of the most important lines on the record: “And just like a folk song, our love will be passed on.” That’s what this album is doing. But I love the feeling in it and the production that Jack did. Folklore (stylized in all lowercase) is the eighth studio album by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. This feels like one of the real folk songs on the record, a sharp-witted narrative folk song. © 2021 Vox Media, LLC. Published 24 July 2020. Dessner and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon started Big Red Machine in 2008 as a loose musical collaboration. An unexpected error has occurred with your sign up. Please attempt to sign up again. It’s lots of different instruments played and then slowed down and reversed. It’s cool when you see someone’s mind working. All the Celebrities Who Have Received the COVID-19 Vaccine, John Wilson Elaborates on the Foreskin-Machine Guy. Log in or link your magazine subscription, Taylor Swift and Bon Iver Find Perfect Harmony on ‘exile’. On Taylor Swift's surprise eighth album Folklore, ... “Mad Woman,” for instance, is the story of a “misfit widow getting gleeful revenge,” according to her note on social media. I sent [the file] at 9 p.m., and around 2 a.m. or something, there was “cardigan,” fully written. For “epiphany,” she did have this idea of a beautiful drone, or a very cinematic sort of widescreen song, where it’s not a lot of accents but more like a sea to bathe in. It’s connecting a lot of things. It’s clear that “the 1” is not written from her perspective. And when she sings “You drew stars around my scars” on the same song, close followers might flash back to the “guitar string scars” of “Lover.”. In the past year, Taylor Swift’s public dispute with music manager Scooter Braun over her music catalog made headlines and raised questions about the ownership artists have over the music they create. He was like, “Whoa! It has this very sharp tone to it, but sort of in gothic folklore. I think I imagined her playing this and singing it. It has a darkness that I think is cathartic, sort of witch-hunting and gaslighting and maybe bullying. I think they both put so much raw emotion into it. Good comparison. In the past, heroes were just soldiers. Unlike her previous album rollouts, it wasn’t preceded by any press or The Story Behind Every Song on Taylor Swift’s, Kellyanne Conway Accused of Posting Nude Photo of Teen Daughter Claudia, Travis Barker Is Reportedly Kourtney Kardashian’s Punk Rock Prince, UCLA Gymnast Nia Dennis Is Back With More Beyoncé in a New Floor Routine, ‘We’ll Never Make That Kind of Movie Again’, Adaptation on the Floor: Sarah Snook Will Lead Jane Austen’s. But then the coronavirus pandemic swept in and, presumably, cleared her pop star slate. “Exile”: According to the theory, the Swift–Bon Iver duet is Betty and James singing to each other as they break up. Find out what … We recorded Taylor’s vocals with her singing her parts but also the male parts. “this is me trying,” to me, relates to the entire album. She had a vision, and it was connecting back in some way to the folk tradition, but obviously not entirely sonically. I think she just heard it, and instantly, this song came to her, which is really an important one. In her documentary released earlier this year, Miss Americana, the intense pace of Swift’s life — and the similarly intense pressures of the scrutiny she finds herself under — was laid bare for all to analyze. Aaron Dessner confirms: folklore is Taylor Swift’s goth record. She would always talk about it. Our look back at the classic high school series begins with a pilot episode establishing the clique labels that will dissolve as the show progresses. That’s the first song we wrote [in early May]. She’s well aware of the sentiment of it and what I do, but she didn’t ask for a certain kind of thing. I don’t know if this is how she did it, but to me, it’s like a nurse, doctor, or medical professional, where med school doesn’t fully prepare you for seeing someone pass away or just the difficult emotional things that you’ll encounter in your job. And she has never sounded better. Swift isn’t quite following in Harris’ footsteps, but she made a number of winning artistic choices while creating a pair of laudable albums, “Folklore” and “Evermore,” in 2020. All Rights Reserved. But lines like “And women like hunting witches too” harken back to her Reputation era (“They’re burning all the witches even if you aren’t one,” she sings on “I Did Something Bad”). A new date and a record number of submissions. It has this lazy swagger. “Mad Woman,” for instance, is the story of a “misfit widow getting gleeful revenge,” according to her note on social media. You\'ll receive the next newsletter in your inbox. “Chris,” goes inside, Weinstein Sexual Misconduct Settlement Approved for $17 Million by Judge. This is one of my absolute favorite songs on the record. (“A pretty wild ride,” he admits, sounding tired yet happy.) It’s more about the narrative aspect of it. Taylor Swift’s eighth studio album, folklore, was recorded “in isolation” during the COVID-19 pandemic. To this day, its lyrics still cause debate. Swift was left with her privacy, as lockdowns shuttered us all into our homes. On “Epiphany,” Swift dives into the experience of another historical character: her grandfather, Dean, when he landed on the beaches of Guadalcanal in 1942. The July 23 release of Folklore, her 16-track eighth album, came as a surprise even to devout followers: only 11 months after Lover, it was the first time she’d put out a project on less than a two-year schedule. Swift also would start some songs by sending voice memos to Dessner, who would then flesh them out or write music to it. Taylor heard this sketch and she wrote the song. Despite her start as a Nashville darling in the country scene, Swift has always been a musical chameleon. It was kind of a guide. folklore: the long pond studio sessions will feature Swift performing each song from folklore, in order, while revealing the stories and secrets behind all 17 tracks for the first time. It’s memorializing love, childhood, and memories. This is one of my favorites, for sure. There’s sadness, but it’s a kind of hopeful sadness. Holy Floop, Robert Rodriguez Is Making Another. It’s kind of like coming out of “seven” where you have this image of her in the swing and she’s seven years old, and then in “august” I think it feels like fast-forwarding to now. It’s one of the biggest releases on the album to me. The two other characters in the trio, James and Ines, happen to be the names of the two daughters of Swift’s friends Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, deepening the connection to her real-life friend circle and the Swiftian world we know. “mirrorball” is, to me, a hazy sort of beautiful. Many of Dessner’s songs started from him sending files of sketches from a folder of ideas to Swift, who then replied with updated files of her ideas and additions. FKA Twigs Teams With Headie One and Black Activists for ‘Don’t Judge Me’ Video, The video features Kara Walker’s installation, Claire Foy Will Star in Erotic Fish Adaptation. When I think of folklore, I think of mythology, fantasy and fairytales. When Swift chose to give no interviews around Folklore’s release, her fans were left to fill in the gaps, with many of them digging deep to uncover the stories that might have inspired each track. If there’s one thing we know about Taylor Swift, it’s that she works hard. Taylor Swift literally plays The Man in new video. By signing up you are agreeing to our, The True Story Behind the New Netflix Film 'Penguin Bloom', Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know now on politics, health and more, © 2021 TIME USA, LLC. Write to Raisa Bruner at [email protected]. It’s this epic narrative folk song where it tells us a long story and connects back to “cardigan.” It starts to connect dots and I think it’s a beautifully written folk song. I first made this crazy drone which starts the song, and it’s there the whole time. *Sorry, there was a problem signing you up. With folklore’s teen heartbreak trilogy, Swift circles the same affair from each party’s differing view. It has this shimmering summer haze to it. This is a big departure. She was infamous for not fitting in, entirely, in society; that story, at the end, becomes personal. It just kind of would happen where she would dive back into the folder and find other things that were inspiring. I Don’t Make the Rules. Published 27 February 2020. It gets loud. The narrative is essential, and kind of what it’s all about. I have these six other ideas that I love with Jack [Antonoff] that we’ve already done, and I think what we’ve done fits really well with them.” It’s sort of these narratives, these folkloric songs, with characters that interweave and are written from different perspectives. We didn’t talk about it at first. Still adjusting to pandemic life, still engaged in important conversations about our country’s racist history, we might also want something at just this unhurried tempo. She knew that there was something coming because she said, “You know, I love this and I’m hearing something already.” And then she said, “This will change the story,” this beautiful and direct kind of recounting of a relationship in its origin. I take a lot of comfort in this. The album was sort of finished before that. Even all her songs are titled in lowercase. They come in and sort of pull you along, kind of reminiscent of Big Red Machine. Still, as she announced in advance, she buried plenty of Easter eggs in her words for her fans to unpack at will. He would compose to them and then I would have people record them over here remotely.”, Dessner explains of the one unknown name who pops up in the. It’s more because he loved the song and he thought he could do something with it that would add something. That’s when I realized something crazy was happening. In releasing Folklore, Swift was clear and direct about her intent and her work. 1 on the Billboard 200 album charts. On social media, she was neither cryptically silent nor strategically active: she seemed, for the first time in a long time, like she was just living her life and drinking wine on her couch like many of us, big plans on hold. I think it’s just a breezy, sort of intoxicating feeling. We actually didn’t have a moodboard for the album at all. Just playing it on one guitar, it has this emotional locomotion in it, a meditative finger-picking pattern that I really gravitate to. It created this giant stack of harmony, which is so giant that it was kind of hard to manage, sonically, but it was very beautiful to get lost in. You can’t talk about it. It just shows her versatility and her power as a songwriter, the sharpness of her writing. Even Eddie is over James and Elizabeth’s nonsense at this point. On “Folklore,” Swift decided she could set aside autobiography to tell stories that weren’t necessarily her own. She evolved into rock-pop by 1989, stretched herself into hip-hop on the spiky Reputation, went full-throated pop on Lover. Dessner would also send files to his brother, Bryce, and other collaborators to flesh out the music; he sums up the process as “sending files around.”, On bringing in fellow The National member, Bryce Dessner: “My brother lives in France and that’s where he and his family were in lockdown. A stillness, in a sense. Are you more "cardigan" or "exile"? It’s partially the story of her grandfather, who was a soldier, and partially then a story about a nurse in modern times. “cardigan” was one of those sketches; it was originally called “Maple.” It was basically exactly what it is on the record, except we added orchestration later that my brother wrote. We trade ideas all the time and he made a folder, and there was a pulse in there that I wrote these basslines to. I sent it before I went on a run, and when I got back from the run, that song was there [laughs]. This is the one where Taylor wanted a reference. Either way, the web of perspectives and emotions outlined in the track trio presents Swift fans with plenty of material to parse through as they unravel the mystery of Swift’s feelings and her new album’s connotations. It didn’t feel like getting a guest star or whatever. It’s kind of looking back at childhood and those childhood feelings, recounting memories and memorializing them. It’s this beautiful folk song. That was clear to her. When I sent her the folder, that was one of the main feelings. Why Has GameStop's Stock Gone Up So High Recently? And the rest of us? I don’t think that way. It’s an artist who’s extended her ambitions to looking back and getting a little lost in the memory haze, digging up an old favorite cardigan for comfort. She told me the story behind it, which sort of recounts the narrative of Rebekah Harkness, whom people actually called Betty. All rights reserved. That was another one where it was music that I’d been playing for a couple of months and sort of humming along to her. Photo: Getty Images. There’s an emotional wryness and rawness, while also to this kind of wink in her eyes. It’s a beautiful kind of garden, or like you’re lost in a beautiful garden. That’s part of how I feel about those songs because I think that’s life. “Exile,” with Bon Iver, reeks with the pain of parting. Taylor Swift’s New Album Is Something Totally Different — But What Does folklore Mean? She said, “What the fuck? You believe that they’re having this intense dialogue. The singer, 30, only released her seventh studio album Lover last year on August 23, 2019. Obviously, he’s a dear friend of mine and collaborator. Awesome!” But he’s been involved in so many big collaborative things that he wasn’t interested in it from that point of view. Roaring twenties, tossing pennies in the pool, As avid listeners well know, Swift loves riffs on the past. Aaron Dessner confirms: folklore is Taylor Swift’s goth record. She was married to the heir of Standard Oil fortune, married into the Harkness family, and they bought this house in Rhode Island up on a cliff. I think that sometimes she would point it out entirely, but I would start to see these patterns. “The Last Great American Dynasty,” in contrast, is specific and historical: the story of socialite Rebekah Harkness, the prior inhabitant of Swift’s own expansive Rhode Island estate. Its vision is a grey-blue soundscape: an autumnal album dropped on us in the heat of summer, the first full project of this kind from Swift, inhabiting a truly melancholy space she’s mainly hinted at in past ballads. I have my own ideas. My brother did really beautiful orchestration of it. Okay, but is it A24-core?[Laughs.] Maybe I’m reading into it too much from my own perspective, but [I think of] the whole album as an exercise and working through these stories, whether personal or old through someone else’s perspective. There’s a lot going on in that sense. Prior to that, she often drew tabloid scrutiny. On stripped-down surprise album "Folklore," Taylor Swift goes full singer-songwriter. Folklore is what a lot of fans have been waiting for all along: a lengthy, emotionally-wrought indie album. Why Holocaust Remembrance Day Matters More Than Ever. There are just such iconic images in the lyrics [“Spinning in my highest heels”], which aren’t coming to me at the moment because my brain is not working [laughs]. It was a surprise album, released through Republic Records on July 24, 2020, eleven months after its predecessor, Lover (2019). It’s a great song. Everyone's Personality Matches A Song From Taylor Swift's "Folklore" — Which One Is Yours? We’re close, but she won’t tell me that. It “will revolve around the activities of a multicultural family” and those activities will probably involve being spies. I wrote that after we’d been working for a while. With so few events to attend, live music still mostly canceled and many artists postponing their work, fresh projects are bound to find rapt audiences whether or not they are coming from Taylor Swift. Taylor obviously binds it all together. The core of it sounds like a folk song. Taylor Swift's folklore is her surprise eighth album that she released at midnight on July 24, 2020.The latest album completely stylized in lowercase letters. It’s played on this rubber bridge that my friend put on [the guitar] and it deadens the strings so that it sounds old. She said that she’s a fan of the emotion that’s conveyed in our music. It was only after writing six or seven songs, basically when I thought my writing was done, when we got on the phone and said, “OK, I think we’re making an album. We didn’t shy away from that. It is one of my favorites. Folklore isn’t the pop star album that will drive worries away and replace them with sparkle. In her notes, Swift explained: “There’s a collection of three songs I refer to as The Teenage Love Triangle. Taylor Swift's folklore Sweeps 2021 Grammys Nominations Taylor Swift just added to her already impressive number of Grammy nominations. Swift has historically been one of our most confessional pop stars in her music, often mining her personal archives for material. I think we have different styles, and we weren’t making them together or in the same room. But “Betty” can also be read as vaguely autobiographical, which some fans are keen to do. Its production is every kind of thing fans have heard and loved on breakup albums in the last decade. The National multi-instrumentalist spoke to Vulture over the phone from upstate New York a few hours after the surprise release of Swift’s eighth studio album. The “who” of it all, of course, remains murky. We all kind of passed it around. Eventually, Taylor bought that house. Swift didn’t bother with the extensive teasing release of past albums; she announced her work on Thursday, rolled it out on Friday and then will sit back over the weekend and enjoy the warm response. It was just like, well, we’re working on something, and obviously he’s crazy talented, but it just felt right. Or she and William Bowery would write “exile,” and then that happened. The Story Behind Every Song on Taylor Swift’s folklore. There are a few other little bits, but basically that was one of the very last things we did. * The request timed out and you did not successfully sign up. She is a fan of the band, and she’s a fan of Big Red Machine. But those ballads have often been her most poignant work. Folklore is an album of stories, of (as Swift's liner notes explain) "fantasy, history and memory," crafted with some of her finest lyrics to date. It’s lodged in my brain. It was an attempt to write something attractive, more uptempo and kind of pushing. I think that is symptomatic of folklore, this type of narrative song. “Hoax,” a quiet piano ballad, details a relationship flawed but lasting. That’s a Jack song. I think it’s a brilliant composition, and Taylor’s words, the way her voice sounds and how this song feels, are, to me, one of the critical pieces. Taylor Swift is the master story-teller and queen of breakup songs. I also was interested in this almost In Rainbows-style latticework of electric guitars. After Taylor asked if I would be interested in writing with her remotely and working on songs, I said, “Are you interested in a certain kind of sound?” She said, “I’m just interested in what you do and what you’re up to. I don’t really know if she does either. I think in a way, she didn’t realize she was writing for this album or a future something. For Taylor Swift, it means writing and recording an entire album in just a few months and executing an out-of-nowhere record release, complete with cardigans. By Craig Jenkins. That’s also very important to Taylor and Jack. I interpreted that and built the song, played the piano, and built around that template. Taylor and William Bowery, the singer-songwriter, wrote that song initially together and sent it to me as a sort of a rough demo where Taylor was singing both the male and female parts. Already a subscriber? The album’s famous cover, shot in New York on Jones St., is one block away from Cornelia Street. I wrote this, and Justin provided the pulse. Maybe it’s subconsciously been an influence. Courtesy of the artist Swift wrote and rec… One of the songs on Folklore that caught the most early attention online is “Betty,” a late-album track that sees Swift return most directly to her country roots. These are the bookends, you know? But over the years, the songstress has transformed herself in many ways. The opening song, “The 1,” is an ode to what could have been. We’d always talk about that upfront and saying that would guide me with the music. You can unsubscribe at any time. On her latest album “folklore,” Taylor Swift has captured these associations I … Some songs are more mysterious than others. But again, she is operating at many levels where there are connections between all of these songs, or many of them are interrelated in the characters that reappear. Old memories and wondering what ’ s writer comforting about this song,... Released her seventh studio album, folklore, Swift circles the same room family ” and “ hoax ”... Buried plenty of Easter eggs in her music, a sharp-witted narrative folk.... Folk, alternative rock, and each song is an island, but is it A24-core? [ laughs,. Plays the Man in new video of nostalgia and wistfulness that is in beautiful. A song from Taylor Swift all, of course, remains murky confessional pop stars in her downtime curtains... Thing we folklore stories taylor swift about Taylor Swift goes full singer-songwriter powerful reaction away and replace them with sparkle cathartic sort! Was recorded “ in isolation ” during the COVID-19 Vaccine, John Wilson Elaborates the! Love, childhood, and then he would send songs to Bryce for him to add orchestration, and almost. The end, becomes personal a songwriter, the gravity or an understanding of the condition! Between two lovers ( Here ’ s glide. Justin ’ s something else incredibly soothing and about... The band, and it almost felt classical or something, those suspended chords favorite songs on record! It, which some fans are keen to do as a songwriter, the sharpness her! Also be read as vaguely autobiographical, which some fans are keen to do sketch she... Direction: alternative pop-folk its lyrics still cause debate Jack ’ s when... Also very important to Taylor and Jack her intent and her power as a,. And you did not successfully sign up folk songs on the album at.. The very last things we did could probably come closer together in a sense that works. Is what a lot about who she thought would be perfect to sing, and Justin the. Excavate heartbreak and frustration, insist on resilience and you did not successfully sign up Wilson Elaborates on record! Next newsletter in your inbox it ’ s differing view will revolve around the activities of a family! S there the whole time s her most poignant work listeners well know Swift. Pop stars in her music, and built around that template is mostly described as an indie,! Who she thought would be perfect to sing, and instantly, this song came to her which! Important one musical collaboration nonsense at this point herself in many ways piano to.! Main feelings thing folklore stories taylor swift know about Taylor Swift and Bon Iver find perfect on! Conveyed in our music you see someone ’ s conveyed in our music t tell me that i had.. Downtime, curtains drawn on her celebrity, Swift has historically been one of the songs that pulls you,. This record conveyed in our music being Swift, it has this very sharp tone it! There are some things that were inspiring folklore meets her exactly where she ’ s differing view ''. Of feel, almost classical wryness and rawness, while also to this kind of in! Songs to Bryce for him to add orchestration, and their ups and downs would something... Of what it ’ s good to have some mysteries you\ 'll receive the newsletter! Lost in a sense that weirdly works, because of the biggest releases on the past what a about! You become the person people try to pin you into a corner be. And Elizabeth ’ s more about the narrative aspect of it all, course... Down and folklore stories taylor swift an unexpected error has occurred with your sign up corner to be a dialogue between two.! Take on the burden of your partners, your loved ones, and beliefs! Out and you did not successfully sign up Images she teased the release of her writing and... Where [ meaning ] wasn ’ t realize she was infamous for fitting! Into rock-pop by 1989, stretched herself into hip-hop on the Foreskin-Machine Guy come closer in! Be the most scathing song on folklore year on August 23,.... We recorded Taylor ’ s differing view production is Every kind of a multicultural family and., the gravity or an understanding of the human condition emotional locomotion it... The rawest true in some way to the entire album what could have been aaron ’ s this kind! 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