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Speaker 1: Live from the Mercedes Benz Interview Lounge.

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Speaker 2: So unless you're living in a cave, and caves are

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Speaker 2: great living by the way, the Life of a Showgirl,

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Speaker 2: Taylor Swift's album is back.

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Speaker 3: We caught up with her on the road. She's on

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Speaker 3: the phone, Taylor. Oh hi, oh hello.

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Speaker 2: Look who had time in the busiest day of the

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Speaker 2: year to give us a phone Callay?

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Speaker 3: How are you?

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Speaker 1: I'm so good. I'm so excited for this record. I'm

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Speaker 1: still very like uncomplicated joy about it.

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Speaker 2: You know, well, I have to tell you I sat

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Speaker 2: in a room full of adults and watch them cry

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Speaker 2: while listening to some of these tracks.

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Speaker 3: I want to go over these with you because I

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Speaker 3: loved it too.

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Speaker 2: Oh really, this is going to be something special when

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Speaker 2: everyone gets a hold of it. And it looks like

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Speaker 2: everyone is going to get a hold of it.

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Speaker 1: I'm so happy. I'm really happy to hear that. It's

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Speaker 1: so nice to have feedback from this. It's like it's

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Speaker 1: been such a secret for such a long time.

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Speaker 2: We let's talk about that. Tell me the story now.

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Speaker 2: On the most crazy two year tour and you're going

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Speaker 2: to football games and you're baking sourdough bread and you

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Speaker 2: were writing, producing, and recording an album at the same time.

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Speaker 2: Tell me the story of how that happened. It didn't

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Speaker 2: drive you a little nuts, Well, it was actually kind.

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Speaker 1: Of the opposite of going nuts, because I think if

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Speaker 1: I hadn't started to create a process of making this

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Speaker 1: album while I was on tour, I think I was

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Speaker 1: way more exhausted than I was, because like this album.

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Speaker 4: Started to happen in the European.

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Speaker 1: Like of the Eras tour, like last summer, and it

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Speaker 1: was during a time in the tour I.

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Speaker 4: Was so physically exhausted that like my feet were sore,

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Speaker 4: my legs were sore.

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Speaker 1: My hits, my net right back, everything was like in

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Speaker 1: pain all the time.

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Speaker 4: And it was also like almost two.

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Speaker 1: Years into the tour, so I was starting to get

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Speaker 1: muscle memory. I was starting to be able to do

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Speaker 1: the show without thinking about it. So I knew I

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Speaker 1: needed to like stimulate my brain and my creativity and

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Speaker 1: like figure out a way to like be excited every day.

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Speaker 1: And so I would do three shows, I'd fly to

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Speaker 1: Sweden and record, do three more shows, fly back to Sweden.

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Speaker 1: And it was actually that stimulation of the creative process

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Speaker 1: of making this record that made me finish out that

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Speaker 1: tour without like without ever like hitting a wall.

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Speaker 3: You know, look at all those Sweden stamps in that passport.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, absolutely.

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Speaker 2: I don't even know where to start here. I'll start

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Speaker 2: with the crying in the Room and I'm going to

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Speaker 2: play it in a minute. The Fate of Ophelia. Of course,

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Speaker 2: I add to the list of things you were doing.

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Speaker 2: You're restudying Hamlet again, so we'll get into that.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, you know, that story never leaves you.

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Speaker 2: There is something about the way the music sonically hits

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Speaker 2: the words and it really kind of grabs you by

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Speaker 2: the heart.

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Speaker 3: It's beautiful. We're gonna play that in just a second.

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Speaker 1: Oh, I'm so happy you'd like that one. That one

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Speaker 1: just like as soon as we wrote it, I had

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Speaker 1: a feeling it would be the one that we would

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Speaker 1: go with first, and the one I'd get to make

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Speaker 1: a music video for because it's just so visual and

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Speaker 1: also just like so infectious.

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Speaker 3: I love it. And I want to talk about your

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Speaker 3: Easter eggs.

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Speaker 5: Like so many of your fans, you know, hear these

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Speaker 5: Easter eggs or see these Easter eggs.

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Speaker 3: Are they really always there?

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Speaker 5: Or is there times where you go Yeah, that's not

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Speaker 5: really a hint.

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Speaker 3: That's not really an easter egg.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, there are definitely some theories that are based in

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Speaker 1: absolutely nothing close to reality, but you know what, like

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Speaker 1: there are some that are so fun when they figure

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Speaker 1: them out. Like, like just yesterday, somebody figured out that

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Speaker 1: if you line up the titles of all the tracks

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Speaker 1: of this album in order and you line them up

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Speaker 1: in the center of the frame, the shape of the

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Speaker 1: track list makes the same in shape at the Eras

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Speaker 1: tour stage. Wow. So that was a real one. That

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Speaker 1: was one that it took a while for them to

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Speaker 1: discover and then finally they figured it out and it

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Speaker 1: was really fun. But then there's somewhere like people thought

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Speaker 1: that somehow sour though bread was a part of the

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Speaker 1: whole thing, when actually that's I bake. I love baking.

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Speaker 4: It's completely aside from my music.

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Speaker 1: It's just a hobby.

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Speaker 4: I'm obsessed to it.

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Speaker 3: There's a track on this album about sourdough. I know

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Speaker 3: there is, I.

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Speaker 1: Know there's not, there's not. But yeah, it's been really

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Speaker 1: funny to like to have people care that much, you know,

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Speaker 1: because ultimately easter bites are always leading towards more art.

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Speaker 1: They're leading towards lyrics or art that's coming in the future.

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Speaker 1: So I wouldn't be able to do that if the

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Speaker 1: fans didn't care so much about the music itself, which

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Speaker 1: I'm very honored by.

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Speaker 5: So we always say that your albums are really like

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Speaker 5: a diary, and then you just open it up and

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Speaker 5: you share your diary with the world. And you've done

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Speaker 5: this twelve so twelve different diaries. But in doing it,

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Speaker 5: are there lyrics that you can think of right now

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Speaker 5: that were just incredibly difficult for you to write and

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Speaker 5: then open up and share with people.

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Speaker 1: Not really, I don't really operate that way. Like my

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Speaker 1: music is a way of like it's the art of Catharsis,

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Speaker 1: Like there will be times where I'll write the most

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Speaker 1: gut wrenching song of torment and heartbreak, and then as

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Speaker 1: soon as I'm done writing it, I'm done with that emotion.

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Speaker 1: Like it's almost been a way of just sort of

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Speaker 1: like you say the thing and then you can move

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Speaker 1: on from the thing.

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Speaker 4: But I just have like kind of learned as kind has.

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Speaker 1: Gone by to sort of deal with writing in terms

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Speaker 1: of from the character or story, arts or fiction or

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Speaker 1: in this record, like there's a song called Elizabeth Taylor,

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Speaker 1: which is.

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Speaker 4: Sort of like my emotions and my issues.

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Speaker 1: With same through the lens of cause playing the life

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Speaker 1: of Elizabeth Taylor, so you kind of meld the two

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Speaker 1: experiences together because she's always someone that I've looked up

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Speaker 1: to as being this very very glamorous, very beloved but

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Speaker 1: for some reason a polarizing figure, which I've found myself

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Speaker 1: in that place too.

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Speaker 4: So it's been really fun, right, Yeah, I love writing.

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Speaker 3: Well Elizabeth Taylor. Elizabeth Taylor.

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Speaker 2: I've always been a massive fan because I guess it's

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Speaker 2: the you know, the old gay thing. But uh, I mean,

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Speaker 2: she would just navigate through life just looking flawless at

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Speaker 2: all times. But you know, as soon as the door closed,

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Speaker 2: she was throwing.

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Speaker 3: She was funny, She was hilarious, but she was funny.

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Speaker 1: And I think she's just a fabulous role model and

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Speaker 1: like person that I hope my fans will look her

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Speaker 1: up and see how much she went through and how

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Speaker 1: she was making her best art, like even at the

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Speaker 1: midst of people's outrage over something in her life, like

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Speaker 1: she continued being at the top of her game in

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Speaker 1: terms of her artistic output.

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Speaker 2: Well good, I mean, a whole new audience needs to

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Speaker 2: learn a lot more about Elizabeth Taylor. And so I

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Speaker 2: was listening to the song, I was thinking, this is

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Speaker 2: definitely an homage to her, but it's actually a homage

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Speaker 2: to yourself as well.

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Speaker 3: And I love that.

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Speaker 2: And also opal Light talking the experiences talk about opal Light,

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Speaker 2: Is that is that the one that has the lyric

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Speaker 2: It's my favorite lyric on the album You're dancing through

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Speaker 2: the Lightning strikes?

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Speaker 3: Is that that's from that? The song?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm glad you liked that one. That's one of

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Speaker 1: my favorite songs on the record.

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Speaker 2: But you can actually see choreography, you can see someone

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Speaker 2: dancing through the lightning strikes. What a powerful line that is.

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Speaker 3: Love that. And also it's about it's about.

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Speaker 1: Choosing happiness in your own life, you know, like Opal

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Speaker 1: Light isn't is a man made opal It's just like

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Speaker 1: you know how they have man made diamonds now like.

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Speaker 1: And so I love that sort of reference and metaphor.

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Speaker 4: Between making your own.

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Speaker 1: Like gemstone and then manufacturing your own happiness even when

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Speaker 1: things aren't going your way.

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Speaker 2: Also, if you're a size queen, father figure is a

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Speaker 2: nice selection.

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Speaker 3: Oh father figures a girl.

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Speaker 4: Right, So I love that one. I love that one.

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Speaker 2: No one's going to ask you who that's about, but

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Speaker 2: it's sure is applavable to all of our lives.

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Speaker 1: It's a song. It's a song about power, and it's

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Speaker 1: a it's got a really good metaphor about the way

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Speaker 1: that men moved through the world in a sense of power.

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Speaker 1: And it's kind of like you kind of can't tell

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Speaker 1: if I'm singing from the perspective of the angenou or

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Speaker 1: of the father figure mentor character, and that's by design.

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Speaker 3: Wow, awesome, you know, go ahead.

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Speaker 5: You mentioned earlier you just talked about making your own happiness,

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Speaker 5: and when we started this call, you said that you're

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Speaker 5: feeling uncomplicated joy. What to you is complicated joy? Because

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Speaker 5: that made me really think about, huh, what does that mean?

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Speaker 3: I think I want some of that.

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Speaker 1: That's a good question. Complicated joy around a record release

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Speaker 1: is when you wrote the album a year ago, when

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Speaker 1: you were in a very different place emotionally than you

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Speaker 1: are when you wrote it. Let's say you wrote a

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Speaker 1: heartbreak album and now you're very happy, or let's say

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Speaker 1: you wrote a happy album and now you're very heartbroken,

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Speaker 1: like or any kind of variation on that. When you

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Speaker 1: feel that you're in a different place and now you're

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Speaker 1: putting out art that you're proud of, but you don't

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Speaker 1: relate to anymore. I really relate to this record because

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Speaker 1: I'm in the same exact place as I was when

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Speaker 1: I wrote it.

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Speaker 3: I love that.

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Speaker 2: Wow, we're about to play the Fate of Ophelia, the

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Speaker 2: one that makes people in the room cry. But first

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Speaker 2: before you have one more second to talk about Life

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Speaker 2: of a Showgirl. I mean this track, I'm trying to

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Speaker 2: figure out where it's from. I mean, it's it is

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Speaker 2: it so simple, it is exactly what it is. You

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Speaker 2: out there on the road doing your thing.

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Speaker 3: Talk to me about that.

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Speaker 1: The song the Life of a show Girls the song

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Speaker 1: that I did with Sabrina Carpenter, because it's about it's

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Speaker 1: a story about meeting one of your idols and telling

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Speaker 1: them you want to do this too, you want to

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Speaker 1: follow those footsteps. And I think a lot of people

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Speaker 1: in the entertainment industry have had this happen. Your idol

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Speaker 1: warns you not to do it, not to follow in

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Speaker 1: their footsteps because of how hard this industry is. And

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Speaker 1: it's about taking that advice and completely disregarding it and

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Speaker 1: doing it. Anyway, and I wanted the brain it to

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Speaker 1: be the person who did the duet with me on

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Speaker 1: it because I just think she's so smart and like

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Speaker 1: cut out for this job, if you want to call

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Speaker 1: it a job. It's really a all encompassing life path.

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Speaker 1: And I think she's like just so brilliant and tough

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Speaker 1: in a way. She's very sensitive in terms of being

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Speaker 1: an artist, but she can handle herself. So I just

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Speaker 1: thought that she would be kind of a great person

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Speaker 1: to collaborate with on that song in particular. And it's

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Speaker 1: the last song on the record, so it really ends

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Speaker 1: out the story of the album.

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Speaker 2: This is what you do, Elvis.

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Speaker 3: If someone wants to be in radio, you tell them

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Speaker 3: run the other run, run from your life.

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Speaker 2: Live to tell others the life of a showgirl. It's

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Speaker 2: out today. There's so many great stories, and you were

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Speaker 2: the best story teller. Let me give you the fatal ophilia. Congratulations, Taylor.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for being on with us today.

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Speaker 4: Thank you so much, Thanks for listening to music, and

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Speaker 4: I hope you guys have a great to day.

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Speaker 3: K you too. Take care,