Ryan Adams’ interview with T-Swift about song-writing is filled with all kinds of gems
Imagine it: Ryan Adams and Taylor Swift together in a room, talking about songwriting. Now stop imagining, because THIS IS A THING THAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED.
The 1989 duo sat down for GQ (whose cover Swift graces at present), with Adams interviewing Swift. He managed to ask a few questions we’ve always wanted to ask.
The best compliment, though, and the thing that will make you want to listen to Adams’ version of 1989 if you for some reason haven’t, is when Swift says, “You know when actors say a line, they say a sentence but they say it with different emphasis on different words and completely change it? That’s what you did to my album!” Exactly!
Also, don’t sleep on Swift turning Adams on to her Siri addition (he’s so obviously never used Apple’s digital concierge that we wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t have a cell phone), Adams hipping Swift to the magical songwriting battery recharger that is listening to the Smiths or the moment when she gets him to attempt a hair flip. No really and it’s priceless.
When Adams asks Swift about her songwriting inspirations, the two discover they are both pulling from ’80s influences.
“Whenever I’m stuck when I’m writing, I can just put a Smiths record on and, it’s kind of like if my songwriting was like an iPhone, it recharges it in five minutes,” Adams says. “It’s because there’s all these question marks in it; it’s very foreign to me and it’s always going to make me want to go and play guitar.”
And that’s when Swift reveals the biggest piece of news we had never heard before: When she was writing 1989, she was watching John Hughes movies and used her imagination of what various characters might be thinking as prompts. She says, she was single, happy and in a good place so she needed some existential teen angst to access those romance emotions, Swift explains. She picked the right place to find it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3WlNjExg0E
(Image via YouTube)