Mega-super star Taylor Swift was a featured guest Friday morning on iHeartRadio’s Elvis Duran and the Morning Show speaking on the release of her new album, The Life of a Showgirl. Taylor commented on some of the albums tracks including “Elizabeth Taylor,” “Opalite,” “Father Figure,” and title track “The Life of a Showgirl”. Additionally, she opened up to Elvis about how music is an “art of catharsis” and shares that she feels an “uncomplicated joy” on the release of this album.
Taylor on Elizabeth Taylor:
“But I just have kind of learned as time has gone by to deal with writing in terms of from the character or story arcs or fiction or in this record, there’s a song called Elizabeth Taylor, which is sort of like my emotions and my issues with fame through the lens of cosplay, the life of Elizabeth Taylor. So you meld the two experiences together because she’s always someone that I’ve looked up to as being this very, very glamorous, very beloved, but for some reason a polarizing figure, which I found myself in that place too. So it’s been really fun. I love writing.”
Taylor on Opalite:
“Yeah, it’s, it’s about choosing happiness in your own life. Opalite is a manmade opal. It’s just like how they have manmade diamonds now. And so I love that sort of reference and metaphor between making your own gemstone and then manufacturing your own happiness even when things aren’t going your way.”
Taylor on Father Figure:
“Well, it’s a song about power and it’s got a really good metaphor about the way that men move through the world in a sense of power. And it’s kind of like you kind of can’t tell if I’m singing from the perspective of the ingenue or of the father figure mentor character, and that’s by design.”
Taylor on The Life of a Showgirl:
“It’s a story about meeting one of your idols and telling them you want to do this too. You want to follow in their footsteps. And I think a lot of people in the entertainment industry have had this happen. Your idol warns you not to do it, not to follow in their footsteps because of how hard this industry is. And it’s about taking that advice and completely disregarding it and doing it anyway. And I wanted Sabrina to be the person who did the duet with me on it because I just think she’s so smart and cut out for this job, if you want to call it a job. It’s really an all encompassing life path, and I think she’s just so brilliant and tough in a way. She’s very sensitive in terms of being an artist, but she can handle herself. So I just thought that she would be kind of a great person to collaborate with on that song in particular. And it’s the last song on the record, so it really ends out the story of the album.”
Elvis Duran
Elvis Duran: Are there lyrics that you can think of right now that were just incredibly difficult for you to write and then open up and share with people?
Taylor Swift: “Not really. I don’t really operate that way. My music is a way of, like it’s an art of catharsis. There will be times where I’ll write the most gut wrenching song, torment, and heartbreak, and then as soon as I’m done writing it, I’m done with that emotion. It’s almost been a way of just sort of like you say the thing and then you can move on from the thing.”
Elvis Duran: You mentioned earlier, you just talked about making your own happiness, and when we started this call, you said that you’re feeling uncomplicated joy. What to you is complicated joy? That made me really think about, huh? What does that mean?
Taylor Swift: “Complicated joy around a record release is when you wrote the album a year ago when you were in a very different place emotionally than you are when you wrote it. Let’s say you wrote a heartbreak album and now you’re very happy. Or let’s say you wrote a happy album and now you’re very heartbroken or any kind of variation on that when you feel that you’re in a different place and now you’re putting out art that you’re proud of, but you don’t relate to anymore. I really relate to this record because I’m in the same exact place as I was when I wrote it.”
You can stream the FULL interview HERE