Taylor Swift explains her songwriting technique in this video with The New York Times about her song “Lover” from her album “Lover. She mentions the things that add to her inspiration throughout her songwriting as a “glittery cloud that is floating in front of your face that you just need to grab at the right time then you revert back to what you know about the structure of the song in order to fill in the gaps.” I thought this was interesting because it reveals how she views the importance of her song structure which then will depict the audio decisions later. As many people know, she tends to tell a story through her song writing. She enjoys using metaphors to refer to an underlying thing that she intends for a listener or fan to discover through listening.
In the interview, they play the audio recording she has of herself when she first played the chorus and melody of “Lover.” It is extremely authentic and definitely takes you into the personal and private world of a famous musician navigating their inspiration in the middle of the night as ideas spark. She discussed the lyrics and what they mean. “Can I go where you go? Can we always be this close? Forever, and ever?” She wanted the chorus to be existential questions we ask ourselves when we’re in love, that include our feelings of fear when we feel vulnerable to love someone. It is interesting to hear how Taylor Swift talks about making a song from the beginning and what she sees in its potential. In the interview, she heard the melody in her head on the piano, but she said that when she wanted it to be done she heard it more in a “dreamy guitar sound.” This impressed me how artists can conceptualize the sounds they intend for their lyrics to be captured and how much effort it takes to create through each step and to finalize the overall product of a song.