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Taylor Swift on new music : 'It's kind of been amazing to see the fans pick out little Easter eggs'

Cape Town - Taylor Swift FaceTimed Zane Lowe on Apple Music's Beats 1 to talk about her new single, ME! and discussed how her new music is "more playful and inward facing".

In the interview Taylor also reflected on her Reputation era as well as teaming up with Brendon Urie. 

The multi-platinum selling star also credited her fans for encouraging her to make and put out new material.

HERE ARE HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE DIGITAL CHAT: 

On her new song ME! and her experience co-directing the video, the 29-year-old said: "It's been amazing. It's been so much fun and putting out this song and video has been really, really exciting and just a really joyful experience. And it's been like, you know the video's like a magical-like, whimsical, mystical world. So, it's kind of been amazing to see the fans pick out little Easter eggs. And I just feel really grateful. 

She added: "It was a really great experience working with Dave Myers. I'd worked with him one commercial shoot before, but I had always really wanted to do a video with him. And so, I came to him and I was like, 'I've written this treatment. Here's the song.' And we got together and basically tried to figure out as many cool visual effects as we could incorporate into the storyline that I'd written. And yeah, it was so much fun. I mean this video shoot, the amount of times that Brendon and I just doubled over laughing, like where your stomach hurts, where you need to sit down. That kind of laughter. And when you can make stuff and laugh that much while you're making things, I mean that's the best thing in the world."

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE: 

On coming out of a dark place and new music, Taylor said: "...The aesthetic for the music I make is usually a reflection of how I feel as a person. So, I think during the stadium tour. During the Reputation stadium tour, I started to feel my life. My life felt different. It felt like there was a different tone, like different undertones to my life, like a different soundtrack playing behind my life, and I really do credit the fans for the complete resurgence of exuberance and excitement towards music and making new music. And the way that I felt about this enthusiasm towards making new music is what made me get in the studio so fast and just make music really quickly after the tour because of that energy that they had given me every single night of that tour. I was looking out into the crowd and seeing so much love and care and these people really, really are so wonderful to me and they really were the ones that made me feel like, 'No, I'm ready to put out new music. I'm ready to kind of do it a little bit more like I used to. I feel more comfortable."

The singer reflected on her previous album Reputation and what to expect from her upcoming one: "Well it definitely felt like I was purposefully, and this is a decision that I made at the beginning of that entire album process. I was very definitely putting up a defence mechanism. It was like reflecting on the persona you had felt had been crafted and constructed for you. And that was the first time I'd ever done that with an album. The album kind of had two different sides to it. You had very weaponised songs that were very much antsy. And then you had the real story of the album, which was basically about love and real love and real friendship and finding those things in and amongst feeling very, very misunderstood in a lot of ways in your life. This new music is much more playful and actually inward facing. When you get into this album, it's much more about me as a person, no pun intended with the song title. But it's kind of taking those walls, taking that bunker down from around you that I felt like I had to put up because you know after a while in certain times in your career where if you say something it's going to be misconstrued...You might as well just make music and do what you do and keep your head down. I mean, I, at the very beginning of the album, was pretty proud of coining the term, "There will be no explanation. There will just be reputation."

She added: "I didn't try to explain the album because I didn't feel that I owed that to anyone. There was a lot that happened over a couple of years that made me feel really, really terrible. And I didn't feel like expressing that to them. I didn't feel like talking about it. I just felt like making music, then going out on the road and doing a stadium tour and doing everything I could for my fans. Everything I did was for them. And I didn't need to try and get every headline or try to get the cover of this or the cover of that. "

About working with Brendon Urie she said: "In the past in terms of duet partners, I've always stuck with predominantly close friends, like Ed Sheeran or ZAYN, people that I just like, I love them, I trust them, I adore them. So for me to go outside of, you know, close friends, I figured Brendan would be a good one because I've been such a fan for so many years and I've watched his career and I've watched what seems to be his work ethic, you know, from the outside. When you get in the room with him it's the same."

About whether or not Brendon is the only vocal collaborator on the record the elusive artist said: "I can't say that, but I really, really appreciate you being curious about it. Thank you."

WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE: 


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