Taylor Swift says she feels increasingly connected to her country music roots and wants to “honour” the genre that shaped her early career.
The 36-year-old singer-songwriter discussed her relationship with country music during the Grammy Museum’s Icon Sessions, speaking with Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. Swift reflected on the Nashville community that helped launch her career and explained why she feels more loyal to those beginnings as her career has progressed.
Taylor Swift’s Nashville roots
Swift released her self-titled debut album in 2006, with the record firmly rooted in country music. She has since moved through country-pop, pop and other styles, becoming one of the world’s biggest recording artists.
Despite that evolution, Swift said her connection to country music has grown stronger with time.
“I love my country roots more and more the further along this path I get and I want to honour them more and more.”
She added:
“I feel more tied to them, more loyal to them … the people that shaped who I am as an artist and as a writer, that all happened in Nashville.”
Swift was discovered after performing at Nashville’s Bluebird Café, a venue that has played an important role in the careers of numerous country artists, including Faith Hill.
Swift has previously spoken about Hill’s connection to the venue and how it inspired her own ambitions as a young musician.
“I had heard that Faith Hill got discovered at the Bluebird Cafe.”
“I started learning about the Bluebird Cafe, made it a personal life goal to get to perform there.”
Swift eventually achieved that goal, becoming one of the most prominent artists to emerge from Nashville’s country music scene.
Her first single, “Tim McGraw”, was released in 2006 and was named after country star Tim McGraw, who is married to Hill.
How Taylor Swift changed ‘I Knew You Were Trouble’
Swift also discussed one of the more unexpected creative decisions in her career, the production of “I Knew You Were Trouble” from her 2012 album Red.
The song began life very differently from the finished version. Swift said she initially imagined it as a sad piano ballad before producers Max Martin and Shellback encouraged her to experiment with dubstep.
“It can either be compelling to make a song sound exactly how it feels or to flip it, which the people that really taught me the most about that are Max Martin and Shellback.”
Swift recalled bringing the pair a stripped-back version of the song and initially suggesting that it should have no drums.
“I was really excited to bring it in, and I played them this really, really sad ballad, and I was like, ‘I think just no drums,’ and they’re like, ‘What if it’s dubstep?’ I was like, ‘I don’t know, guys. Let’s give it a run. I don’t know.’”
She now regards the decision as a crucial part of the song’s success.
“[It] ended up being the best thing for it, and I think as a collaborator, my favourite people to be in the room with are ‘Yes, and?’ people. So why not try it?”
Swift said she values collaborators who are willing to move beyond her initial ideas rather than simply reinforcing them.
“If they heard it and they thought dubstep, and I came to them specifically because I didn’t want to be making lateral moves creatively, why wouldn’t we go down that path? Why wouldn’t we?”
For Swift, that willingness to experiment remains an important part of the creative process.
“I really think that enthusiasm in the studio, it can really make or break what you end up creating.”
