In a new interview, Taylor Swift has said she was worried her songwriting would “dry up” if she were “ever truly happy in a relationship.”
- READ MORE: Taylor Swift – ‘The Life Of A Showgirl’ review: magical when the songwriter just lets herself be
Swift released her 12th studio album, ‘The Life Of A Showgirl’ on Friday (October 3), following up last year’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department’. It also arrives after she announced her engagement to Travis Kelce back in August.
Speaking to Greg James on BBC Radio 1, Swift – who has famously used her relationships as inspiration for her songs throughout her career – said she feared her abilities as a songwriter might dry up if she felt “happy and free.”
She explained: “I used to have this dark fear that if I ever were truly happy and free, being myself and nurtured by a relationship, what happens if the writing just dries up?”
“What if writing is directly tied to my torment and pain? And it turns out, that’s not the case at all, and we just were catching lightning in a bottle with this record.
“But it’s nice because you’re coming from a place of happiness and love, you can go back to those places. You can look forward to other things,” she said. You can watch the full interview below:
Swift has also since responded to rumours that ‘The Life Of A Showgirl’ could be her last album.
Swift insisted she’s not quitting music any time soon while speaking to Scott Mills on BBC Radio 2 this morning (October 6). She discussed her upcoming marriage, saying: “I’m really right now just like really stoked about the idea that I get to marry this person.
“I’m gonna think about that and then I’m gonna put out this album and then I’m gonna think about other things after that,” she continued. “Just to put you into a window into the psyche of where I’m at right now.”
Mills then said, “Taylor, don’t tell me this is your last album,” to which she responded, “What? No.”
Mills went on to say: “I just saw some fans going, ‘Well, she’s going to get married and then she’s going to have children and then she’s going to be the last album’.”
“It’s a shockingly offensive thing to say,” Swift said, laughing: “It’s not why people get married, so they can quit their job.” The singer continued, saying of her fans: “Oh, I know they love to panic sometimes, but it’s like I love the person that I am with because he loves what I do and he loves how much I am fulfilled by making art and making music.
“That’s the coolest thing about Travis, like he is so passionate about what he does, that me being passionate about what I do, it connects us. There’s no point in time where he’s gonna be like, ‘I’m really upset that you’re still making the music’,” she added.
NME gave ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ three stars, writing: “To seek escapism is not a sin, but the best pop music makes the personal feel like life or death. ‘Speak Now’, ‘Reputation’, ‘Folklore’: her greatest works could be genuinely transformative. For the first time, ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ sees Swift not catalysed into artistic growth by love, but merely comfortably secured by it.”
Yesterday, Swift also released a music video for ‘The Fate Of Ophelia’, making it the first official single from the record.
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