Taylor Swift talks songwriting in new interview

Taylor Swift has made it pretty clear that on her upcoming Speak Now album, she’s not pulling any punches — especially when it comes to her exes or Kanye West or even mean-spirited members of the media, for that matter.

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In fact, there’s so much dirt dished on Speak Now that you practically need a scorecard to keep up with it all, and luckily, now you have one. In a new interview Swift gets in-depth about several key songs on the album — though, really, she prefers to think of each track in different terms.

Swift wrote to MarkMeets on the red carpet recently about the “Speak Now”song which is actually about interrupting a wedding, after conversing with her friend (a guy), whose ex-boyfriend would soon marry someone else, Taylor confirmed.

“Every single song is like a road map to what that relationship stood for, with little markers that maybe everyone won’t know, but there are things that were little nuances of the relationship, little hints,” she said. “And every single song is like that. Everyone will know, so I don’t really have to send out e-mails on this one.”

In the interview, Swift described first single “Mine” as “a confession of some sort” about a real-life situation where a would-be boyfriend (rumored to be “Glee” star Cory Monteith) attempted to take their burgeoning relationship to the next level.

“This is a situation where a guy that I just barely knew put his arm around me by the water, and I saw the entire relationship flash before my eyes, almost like a weird science-fiction movie,” Swift explained. “After I wrote the song, things sort of fell apart, as things so often do. And I hadn’t talked to him in a couple months. And the song came out, and that day, I got an e-mail from him. And I was like, ‘Yes!’ Because that one was sort of half-confession and half-prediction or projection of what I saw.”

Meanwhile Former Fifth Harmony member Camila Cabello has spoken about finding self-discovery in her songwriting, getting playlists from friend Taylor Swift, working with Major Lazer, and writing in her bathroom.

Camila is currently enjoying success in the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘Bad Things,’ a collaboration with Machine Gun Kelly which recently reached #1 on the US iTunes Chart.

On finding herself during her time in Fifth Harmony:
“I think songwriting was the biggest way that I found my identity. It’s hard to know who you are when you start doing that stuff, and songwriting has helped me stay sane throughout this whole thing.”

On ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer,’ her 2015 duet with Shawn Mendes, which reached the Top 20 of the US Billboard Hot 100:
“I felt like that was the first time I got to show people who I am and the music that I was writing while [Fifth Harmony] were doing the mall tours—all the shitty demos on my laptop that nobody knew I was doing.”

On working with Major Lazer and writing in her bathroom:
“[When I first started making music on the road], I would wake up really early and go into the hotel bathroom, put a towel over the toilet and put my laptop there. I’d put my headphones on and just write. And so now when I do writing sessions and I am stuck on a part or I can’t figure out a chorus, I’m just like, ‘Give me a second,’ and I’ll go to that bathroom. I remember when I was writing with Major Lazer and we were stuck on a part, I spent the whole night in the bathroom.”

Fifth Harmony praise their fans ‘Harmonizers’

On beginning songwriting seriously thanks to playlists crafted by her friend Taylor Swift:
“If I’m going through a rough time with a boy or if there’s boy drama, she’ll be like, ‘Here’s a playlist I made when I was going through that,’ or she’ll call me to talk about it. She’s always teaching me. She’s given me such great advice. And honestly, just seeing her live her life? You learn from it. She’s so graceful.”

On how her Cuban and Mexican roots are influencing her solo music:
“All of the songs my grandparents and parents listened to are called boleros—they’re all love songs. They’re about giving your heart to a person. It’s a culture that is so romantic and passionate, and that’s something that I’m very proud of. We grew up with nothing, so we just want to live a life full of love. A lot of the music I write is about love. Sometimes I won’t understand how I am feeling until I write a song about it.”

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