Countdown to RED: T minus 2 days. Country Weekly, Billboard and thoughts
(Source: Billboard)
Hello Taylor Nation,
Here at the Swift Agency, still just a guy who’s typing up a storm lately, we’re loving the interviews lately but we’re getting picky. I think we all know the Princess in Red will never give up who she writes about. Like ever. More importantly, and this is an old gripe I have, is that the point of her writing is not autobiographical. Fearless may have been like a diary, but at the heart of it was an album of music first.
Sometimes I feel we are hung up in the idea that the Sparkly Dressed writes songs only as a cathartic process of getting over someone, but forget that the primary reason for her to write a song is musical. She uses her strongest feelings to infuse her songs with life but the fact that they have music and that they rhyme is not incidental. It’s the actual reason.
More often than not, she’s written about the feeling or the moment and conjure up memories from the past to put words to paper but one song does not equal a guy, much less a different one. Her last album conjured two or three relationships tops for the entire track list and this one is not going to be much different.
(Source: Country Weekly)
Sorry, I meant this commentary to be brief but this post is almost an editorial now! Let’s get you to the news.
The Enchantress appears on the cover of Country Weekly for October 29, 2012. She talks about the album, the inspiration behind it and some of the songs. As usual, the regular emphasis is on her keeping the inspiration of her songwriting a secret.
The Blonde With The Sparkly Guitar will go into details about other tracks for the upcoming Red, including Trouble and All Too Well and answer some fan questions.
Not to be outdone, Billboard magazine also talked to the Queen of Sparks about the new album. This is a pretty good interview, although some things will sound familiar if you’ve already read Brian Mansfield’s USA Today piece.
Besides the depictions of the songwriting process (new answers to old questions improve the interview) which are always insightful to read, there’s this great answer about the very expected tour plans for RED:
(Source: Billboard)
I know it will be theatrical, but different than the “Speak Now” tour. It felt like we put on a play every night. [As for material] I like when I go to a concert and the artist respects what the people’s favorite songs are. I’m going to be playing “Love Story” for the rest of my career because the fans really like it. If I ever get sick of it, I would continue to play it at my shows. You have to, as an artist, remember your experiences as a fan. And as a fan you heard the song in your bedroom, you played it over and over again, you know where the fiddle part is, you know where the banjo part is and you like the way it is sung on the record. I don’t see me altering the way my previous work sounds live because people want to hear it the way they heard it on record. I don’t need to do a jazz version of “Tim McGraw.” That being said, we’ve done some fun mash-ups. Sometimes it’s fun to weave someone else’s song into your song as a surprise. I’m always balancing — how much new material do people want to hear, how much old material — and at the end of the day I’m trying to put on a show that accurately represents where I am now.
There’s another article with a track by track review of RED by Billboard. That one is completely smack down in the middle of spoiler central and main spoilerama avenue, so I’m not commenting on it. You can read it if you want.
Long post! If you made it this far, you get a reward. Here’s a clip from T-Swizzle talking tattoos with Taste of Country. They’ll put up a full interview come Monday, October 22.
The American Country Awards (December 10) for Artist of the Year, Best Female Artist, Single of the Year, Best Female Single and Best Female Video. You can vote here.
October 26: She will join Katie Couric on ABC’s Katie. Later the same night, All Access Nashville with Katie Couric airs at 9|8c on ABC. Includes an interview with Taylor Swift.
The Swift Agency 