Taylor Swift has opened up on writing music with her British boyfriend Joe Alwyn and said the couple “really love sad songs”.
Swift, 31, has delighted fans with two surprise albums in five months, with her most recent record, Evermore, arriving last week.
Both it and Folklore, the album she released in July, feature songs written with actor Alwyn, 29, under the pseudonym William Bowery.
Thank you for all the great feedback. If you haven’t yet seen it, the full @taylorswift13 Interview lives here – Taylor Swift: folklore, evermore and Songwriting | Apple Music Awards 2020 https://t.co/ptjHHV3LZM via @YouTube
— Zane Lowe (@zanelowe) December 16, 2020
Speaking to Zane Lowe on his Apple Music show, Swift, who has remained tight-lipped on her relationship with Alwyn, said they grew close over a love of music.
“Joe and I really love sad songs,” she said. “We’ve always bonded over music. So it was… We write the saddest songs. We just really love sad songs. What can I say?”
Swift added: “I say it was a surprise that we started writing together, but in a way, it wasn’t because we have always bonded over music and had the same musical tastes.
“And he’s always the person who’s showing me songs by artists and then they become my favourite songs or whatever.”
And Swift opened up on the controversy surrounding the ownership of her first six albums, after prominent talent manager Scooter Braun sold her master recordings to a private equity firm.
The deal was reportedly worth more than 300 million dollars (about £223 million).
Swift said young artists rarely realise what they are signing up for when agreeing to record deals that give away their master recordings and is lobbying labels to change their way of working.
She said: “I was 15, 14, when I was in record deal talks, so you can’t really go back and say, ‘wow, what a conscious choice that was made’. You don’t know the music industry until you know it.
“And because I have learned what I’ve learned, I really want to make things better for other people.
“And I want that to start at the record deal. In the contract, artists should never have to part with their work, they should own it from day one but they should licence it back to the label so the label can make back their money over a certain amount of time.
“And that amount of time should be what’s negotiated upon. It should not be a question moving forward.”