Taylor Swift Opens Up About Not Adhering To a Checklist For 'folklore' & 'evermore'

Taylor Swift recently opened up about the writing process for her latest albums folklore and evermore.

The 31-year-old musician surprise released the two albums within six months of each other this year.

Taylor shared that while creating these records, she didn’t adhere to her normal checklist like she has in the past.

“Pure is a really, really perfect word for that because what happens to you as your career builds and builds and builds and builds is that if you’ve accomplished a thing in the past, all of a sudden you’re expected to accomplish that thing plus another new thing, plus this other thing over here,” she told Apple Music. “It becomes sort of like I had felt at times when I felt a lot of pressure, I had felt like I was doing some sort of obstacle course. And that’s not how you should feel when you’re creating.”

“You shouldn’t feel like, ‘I need to make a track list where this one’s for the stadium show, this one’s for radio, this one’s for people who want to get in their feelings,’” Taylor continued. “Check, check, check, and you can end up doing that. And it’s good to have friends who are artists who have similar pressures. Like Ed Sheeran and I talk about this a great deal. This was a time when we both stepped back, and I would say to him, ‘This is the first time I felt like I threw the checklist away.’”

“Like I threw it away and I definitely could have gone into the pandemic thinking, ‘I’ve got to wait for everything to open up so I can do things exactly the way that I am used to doing them.’ But then about three days in, I thought, ‘Wait, this could be an opportunity for me to do things in a way I haven’t ever done them before. What would my work sound like if I took away all of my fear-based check listing that I have inflicted on myself?’ So I guess – I know the answer now.”

In case you missed it, Taylor is up for three 2020 Just Jared Jr Fan Awards – Favorite Song of 2020 for “Cardigan,” Favorite Album of 2020 for folklore and Favorite Music Video of 2020 for “The Man” and “Cardigan.” Be sure to vote for Taylor here!!