Speaking about the record on the podcast, Swift said it was like “catching lightning in a bottle”.
She produced it in Europe during the Eras Tour, as a way to capture what was happening behind the scenes during the tour – what her “inner life” was like off-stage. It consists of some of her favourite songs she has ever recorded, she said.
“I was in Europe on the Eras Tour … I’d have three days off, I’d fly to Sweden, and go back to the tour while actually working on this. I was physically exhausted at this point in the tour, but I was so mentally stimulated and so excited to be creating,” she said.
“I wanted the album to feel like how my life felt. Every single song is on this album for hundreds of reasons, and you couldn’t take one out, and it be the same album. It’s just right. That kind of focus and discipline, keeping the bar that high, is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.”
Reclaiming her masters
Beyond the album news, she also touched on another momentous moment in her life recently: the reclamation of her masters in May, a moment that “changed her life”.
Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift appear on the New Heights podcast.Credit: YouTube
“It’s always been a huge thing for me. Since I was a teenager, I’ve been actively saving up money to buy my music back,” she said, adding that she “dramatically fell to the floor” when she found out she had finally managed to take ownership of her discography.
“This will affect the rest of my life, and I think about this every day. But now, instead of it being like an intrusive thought that hurts me, it’s: ‘I can’t believe this happened. How lucky am I?’”
She then shifted to the epic experience that was the Eras Tour, the highest-grossing concert tour in history during which she travelled to 51 cities across more than 600 days. The singer said she wouldn’t change a thing about the tour – one where she was able to physically and mentally prepare for more than any of her previous global tours.
“I wanted it to [include] references that, I thought, were really high-concept and really high-value for fans, and for them to see things they hadn’t necessarily seen before all in one concert,” she said.
Another promotional image for The Life of a Showgirl.Credit: Instagram
“But I wanted to do it at the highest intensity, rapid fire – you’re seeing something new every 15 to 30 seconds. So, it feels like you’re scrolling in an algorithm, right?
“When I heard reports of people saying that they got actual amnesia after the concerts, I was like: ‘Oh, I think we did it. I think we nailed it.’”
Australia and the Eras Tour
One of her favourite parts of the Eras Tour, she said, was the unplanned moments and fan-led traditions.
Taylor Swift performing at the Eras Tour in Melbourne.Credit: Getty
For example, during the European leg, her audience collectively decided to bring in balloons, which they illuminated with their phone torches during the Willow segment, reflecting the orbs held on-stage.
“Was there a group text? How did you guys even do this? It was so special. It felt like we were all part of something together in a way that couldn’t be planned. As much as I love and relish in planning, it was really fun that they would do things to delight me,” Swift said.
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Australia also got a direct mention, with the pop juggernaut describing the country as “amazing”.
Despite how fulfilling the tour was, the pop star admitted she’s now enjoying a break – time she is apparently using to bake endless loaves of sourdough bread and watching otter videos with her boyfriend.
An FYI on Easter eggs
Before the official announcement of the new album, fans scoured a litany of Easter eggs carefully planted by the star, including cryptic photo galleries and intentionally timed social media posts.
Swift touched on the very puzzles she used to share the recent news on the podcast, joking that the “Easter egg thing is getting a little Zodiac Killer at this point”.
“I’m never going to plant an Easter egg that ties back to my personal life – it’s always going to be towards music,” she said.
The singer is famed for dropping cheeky hints for her fans to deduce.Credit: Instagram
“I want Easter eggs to be a certain thing where if you are part of the fandom, and you want to experience music in a normal way, then you don’t even see these – you don’t even care what that thing is above that doorway, under that dimly lit, flickering light over there that’s upside-down, backwards in Braille. But if you want to look at that, you can. If you know, you know.”
Despite general excitement around the album itself, Swift’s decision to share the news on the Kelce brothers’ podcast divided fans. On one hand, some Swifties applauded the podcast approach, arguing that it was the ideal way for the singer to reveal the news on her own terms, rather than those of powerful, large-scale media or entertainment organisations.
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However, others argued it appeared to be a marketing ploy created to boost engagement and listenership for the New Heights podcast.
The episode, which ran for just over two hours, attracted more than 465,000 viewers on YouTube within just one hour of going live.
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