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<\/p>\nWe often hear of artists saying that they had a clear vision of how a song was going to end up sounding as soon as they wrote it, but sometimes, things can take a detour along the road to completion.<\/p>\n
No lesser singer-songwriter than Taylor Swift recently gave us an excellent example of this during her Icon Sessions interview at the Grammy Museum. It came as she was discussing the 2012 song I Knew You Were Trouble: taken from the Red album, this was one of the singles that signposted Swift\u2019s move away from her country roots to a more pop-orientated sound.<\/p>\n
Taylor Swift – I Knew You Were Trouble – YouTube
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Watch On <\/a> In this case, though, it wasn\u2019t just pop \u2013 there were dubstep influences, too. But, as Swift explains, these couldn\u2019t have been further from her mind when the song was being written, and it was only when she brought it into the producers she was working with, Swedish pop maestros Max Martin and Shellback, that they came into the picture.<\/p>\n Latest Videos FromMusicRadar<\/p>\n \u201cI wrote this really sad piano ballad called I Knew You Were Trouble,\u201d she remembers. \u201cI was really excited to bring it in, and I played them this really, really sad ballad, and I was like, \u2018I think just no drums,\u2019 and they’re like, \u2018What if it’s dubstep?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s quite the switch-up, and Swift wasn\u2019t convinced. \u201cI don’t know, guys\u2026 Let’s give it a run,\u201d she told the producers, without a great deal of confidence. But rather than walking back on the idea, Martin and Shellback were apparently keen to stray as far from her original vision as possible.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n \u201cWhat if it’s electric guitar<\/a> and dubstep? We’re not putting a piano<\/a> in this,\u201d they told Swift, and looking back, she agrees that their changes \u201cended up being the best thing for it.\u201d In fact, Swift dialled-up the dubstep wubs even further when she performed the song live – check out the breakdown in this performance from the 2013 Brit Awards.<\/p>\n Speaking more generally, Swift says that their refusal simply to do what she wants marks Martin and Shellback out as the kind of producers she likes to work with.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a collaborator, my favourite people to be in the room with are yes and people,\u201d she says, with the emphasis on the \u2018and\u2019 indicating that she doesn\u2019t just want to be surrounded by \u2018yes\u2019 people. \u201cSo why not try it? If they heard it and they thought dubstep, and I came to them specifically because I didn’t want to be making lateral moves creatively, why wouldn’t we go down that path? Like, why wouldn’t we? And I really think that enthusiasm in the studio, it can really make or break what you end up creating.\u201d<\/p>\n The Icon Sessions with Taylor Swift \u2014 Presented by Recording Academy’s Songwriters & Composers Wing – YouTube
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