Taylor Swift's 1989 secrets and response to SEXIST song speculation [FULL INTERVIEW]

Taylor, welcome to Australia. Hi, thank you. It's great to have you here. Congratulations on your new album. Thank you. When you record a brand new album, who's the first personal people that you play to outside of the industry? So does, like, Ed Sheeran doesn't count? Like, my musician friends don't count? Or is it? No, only if they weren't involved in the process. Oh, okay. People who weren't involved in the process. Yeah. Ed is one of the first people that I play it for, and Lorde, my friend Ella, is another person who I really, I respect their opinions, and so when they have a favorite song, it's kind of like, I pay attention to that. What did they suggest from the album? What was their favorite songs from the album? Ed has a song that he's obsessed with called Bad Blood, and Ella likes a song called Welcome to New York. Okay. And the song, yeah. Yeah, that's her favorite, I think. That's awesome. And obviously, that must make you feel pretty good then? Yeah, it's awesome, because both of them are such amazing songwriters, so when they kind of raise their hand and go, that one, that one, that one, it's a cool moment. Do you know, I've got to say, you know how you play games with your friends, like celebrity, who you date, or whatever? We've got this thing where if you had to send a human being to meet the aliens, who would represent the human race the best as women, and you always come up as the perfect human. I know, because there's everything about you, because you look like a supermodel, you sing, and then there's no one that says a bad word about you. Can you tell me something, just to make me feel better about myself, like, do you eat in bed, or do you do something? What are you talking about? You are so gorgeous, it's hard to talk to you. Don't even do that. I love that. That's so crazy. You have the cheekbones. I don't have the cheekbones. Yeah, but I'm an edgy mess, like I'm all over the place. But the difference is, you've got such a clean image. But do you do anything weird, like anything that you go, how embarrassing? I think it's well-documented people finding flaws with me. I don't think that that's a problem for anyone. Really? But yeah, pretty much all I do when I'm not doing interviews or shows is watch TV, so there you go. Wow. That's edgy. Does that help you? I mean, that was pretty wild. You wanted something wild? Yeah, like something crazy that I go, oh, she's not perfect. I think the fact that I'm sort of a shut-in and just watch TV by myself with my cats all the time is a little bit of a flaw to give you. Are you going to become a crazy cat lady, you know, like one day when you- No, I'm going to keep it cute. Right, okay. You keep it to two. I have two. Is that the threshold with cats? Like how many cats before you go? For me, it is. I already feel as if I'm surrounded by cats when I have them. There's one there, there's one there. It's like, oh, they're everywhere. So if I had one more, it would be sort of like a herd, like a pack. I reckon four's the number. If you have four, then you've gone into crazy cat lady town. Unless you're rescuing them and fostering them. Oh, don't make me feel bad. Do you know what I'm saying? You don't need to make me feel bad about that. I mean, then there's the loophole. There's the one, like, that's the exception. Yeah. Is it the same with children? Probably. No, no, no. Have as many kids. Okay. As you want. Yeah. Sophie says that you're the perfect human. Is there a skill that you don't have, but you would like to have? Yes. I wish I could speak French and Spanish and I can't. But you can learn that though. But I haven't. Yeah. That's a really good point. I didn't think of that. We're almost 25 years in, you guys, and brain development is not speeding up. It's not going to happen. Yeah. I mean, I could very well do it. But if you were asking me what, if I could push a button and be able to do something really well, it would be like fluent French, fluent Spanish. I don't understand how you're so worldly at how young you are. Like, your songwriting is so on point. Thank you. I know people say that you write about ex-boyfriends and stuff like that, but what else are you meant to write about? The thing is, it's so public, isn't it? You dating. So if it's not love, it's about nightclubs. But how do you feel when people say that you write about boyfriends? It's interesting because I think as a songwriter, you have your fans who have been keeping up with your music since before you were known. My first album came out when I was 16. So I would write about my life as I saw it, as I felt it. And then what happens is, as you get more successful, which you're lucky if that happens, you have more and more people paying attention to what you're doing. And you've been doing it the same way your entire career as a songwriter, but all of a sudden the perspective has changed. And they use you writing songs about your life as a way to play detective. And for me, I have a really strict personal policy that I never name names. And so anybody saying that a song is about a specific person is purely speculating. And they're going to do that. But the most important thing for me is maintaining artistic integrity, which means as a songwriter, I still continue to write about my life. I could very well water it down. And I could just say, like, you know, the sky is blue and now we're dancing and we're in a club and it's great. But I just don't think that... I love that song. I know. I know it was a number one hit. No, but people can, they can sense honesty. You can tell in your music, you could, you know, you can hear it. You're going to have people who are going to see the depth from which you approached a song. The fact that you put, you know, your real emotions into it and that that's valuable and that's good and that's real. And then you're going to have people who are going to say, oh, you know, like she's just write songs about her ex-boyfriends. And I think frankly, that's a very sexist angle to take. No one says that about Ed Sheeran. No one says it about Bruno Mars. They're all writing songs about their exes, their current girlfriends, their love life. And no one raises a red flag there. It's true. Is there a, is there a theme with this album then? With the new album? Yeah. I like to have lots of different themes. I approach it from a sort of an angle where I'm making an album for two years. So I like for there to be visual themes. For this one, there are a lot of Polaroids, you see a lot of neon lights, you see a lot of pastel colors. I think emotionally it comes from a place of much more independence and freedom. It's about me moving to New York and kind of living my life on my own terms. I think lyrically it's still a very, it's storytelling based, but the production is kind of, it drew a lot of inspiration from the late 80s synth pop era. And I think a lot of really cool things were happening in culture and in music at that point. So it's been, it's been such a joy to make this album. It's my first pop album. Everything I've done before we've called country, even though I've always really played with a lot of pop sensibility, but this is the first time I've been like, I'm making a pop album. Good on you. Um, do you, Selina Gomez, is she really your best friend or is it like one of those celebrity where they- Oh no, she's definitely one of my best friends. Yeah. And you want her to move to New York? I do. I want her to be close to me. Do you feel protective of her? Cause I feel like you're so strong and know who you are and, um, good with all the media. Do you feel protective of her? Yeah. Can you help her through that? Um, I think that one thing about learning to be the best friend you can possibly be is knowing when you have to let people figure things out on their own. Yeah. And, um, and I, I do trust her. I think she has good judgment. I think that she's going to do amazing things with her life. She's incredibly intelligent. Right. And people, it would scare them if they knew how smart she is. Um, so I think one thing you just have to do as a friend is just be there for, for your friends no matter what they're going through and never try to boss them around. I think that's the worst thing you can do. But how lovely you've got each other and you're in the same industry and under the same pressures that must be. Yeah. It's fun when we go back and reminisce and tell old stories because now she's 22 and I'm 24. We met when we were, we were 15 and 17 when we met. So it's like, it's wild how many phases both of us have gone through. Yeah. Taylor, can I ask you a question about your knowledge of Australia because Australia is quite known for its deadly animals, right? Yeah. I want to give you a list of Australian animals and I want you to tell me which one of these Australian animals is the least dangerous to handle. All right. Now they sound innocuous, but I assure you there is some jeopardy to them. Okay. First one, a blue ring octopus. Second one, a funnel web spider. Third one, a death adder. And the fourth one, an Altean child. Which one of those is the least dangerous? The second one. The spider. Funnel web spider? I hate spiders. Is that right? Most deadly spider on the planet. Really? Yeah. They live here in Sydney and they kill you. There's no, there's no anecdote. You're just gone. There's no anecdote. Oh God. Yeah. Oh God. Why? Oh God. And I've got one in my pocket for you now. Oh no. I'm only kidding. What I do have. I have amongst my other phobias is arachnophobia. Oh really? Yes. It's a bit, yeah. So that's. That's not what I'm going to give you. Yeah. I know that recently you had a, no, it's a Becky moment with a t-shirt. Oh my God. Are you on Tumblr? Do you know of our inside joke? I know all about it. I'm right across it. But tomorrow in Hyde Park, your fans are having a Swiftnik. Oh my God. Which is a picnic for Taylor Swift fans. Did you know? And so they asked us to give you a t-shirt that clearly doesn't fit and you will never wear. But I would like to give it to you anyway. Thank you. It's genius. So there you go. I know it's Swiftnik. Amazing. Taylor, thank you very much for your time. Thanks so much. Thanks for talking to me, guys. Enjoy the rest of your time in Australia and don't touch any Elton Charles. Thank you for my new education on deadly spiders. It really helps with my anxiety.