Pop music superstar Taylor Swift turned heads Thursday morning when she announced via social media she was releasing a new album at midnight. She also surprised local music fans when she revealed two regional musicians contributed to it, Justin “Bon Iver” Vernon and St. Paul jazz drummer JT Bates.
“Most of the things I had planned this summer didn’t end up happening, but there is something I hadn’t planned on that did happen,” Swift wrote on social media.
She secretly wrote and recorded the album, “Folklore,” remotely over the past four months: “I’ve poured all of my whims, dreams, fears and musings into (it). I wrote and recorded this music in isolation but got to collaborate with some musical heroes of mine.”
In August 2019, Swift released her seventh album “Lover” and, in January, issued the Netflix documentary “Miss Americana.” She had planned to spend the summer playing six stadium concerts in California, Massachusetts and Brazil and headlining 10 European festivals. The pandemic forced her to cancel the festivals and push back her solo shows to next summer.
She first reached out to Aaron Dessner of the New York indie rock band the National in April and asked if he’d be interested in collaborating via the internet. “I thought it would take a while for song ideas to come and I had no expectations as far as what we could accomplish remotely,” Dessner wrote on social media. “But a few hours after sharing music, my phone lit up with a voice memo from Taylor of a fully written version of a song – the momentum never really stopped … I’ve rarely been so inspired by someone, and it’s still hard to believe this even happened.”
Dessner likely helped Swift get in touch with Justin Vernon, with whom Dessner collaborated on the Eaux Claires festival, which took place for four summers in Vernon’s hometown of Eau Claire. Vernon and Swift wrote the song “Exile” together, which features vocals from Vernon. JT Bates is a prolific drummer who has recorded and performed with a long list of acts including the National, Andrew Bird, Pieta Brown, Bruce Hornsby, Trampled by Turtles and Bon Iver.
Swift wrote the rest of the album with her frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff and William Bower, a previously unknown musician who is probably using a pseudonym. (Swift fans spent Thursday speculating about Bower’s actual identity, with her brother Austin Swift, her boyfriend Joe Alwyn and folk legend Joni Mitchell among the guesses.)
“Folklore” is available digitally and on vinyl, CD and cassette. Swift is also selling limited-edition versions of the album with eight different covers on vinyl and CD for one week only via her website, taylorswift.com.
Swift also managed to direct a video for the first single “Cardigan” and said the shoot was “overseen by a medical inspector, everyone wore masks, stayed away from each other, and I even did my own hair, makeup, and styling.”
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