Self-study activity:
Watch the video through and note down the questions Taylor is asked.
Watch the video again and note down the gist (general idea) of Taylor's answers.
The activity is suitable for strong intermediate 2 students.
I'm Rebecca Keegan with Taylor Swift, who is taking questions from Time readers from an RV on Hollywood Boulevard. Hey, Taylor, how are you?
I'm doing great, how are you?
I'm good. I have a bunch of questions for you from Time readers from all over the world. This first question comes from Stacy Clementine in Johnsburg, Illinois, who asks how long does it take you to write a song it.
It depends. I've written songs in 15 minutes and also on the other end of the spectrum I've taken a year to finish a song, but most of the time songs that I write end up being finished in 30 minutes or less, you know, all the songs that have been singles like Love story, I wrote that on my bedroom floor in about 20 minutes, so usually when I get on the role when something is really hard for me to put it down unfinished.
How do you manage to appear so genuinely happy when according to your songs you've suffered so much heartbreak?
I have ways of channeling the heartbreak that I’ve gone through at the right moments. A lot of times you don't allow yourself to feel things to their full extent because you have to go on with things but there are moments when I'm writing songs that's why I let myself feel it the most. So it's all about really knowing when you gotta feel those things and that knowing, when you gotta just go about your day in spite of it. Also it has been a really awesome year. There's been a lot to be happy about, so I get so excited when I go to an award show and I get to perform and I get to do a performance I've always wanted to do since middle school, and I get so excited when the song that I wrote about something really personal to me goes number one and I looked down and I see people singing the words back to me. That makes me so much happier then on than anything could really ever bring me down, so it's like you've got some channeling that hurt when, when it's the right time to and also just the fact that life has been really good.
Where do you find the inspiration for your songs?
I find inspiration in human emotion. The way that we treat each other, the way that we make each other feel and the pattern of it and how you know it repeats itself so often but we never learn from it, just all the different things that you learn from relationships, whether it be friends or family or love, mostly love. I just love watching people and how we react to feelings, so I think love is always gonna be a number one contributor to the inspiration department for me.
This question comes from Katmandu.
Awesome.
And the reader asks, I grew up listening to heavy metal and rock, yet I find your songs very catchy. What sort of music do you listen to?
I love Def Leppard. I've always loved Def Leppard on ever since I was little. My mom has always listened to Def Leppard, so they were my favorite band from the time I was a little kid to now.
My little Victor in the Philippines asks what advice do you have for young and aspiring songwriters?
I would say my advice to songwriters is to write your songs, not for a specific demographic or for getting on the radio or for anything commercial like that. Write your songs to the person that you're writing that song about. That's the mindset that I going into when I sit down to write a song. I think to myself, okay, who is this about? Fill in the blank and then I think, what would I say to him right now if I could and if I had the nerve to, what would I say. And then you think of some rhymes and you put it all together .
Earl Worthington in Chicago wants to now what other artists would you like to do a duet with?
I would like to do a duet with Taylor Hanson because I have loved Hanson since I was eight and it’s like never gonna end, I'm never gonna stop loving them, and Taylor Hanson has an amazing voice and also, you know, we’re both named Taylor.
You did have great hair.
Thank you.
You share the blondeness.
Thank you so much. I love John Mayer, but I, but I said it in another interview, I say that in like every interview, so I figured I'd switch it up.
Mix it up. We wanna have the Hansons scoop people.
I love Hanson.
How do you find balance between your personal and professional life?
Finding balance between my personal and professional life is kinda interesting because they bleed together, you know, I, I write songs about the guy that sat next to me in class 10th grade or the person that I saw yesterday that we made eye contact for a split second, but it was enough to inspire a song.
And for me I just try not to get too territorial about what's personal time and what's professional time because if I'm sitting at home in my hometown and it's my one day off in three months and I'm sitting there and I'm at a restaurant and a line forms in front of my table, that winds around the entire restaurant, I'm not gonna say ‘this is my day off, I won’t sign your autographs’, because this is what I've asked for my entire life. This is the one thing that I wanted, and the fact that I actually get to do that one thing that I've always wanted, I don’t think I'm ever gonna wanna complain about it.
Katie Rutherford in Washington DC wants to know, do you plan on getting your college degree? If so what are you interested in studying?
College is something that I always thought I was gonna do and then I discovered music and I still thought I was gonna go to college because I never really actually thought I'd get to do this, you know, I worked really hard for it but I did never expect that it was gonna be a possibility for me and then I started getting further with it. Later on I would love to take college classes and getting the college experience is something I'm planning on doing pretty soon because I'm gonna go visit my friend Abigail in college and see what that's like, but, you know, no matter what path you choose, you're gonna miss something and I wanna miss this
