Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are keeping fans fed this week. And it's only Wednesday.
After an album announcement (hers) and a tell-all GQ cover story (his), Swift appeared as a guest on Kelce and his brother Jason's podcast, New Heights. The episode was announced on August 11 and premiered on August 13, one day after she first revealed her forthcoming 12th studio record — or TS12 in Swiftie parlance — in a teaser clip from the pod. “This is my brand new album, The Life of a Showgirl,” she said, showing off a blurred out album cover as the Kelce brothers went wild.
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Of course, the album announcement itself was one big Easter egg. To recap: First, the official Taylor Swift fan account, Taylor Nation, shared a series of photos of the singer wearing orange while performing on the Eras Tour. The caption read: “Thinking about when she said ‘See you next era…’ ❤️🔥”
But I think I've seen this film before…and I didn't like the ending.
Simultaneously, the Kelce brothers' New Heights podcast teased a special guest, sharing a Swift-shaped silhouette against a glittery orange backdrop. (Spoiler: It was, in fact, Tay.) A few hours later, at precisely 12:12 a.m. ET on August 12, Swift announced her new album (get it? It's TS 12), and followed up the news by dropping a playlist of her own bangers on Spotify. What did these songs have in common? The pop producer Max Martin, who's collaborated with Swift on some of her most-memorable pop hits.
(For everything we know about The Life of a Showgirl, including a potential release date, click here.)
Now, we finally have the full-length podcast interview. Keep reading for a full recap of what Taylor Swift said on her New Heights podcast interview, which also happens to be very first podcast interview ever.
The Life of a Showgirl has a release date!
The Life of a Showgirl will be released everywhere on October 3! What's the date again? It's October 3.
Swift told the Kelce brothers that she recorded the album while in Europe during the Eras Tour last year. “I'd do like three shows in a row," she explained. “I'd have three days off. I'd fly to Sweden [to record], and go back to the tour."
“I was physically exhausted at this point in the tour, but I was so mentally stimulated and so excited to be creating,” she added. The title — The Life of a Showgirl — is a nod to this chaotic framework, as well as the album's theme, which is “everything that was going on behind the curtain.”
Swifties correctly predicted that the album is a collaboration with Max Martin — whom Swift referred to as her mentor — and Shellback. “It felt like catching lightning in a bottle,” she said of the trio working together again. As for what she hoped to achieve with the album, she said, “My main goals were melodies that were so infectious you're almost angry at it and lyrics that are just as vivid, but crisp and focused and completely intentional.”
And we have a track list!
Track 1: “The Fate of Ophelia”
Track 2: “Elizabeth Taylor”
Track 3: “Opalite”
Track 4: “Father Figure”
Track 5: “Eldest Daughter”
Track 6: “Ruin the Friendship”
Track 7: “Actually Romantic”
Track 8: “Wish Li$$t”
Track 9: “Would”
Track 10: “CANCELED!”
Track 11: “Honey”
Track 12: “The Life of a Showgirl” feat. Sabrina Carpenter
And yes, there was an Easter egg about it. At the very last Eras Tour show, Swift exited the stage through an orange door, rather than a lift, as she had done at every other show. “I was leaving the Eras tour era, but I was entering a new Era," she explained.
She also debuted the cover art for the album, photographed by Mert & Marcus, which features Swift wearing a bedazzled showgirl dress while relaxing in a bathtub. “The reason I wanted to have it sort of like an offstage moment as the main album cover is because this album isn't really about what happened to me on stage,” she explained. “It's about what I was going through offstage.”
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What she said about Travis and her podcasting debut:
Jason kicked off the interview by asking Swift the “question everybody watching the show is currently asking: Why are you coming on the show? Why New Heights?”
Without missing a beat, Swift replied, “I owe a lot to this podcast. This podcast got me a boyfriend.” She is referring of course to Travis's opining on an episode of New Heights about how he had wanted to meet her on the Eras Tour, but was turned away from her dressing room. Or, as she put it, ”the 'shooting your shot' heard round the world."
The couple, who sat intertwined for the duration of the two-hour interview, looked very much in love as they chatted about the genesis of their relationship (they're not denying Andy Reed played cupid) as well as how they were side-by-side for some of the biggest moments in Swift's life during the past two years — from the Eras Tour to Swift buying back her masters. And both Kelce brothers showed their support after Swift's dad, Scott Swift, underwent quintuple bypass surgery earlier this year.
Neither pays too much attention to the chatter online about their relationship, but Swift says she was aware that when they first started dating, both of their fandoms wondered what they had in common. To Swift, their similarities are pretty straightforward.
“On paper, we actually have a very similar job," she said. "Our job is to entertain people for three plus hours in NFL stadiums. When I'm there, it's called a dressing room. When Travis is there, it's called a locker room.
What she said about hobbies:
“I'm really talking about bread 60% of the time now,” she said. And we believe it. The segment on Swift's bread-baking obsession was as long (if not longer) than the amount of time she spent talking about her album.
“I'm on sourdough blogs," she enthused of her sourdough fixation, “there's a whole community of us. Girl, I'm on your blog.”
She says she received her sourdough starter from her parents' friend Tina, and she really amped things up post-Eras Tour and while her dad was recovering from surgery. The 35-year-old now bakes bread for friends, which she delivers in custom bread bags printed with puns based on her songs, like “Are you bready for it?” and “Loving him is bread,” and “It's a loaf story baby just say yeast.” And if that's not the most Taylor Swift Taylor Swiftism I don't know what is.
On the art of the Easter egg
Yes, the Easter eggs really are that complex on purpose, though she emphasises that she'll never drop hints about her personal life. This is music only.
And yes, she has a favourite Easter egg: Her speech at NYU after she was awarded an honorary degree, where she read essentially read the lyrics to her then-unreleased album Midnights.
Anything else?
So much! This is 124 minutes of uninterrupted Swift chatter we're talking about, but we'll keep it brief.
Swift also revealed: She's had Lasik eye surgery. She is a triskaidekaphile, which means she loves the number 13 (duh). She sews two things: baby purses and blankets. She enjoys painting. Her mother Andrea recently had a knee replacement. She does not consider herself an athlete, a position that the Kelce brothers take great offence to, and dispute over and over. She never checks her DMs. She's into numerology. And last but not least, there's a good chance that her latest loaf might have some cat hair in it.
Watch Taylor Swift's full New Heights podcast interview here.
This article originally appeared on GLAMOUR (US).
