Razorlight’s Johnny Borrell wrote his new song ‘Taylor Swift = US Propaganda’ “in about 10 seconds”.
The 44-year-old rocker insisted that despite its title, the song has nothing to do with the US popstar but was inspired by a note he found in the recording studio.
He told NME: “I went back to the Basque country where I live and promptly forgot about being a musician for five weeks. My girlfriend asked me: ‘Are you writing anything?’ and I just laughed. I hadn’t even thought about it until she put it in my mind. I picked up a guitar and, honestly, pretty much everything else happened. ‘Taylor Swift’ popped out in about 10 seconds.
“When we’re recording, I always write down things people say. Finishing that song in the studio, I saw a bit of paper that said: ‘Taylor Swift = US Soft Propaganda’. If you want me to comment on Taylor Swift specifically, I’m not sure I really can, because I don’t know much about her.
“Like I say, I don’t know much about Taylor Swift. But I like to take the reality of the creative process and keep it. And with a lot of albums, people start off wanting to say things then, once people start saying: ‘Oh, that’s controversial, what will people say about that?’ Everything starts to get smoothed out. In 2024, what’s the point?”
And, he urged Taylor’s fans not to take the title seriously.
He said: “I want to stay true. Every step of the way on this album, what was happening in the studio is what you get. That piece of paper is a joke someone thought was funny at the time. So, why not?”
Razorlight have recently announced ‘Planet Nowhere’ – their first album recorded by the group’s classic line-up, Borrell, guitarist Bjorn Agren, drummer Andy Burrows and bassist Carl Dalem, since 2008.