Taylor Swift “loves” the way her fans “delve into” her lyrics to find deeper meaning.
The 36-year-old singer returned to her country roots earlier this year to write I Knew It, I Knew You for Toy Story 5 and she admitted “several” of the lines can be interpreted in different ways because she needed to find a way to “sum up” the entire movie within the track.
Speaking on American Country Countdown, she said: “I love that the lyrics of this song are really being delved into by the fans. There are several lyrics that have more than one meaning to them.
“You only have so long in a song to convey and surmise and sum up this entire film [Toy Story 5] that people just watched. Sometimes you’ll try to have a double meaning in a line.”
Offering specific lines, she said: “I knew you through the daze of the blades of the grass in summer/ Parachutes for the free fall of being younger.”
She then explained: “The word daze is spelled ‘d-a-z-e’ in the lyrics, but you could also, if you wanted to, think of it as days, ‘d-a-y-s,’ you could perceive it as that. I thought of it as like a childhood daze of you look back and you see this sort of blurry, beautiful memory that’s kind of blurry at the edges.
“Blades of the grass in summer, that harkens back to childhood and playing and using your imagination, but also there’s the added meaning of they’re toys. They can only see up to the height of blades of grass.
“’Parachutes for the free fall of being younger’: There’s the actual parachute army toys in Toy Story, as well as symbolically, somebody who helps you grow up, helps your landings be softer.”
The 36-year-old singer is “very proud” of the details she adds to her songwriting but insisted there is always a reason why she is so expansive.
She said: “It’s, kind of, been brought to my attention – and I agree with this – that I love to use detail in my lyricism.
“That’s true [and] I’m very proud of that, but I also think one thing I always make sure to check myself on is, ‘Does this detail signify something that informs the story or does it tell the narrator the mindset is in or what place they’re in?’
“Detail just for the sake of saying descriptive words is not really my thing. I love detail if it informs the actual human emotion that we’re singing about.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Taylor shared one of the biggest lessons she’s learned about writing songs over the years, which is that mood matters.
She said: “Your energy and attitude that you bring into the room affects absolutely everything about the day.
“So, really trying to be accountable to knowing that enthusiasm for the actual craft … can make or break the session. Like, if you come in and act like you don’t want to be there, everyone else is going to pick up on that. It doesn’t matter if you’re an artist, writer or engineer; everyone’s gonna pick up on you not wanting to be there.
“These are very intuitive people who want to make art, [so] it could make it so no one can make anything that day if you’re acting like [you’re] dragged in there.”