Throughout October, GRAMMYpro.com released a three-part video series, "Listening Session With Taylor Swift: 1989," presented by the Nashville Chapter and the Producers & Engineers Wing. In these videos, Swift presents details of the production and songwriting process of "1989," her fifth studio album that was released on Oct. 27, 2014. Here are some of the most interesting facts in the series about the production of "1989." More details on the instruments and equipment used in "Blank Space" are discussed in Part 1, "Out of the Woods" and "I Know Places" are explained in Part 2, and "Clean" and "Shake it Off" are featured in Part 3.
1. Swift was motivated to make "1989" a "sonically cohesive" record after losing the 2014 Grammy Award for Album of The Year for her album "Red" to Daft Punk's "Random Access Memories," an album title with a deceivingly identical first letter.
That night, she skipped the after parties, went to In-N-Out Burger, cried, and thought about her next album. She woke up at 4 a.m. and decided, "It's called '1989.' I've been making '80s synth pop, so I'm just gonna do that. I'm calling it a pop record. I am not listening to anyone at my record label. I'm starting tomorrow."
2. She was inspired to write "Blank Space" based off of the character whom she is portrayed as by the media after appreciating the complexity of this character.
"She's jet-setting all over the world collecting men.. .Oh, she's so clingy once she gets them, but she can get any of them but then they run because she's so crazy... She, like, moves in day two, like crazy stuff like that. And I just thought just like, this is amazing, like I need to write a song from this girl's perspective."
3. Writers Swift, Max Martin and Shellback wanted "Blank Space" to be about the lyric and the vocal, not the production, so some of the background noises are just Swift and Shellback yelling.
Swift also included the clicking noise after "I've got a blank space, baby," to sound as annoying as possible.
4. "Out of the Woods" was written to track, which is unusual for Swift's songs.
Co-writer Jack Antonoff sent her the track and as she sat on a plane listening to the music, the song "came to [her] in full." An hour later, she sent him what was practically the finished version of the song. (Bonus fact: They speak in "Gremlin" voices to each other on a regular basis.)
5. One of the sounds on the "Out of the Woods" track came from Antonoff dropping his gear bag.
Swift has also witnessed him recording the sound of a bus passing in New York City to use for a future track.
6. "Out of the Woods" is about a relationship full of the anxiety that comes from being viewed and judged by everyone and knowing that the relationship would end but not knowing when.
7. "I Know Places" was inspired by Swift thinking about if she met someone "really awesome" and what she would tell him if he was worried about media attention.
She told co-writer Ryan Tedder that she wanted the verses to sound like a spy movie, and she was pleased with the results. She said, "I'm so happy that it sounds like the urgency that it sings about." Surprisingly, both Swift and Tedder contributed to the background vocals.
8. Swift worked with Imogen Heap on "Clean" after revealing in an interview that Heap was her dream collaborator.
"I get an email to my management, like, "Imogen just saw that Taylor said in an interview that she'd like to work together." She said, "Why don't you come up to my studio? It's actually where I live, too.'" Swift was extremely impressed that Heap did everything production-wise by herself; there was nobody else in the studio with them.
9. The main musical hook in "Clean" comes from a percussion instrument called an Mbira, and Heap also used Boomwhackers to produce percussion sounds.
Swift shows videos of both unique instruments in Part 3.
10. Swift's vocal for "Clean" was recorded in just two takes.
Heap did background vocals and Swift was awestruck that her voice sounded the way it sounded with no special effects. They recorded the song in nine hours and Heap sent her the finished version of "Clean" the next day.
11. Swift no longer cares about what other people think about her.
This inspired the lyrics for "Shake It Off." Going into the recording session, she had no ideas for the melody but told the producers, Martin and Shellback, "I want it to start off and the second the song starts I want it to be the song that, like, if it's played at a wedding and there's this one girl who hasn't danced all night at the reception, all of her friends come over to her and they're like, 'You have to dance! Come on! You have to dance on this one!'"
