Songwriting is the topic of the moment for Taylor Swift.

The 23-year-old pop তারকা was honoured for a record sixth time as songwriter-artist of the বছর দ্বারা the Nashville Songwriters Association International, surpassing guys like Vince Gill and Alan Jackson. She earned the award with 14 hits in the শীর্ষ 30 over the last year, a tribute to the popularity of her multiplatinum fourth album, Red.

As সত্বর accepts the award, she’s six months deep in the songwriting process for her পরবর্তি album.

“I think the goal for the পরবর্তি album is to continue to change, and never change in the same way twice,” the seven-time Grammy winner said. “How do I write these figurative diary entries in ways that I’ve never written them before and to a sonic backdrop that I’ve never explored before? It’s my fifth album, which is crazy to think about, but I think what I’m noticing about it so far is it’s definitely taking a different turn than anything I’ve done before.”


সত্বর sat down after the সাম্প্রতিক ribbon-cutting on the new $4 million (Dh14.6 million) Taylor সত্বর Education Centre at the Country সঙ্গীত Hall of Fame and Museum in her adopted hometown to talk about what’s to come with the new album, her six Country সঙ্গীত Association Award nominations, her friend and fellow Nashville resident Ed Sheeran and Madonna.

Next মাস আপনি leave on a stadium tour of Australia, making আপনি the first female solo performer to tour that country since ম্যাডোনা 20 years ago. ম্যাডোনা was the শীর্ষ pop তারকা in the world at the time. Do আপনি see yourself as that kind of pop star?

I would never see myself that way. I see myself as kind of this girl who writes songs in her bedroom. আপনি can kind of dress it up all আপনি want and আপনি can put together an amazing theatrical production, আপনি can become a better performer as time goes by, and আপনি can try to excite people, but I’m always going to be a girl who writes songs in her bedroom in my own personal perception of myself. And I think it’s important that I don’t necessarily think too hard about what everybody else’s perception of me is অথবা else I’d just get completely হারিয়ে গেছে in it. It’s just easier to think of myself that way.

You’re up for entertainer of the বছর again at the CMAs on November 6. If আপনি win, you’ll become the first woman with three wins, passing Barbara Mandrell. How do আপনি feel about that?

I think winning entertainer of the বছর would be an অবিশ্বাস্য thing to happen in my life because I still sometimes can’t believe I’ve gotten to win that twice. So a third time, what I think it would mean for my fans, would be the biggest feeling I would have. Just knowing the, I think, 1.3 million people we saw this বছর in the US would get to know that they contributed to that and that they being frenzied and covering themselves in বড়দিন lights and making signs and learning the lyrics and screaming at the শীর্ষ of their lungs and dancing for two hours straight at my প্রদর্শনী somehow moved the needle and impacted my life in a way that I’ll remember when I’m 85 if I get to be 85.

You ব্যক্ত recently you’ve been working on songs for the new album for about six months. What can আপনি tell us about what আপনি have planned?

t’s too early to tell who are going to be my predominant collaborators, but I do know that my absolute dream collaborators were Shellback and Max Martin on the last project. I’ve never been so challenged as a songwriter. I’ve never learned so much. I’ve never just been so excited to প্রদর্শনী up to the studio every day, just because আপনি never know what we’re going to put together. I’ll bring in ideas and they’ll take such a different turn than where I thought they were going to go, and that level of unexpected spontaneity is something that really thrills me in the process of making music. ... What if we did this? What if we made it weirder? What if we took it darker? I প্রণয় people who have endless strange and exciting ideas about where সঙ্গীত can go.

How far are আপনি willing to push the boundaries of your sound?

I definitely think that with সঙ্গীত my favourite thing about Nashville is that it’s a সঙ্গীত hub that accepts and allows all genres to be present, and I think there’s been a kind of fusing of genres lately that for me makes me really happy and excited. I am blown away at getting six CMA nominations in a বছর that I pushed the boundaries of what a genre is আরো than ever before. I’m so happy that people understood what I was doing conceptually. Getting those six CMA nominations to me signified that this community knew that I was not running from where I come from. I was exploring, and I think the আরো people who know what country সঙ্গীত is, the আরো people will gravitate toward Nashville.

Speaking of Nashville, I think আপনি convinced your friend Ed Sheeran to সরানো here ...

Oh, I definitely did. Ed loves Nashville. আপনি know, so many people live here now. It’s really exciting because nobody who comes here ... doesn’t like it, and it just makes me proud to live here and it makes me proud to make সঙ্গীত here and I প্রণয় it. I just প্রণয় it becoming such an exciting place to live after eight years.