Jack Antonoff on what makes Taylor Swift such a special talent (September 16th 2020)

Jack Antonoff talks to mixing engineers Dave Pensado and Herb Trawick about what sets Taylor Swift apart from her peers.

Source:
Pensado's Place YouTube Channel

Date:
September 16th 2020

Transcript:
The easiest answer is that she is a brilliant songwriter, which is the title that is given to a lot of people, but very few of them are. So, it’s not about comparing, but there’s not many people in her position that actually do it like she does. If she wants to tell a story, she sits down and writes it. She’s also a brilliant producer and she is a brilliant singer and has all these ideas, but the core of it - I think the core of what completely separates her from the pack is that she doesn’t need anything or anyone to craft a song. And I think that’s why through all these different eras of her, and the way that she moves into different genres, the rock is her song. And I think on this latest album that’s becoming more and more evident to people. It’s always been evident to fans... but you know, cause that’s all it is - a person who can sit down and take themselves, put it into a song - it’s so simple, yet there’s so few people who can do it the way she can do it. So I mean, you can go on about her forever because there’s so many fascinating angles of what she does but she is a songwriter in a truest, truest sense. Has a thought, has an experience, writes it as a song, it lives forever in that way. And she’s obsessed with the craft - so she’s honing it, and she’s honing it, and she’s honing it, and as people should - she’s becoming even more and more brilliant songwriter. [...] She does not write bad songs because she’s a real songwriter. So if you’re a real songwriter you might write some songs that are here, here or here [gesticulating all over the place], they’re not all gonna be here [gesticulating the center], you might miss the point or miss some people, whatever. But you’re not gonna write a... you know, I don’t think there’re bad Joni Mitchell songs, I don’t think there’re bad Bob Dylan songs. I think they are playing with all these different concepts, and so I think what Taylor proves is how rare it is to be of that level and to be that kind of songwriter.
[About Taylor’s range and vocals] She moves a lot into - like she has a brilliant falsetto, she can go really low and she has a wild range.

[mksketchms]

Well, she is the music industry. That's the answer

[melissapina]

Taylor is no doubt amazingly talented, but Jack Antonoff is an absolute genius.

[OmegaPoint]

The deep secret is that she writes songs that people like them.