Ryan Adams and Taylor Swift Talk 1989, Reveal They’ve Worked Together in Beats 1 Interview

Ryan Adams and Taylor Swift Talk 1989, Reveal They've Worked Together in Beats 1 Interview

Last night, Ryan Adams released his full-album cover of Taylor Swift‘s 1989. Today, Adams and La Sera guitarist Todd Wisenbaker (who contributed to the record) appeared on Zane Lowe’s Beats 1 radio show to talk about the new record and how it came together. Midway through their chat, Swift herself called in to offer her thoughts. Listen to the full interview above.

According to Adams, the idea of a 1989 cover album dates back to last November. “I was going through a difficult time in my life,” Adams recalled, “and by the time Christmas rolled around, it was the first time I was back in L.A. during the holidays, alone, on my own.” Adams spent a week-and-a-half learning the songs and cut four solo songs on a four-track cassette recorder, before the machine ate the recordings. He then re-recorded the whole thing with a full band.

Adams and Swift both took plenty of time to sing each others’ praises, saying they are big fans of each other. They revealed that they have previously recorded together at Adams’ PAX-AM studio. 

Asked by Lowe to name her favorite cover off Adams’ album, Swift declared a tie between “Blank Space” and “How You Get The Girl”. She also said:

They’re not cover songs. They’re reimaginings of my songs, and you can tell that he was in a different place emotionally than I was. There’s this beautiful aching sadness and longing in this album that doesn’t exist in the original.

Swift admitted that listening to Adams’ versions of her songs was causing problems on her own tour, as she finds herself singing his melodies rather than the originals.

At the end of the interview, Adams revealed that he’s already completed his next record, a double LP which he crafted on the road. He said it’s “the most fragile thing” he’s done so far: “I think it will replace Love Is Hell for a deep fan as…like, this is the stuff.” 

No 1989 tour dates are planned, but Adams mentioned that he’s floated around the idea. Both he and Swift said they were open to working together again, and performing live together.

Listen to Adams’ full 1989 album:

Comments are closed.