SWIFT SHINES A (GAS)LIGHT ON DARKER SIDE OF LIFE

TAYLOR SPILLS HER FOLKLORE SECRETS

AYLOR SWIFT delves into the nitty-gritty of life on her hit album Folklore.

Tay Tay, famed for her squeaky clean image and celebrity romances, reveals a darker side as she explores gaslighting in relationships and ‘dealing with addiction’ in her new songs.

Only her family and her British boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, knew about her secret lockdown project.

Sharing the meaning behind one track, August, the 30-year-old said: ‘August girl thought she was really falling in love. It kind of explores the idea of the undefined relationship.

‘As humans, we’re all encouraged to be cool and just let it happen, and don’t ask what the relationship is – are we exclusive?

‘But if you are chill about it, especially when you’re young, you learn the very hard lesson that if you don’t define something, oftentimes they can gaslight you into thinking it was nothing at all, and that it never happened.’

Taylor, who has dated the likes of Harry

Styles, Calvin Harris and Tom Hiddleston, asked: ‘And how do you mourn the loss of something once it ends, if you’re being made to believe that it never happened at all?’

Elsewhere Taylor – who also describes swearing on her No.1 album as ‘f***ing fantastic’ – was candid about what inspired her song This Is Me Trying.

After feeling she was in a slump four years ago, after dropping Reputation, she said the track was about not being given credit for overcoming vices.

‘I think I was writing from three different characters’ perspectives,’ she told Entertainment Weekly. ‘I was channelling the emotions I was feeling in 2016, 2017, where I felt like I was worth absolutely nothing.

‘The second verse is about dealing with addiction and issues with struggling every day. Every second of the day, you’re trying not to fall into old patterns, and nobody around you gives you credit for it.’

Folk hero: Taylor kept her lockdown project secret