Taylor Swift Wrote ‘Out of the Woods’ About ‘Feelings of Anxiety’
In October 2014, Taylor Swift released her album 1989. She went on to win Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album at the 2016 Grammy Awards for the album. During a Grammy Pro listening session, Swift detailed how she made 1989, and she revealed she made the song “Out of the Woods” about “feelings of anxiety” she had about a relationship.
Taylor Swift’s song ‘Out of the Woods’ is about ‘feelings of anxiety’
“Out of the Woods” marks one of the first collaborations between Swift and producer Jack Antonoff. The two have since collaborated on Swift’s albums Reputation, Lover, folklore, evermore, Fearless (Taylor’s Version), and Red (Taylor’s Version).
During the Grammy Pro interview, Swift went into detail about working with Antonoff. Swift also explained what “Out of the Woods” is about.
“The song itself, what I wrote, hearing this track it just kind of conjured up all these feelings of anxiety that I had had in a relationship where everybody was watching, everybody was commenting on it,” Swift said.
She continued, “You’re constantly just feeling like ‘Are we out of the woods yet? What’s the next thing going to be? What’s the next hurdle? We’re going to have to jump over it. Are we going to make it to next week?'”
The singer based ‘Out of the Woods’ on ‘fragile relationships’
In the Grammy Pro listening session, Swift went into more detail about the creative process behind making “Out of the Woods.” The singer-songwriter noted that the song is based on “fragile relationships.”
“It was interesting to write about a relationship where you’re just honestly like, ‘This is probably not going to last, but how long is it gonna last?'” Swift said. “Those fragile relationships, there’s something, it doesn’t mean they’re not supposed to happen.”
The singer continued, “How the whole time we were having happy memories, or crazy memories, or ridiculously anxious times. In my head it was just like ‘Are we OK yet? Are we there yet? Are we out of this yet?'”
Taylor Swift wrote the song in a ‘different way’ compared to past songs
When introducing the concept of “Out of the Woods” during the Grammy Pro listening session, Swift played the first voice memo she ever recorded of the song.
Before doing so, Swift explained how she wrote the song, and why her songwriting process for “Out of the Woods” was so “different.”
“I’m not used to writing to track. I know it’s done in pop music all the time, but I’ve never written that way,” Swift said.
The singer explained that right before boarding a plane, Antonoff sent her the track for “Out of the Woods.” While on the plane, Swift ended up writing most of the song.
“And I’m listening to it, and I’m just like listening to it and like mumbling melodies. Because the song came to me immediately like in full,” she said.
