How can I make a song like Taylor Swift’s new material?

Hey everyone. I hope you had a great weekend and past week. This week’s about making a song in the style of Taylor Swift. The song I used as inspiration is “Lavender (Haze)” from her new album.

Let’s listen to the track then get into how I wrote and recorded this.

Listen here:

How did I write this?

I went to YouTube and went to “Trending” then selected “Music” and saw T-Swift was the first recommendation with her new video for “Lavender (Haze)”, so I decided to listen to that and use it as a building block. I started playing some lines along with it on my guitar and wrote the 3 beat phrase that repeats and twists/turns throughout “Another Night Without You” and then just decided to write the whole track around that small melodic fragment.

The whole piece is just 3 chords – C, D, Am or IV, V, ii – with a few other chords implied in various instruments throughout the piece.

I ended up using 74 tracks in total for this song: 32 vocal tracks, 16 audio tracks for percussion, and the remainder made up the beat and the backing music.

The audio tracks for percussion included: clapping, snapping, and this time I rolled up two pieces of paper and swept them across each other for a better “whoosh” sound than in the previous song/post where I used my sweater.

An idea of how the beat was put together with the software instruments; I used 5 tracks for the bass kick, had 3 tracks for the snare/clap/snap, 2 tracks for a small shaker that appears partway through in the background, and 16 tracks for the various levels of harmony over top of the beat to complete it.

Now, with any Taylor Swift song, you have to put yourself in the shoes of somebody who is perpetually at the end of a relationship. That was the inspiration for the lyrics. Let’s check them out below

Lyrics

(Another night without you)
(Another night without you)

Verse

Every little piece of my heart
Every last piece torn apart
Every last one of my dreams
Ripped and torn at the seams

Every time I came back to you
Every time we said that we’re through
We’d start it again

I just can’t believe what you’ve done
You’re supposed to be that someone
To always be around, never leave me found
Cold and alone on the ground

You left me on the side of the street
Now I’ve gotta follow my feet
And make my way anew

Chorus

I’m comin’ home
After another night without you
I’m on my own
After another night without you
(Another night without you)

Verse

I’ve been betrayed
After every night beside you
I’ve left before right out the door

You’ve made me see
After every night beside you
I don’t need you, not anymore

It’s hard to pick yourself up
When you been let down so many times
And every time you let go
Your thoughts are flooded with all the sweetest nights

Chorus

I’m comin’ home
After another night without you
I’m on my own
After another night without you
(Another night without you)

Bridge/Verse

I had to finally make a choice
And since you never heard my voice
The things I said coulda given’ us one more time (yeah)

Just think if you heard me that night
All of the wrongs that you would right
The things I said coulda given’ us one more time (yeah)

Without you though my life is set
You tried to force me to forget
The things I said woulda taken up all my time (yeah)

And now I’ve got a place and more
I’m so much stronger than before
The things I said woulda kept me from all that’s mine (yeah)

Chorus

I’m comin’ home
After another night without you
I’m on my own
After another night without you

I’m comin’ home
After another night without you
I’m on my own
After another night without you

(Another night without you)
(Another night without you)

This track came together pretty quickly. What I’ve found with songs like this – as opposed to heavier tracks like “Firin’ Shots”, “Temple of Glasgow”, “Beyond the Wall”, or “No One Makes It Out Alive” – is that the production/editing phase takes significantly longer than writing/performing/recording the track. It helps shine a little bit of light and appreciation on all the heavy lifting that producers and engineers do in the pop world. So, while I wrote and recorded the track pretty quickly, I ended up spending a few days off and on in the editing room tweaking and making different sounds to help enhance the overall quality of the track.

Parting thoughts

Don’t underestimate the power of a producer. The extra work after writing the music/lyrics for a song is paramount to making it sound polished and how you expect to hear a pop song on the radio or on your favourite Spotify playlist(s).

Also, don’t underestimate the power of yourself. We are in a time where we each have the ability to do everything ourselves if we work hard enough on honing our craft(s). The best way to get there is not only through immense dedication and love, but through assistance from experts and teachers that can help answer questions and put you on the proper paths to reach your goals.

Feel free to contact me or send me an email to book your lesson today.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by to listen to my music and read about my process.

All the best,

– Matt