“Not really [was it melancholy]. I was just so happy that my world felt opened up creatively. There was a point that I got to as a writer who only wrote very diaristic songs that I felt it was unsustainable for my future moving forward. It felt like too hot of a microscope, it felt a bit like I was just, why am I, if I’m writing about my life and all that it is–on my bad days I would feel like I was I was loading a canon of clickbait, when that’s not what I want for my life. And I think that when I put out folklore, I felt like, ‘If I can do this, this thing where I get to create characters in this mythological American town or wherever I imagine them and I can reflect my own emotions onto what I think they might be feeling and I can create stories and characters and arcs and all this stuff but I don’t have to have it feel like when I put out an album I’m just like giving tabloids ammunition and stuff. […] And constantly kind of examining yourself in a way that feels like, I felt like there would be a point in my life where I could no longer really do that and still maintain a place of good mental health and emotional health and all that. So what I felt after we put out folklore was like, oh wow, people are into this too? This thing that feels really good for my life, and feels really good for my creativity, and feels really good to them too?’ Oh my god! I saw a lane for my future that was a real breakthrough moment of excitement and happiness. I kind of referred to writing these songs as flotation device, because obviously this year is hell on earth for everyone, and seeing what your fellow humans are going through–the long pond studio sessions was the first time that Jack, Aaron and I were in the same room. And I still haven’t been in the same room as Justin Vernon! Who has now collaborated on two albums, heavily, and we’ve talked but we’ve just never been in the same space together. It’s pretty wild!”
— Taylor to Zane Lowe on the creative pivot she took this year
