Hey whoa this is a really really cool sweater you've got off I wore my favorite tie-dye sweater for this I appreciate it thank you and we appreciate your time it's good to see you how are you see you - I'm so good how are you doing doing really good how're you finding all of this kind of like you know stepping back out from your own private space where you've been able to create and do what you want to
do and all of a sudden you know you're catching up with nosey people like me are you enjoying it well Zane I still AM in my house right now that's true it's been so much fun putting out this song and video has been really really exciting and just a really joyful experience and it's it's been like you know the videos like a magical like whimsical mystical world so it's kind of been amazing to see the fans pick out
little Easter eggs and I just feel really grateful I want to talk about all of that and but first of all I want to congratulate you because you know the video is going on and broken records and it's been really well received and you directed that you code a regular video which must have been an amazing experience and I just wonder now you know with a bit of perspective now that everyone's out there watching it and you
know massive numbers on how that experience was for you you know moving into that environment again it was a really great experience and working with Dave Myers it was it was such a cool time working with him I'd worked with him on one commercial shoot before but I had always really wanted to do a video with him and so I came to him and I was like I've written this treatment here's the song and we got together and
basically tried to figure out as many cool visual effects as we could incorporate into the storyline that I'd written and yeah it was so much fun I mean this video shoot like the amount of times that Brandon and I just like doubled over laughing like like where your stomach hurts we're like you need to sit down that kind of laughter and when you can make stuff and laugh that much while you're making things I mean that's the
best thing in the world yeah that's the joy and it comes across in the video and I mean right at the very beginning you know you draw a line in the sand that that era the snake is gone we're now in a world of butterflies and we're going to go into this like you say this chrysalis misplayed Fantasyland and and you know the idea of putting the snake to rest getting to that place where it didn't feel dark to you anymore and you wanted
to get into a light place when did date when did it start to kind of when did it start to change when did you feel the blind start to pull back and the Sun come in yeah I mean the kind of aesthetic for the music I make is usually a reflection of how I feel as a person you know so I think during the stadium tour during the reputation stadium tour I started to feel my life my life felt different it felt like
there was a different tone like different undertones to my life like a different soundtrack playing behind my life and I really do credit the fans for the complete resurgence of kind of exuberance and excitement towards music and making new music and the way that I felt about you know this enthusiasm towards making new music is what made me get in the studio so fast and just make music really quickly after the tour
because of that energy that they had that they had given me every single night of that tour I was looking out into the crowd and seeing like so much love and care and you know these people really really are so wonderful to me and they really were the ones that made me feel like no I'm ready to put out new music and ready to kind of do it a little bit more like I used to I feel more comfortable so yeah that's a good
question looking back on it now the reputation and all of the imagery and everything that went along with it and being in a different place in your life which is all part of human growth you know having some perspective and thinking of that time period you know can you just sum up now with some distance from it what that felt like we when you were in this very different place the videos were very moody there
was a lot of dark you know chromatic color scheme a lot of different kind of energy what that felt like for you looking back on it rather than being inside it now well it definitely felt like I was purposefully and this was a decision that I made at the beginning of that entire album process I was very defiantly putting up a defense mechanism it was like creating this it was like reflecting on the
persona you felt had been crafted and constructed for you and that was the first time I'd ever done that with an album the album kind of had two different sides to it you had very weaponized songs that were very much like angsty and then you had the real story of the album which was basically about love and real love and real friendship and finding those things in an amongst feeling very very misunderstood in a lot of ways in your
life this new music is much more playful and actually inward-facing like when you get into this album it's much more about me as a person no pun intended with the song title but it's it's kind of taking those walls that taking that that bunker down from around you that you had I felt like I had to put up because you know you know after a while in certain times in your career where if you say
something it's gonna be misconstrued if you don't it's gonna be misconstrued you might as well just make music and do what you do and keep your head down yeah and crotch at the bar time it's tough I mean that's tough in a situation you know where you know you've always had a very transparent relationship with your fans you could tell that it was it was an awkward time and in some regards it gave birth to great music and a great
tour and a lot of success but you could tell that you were struggling with that how where do I fit in this conversation now because like you say lift goes one way right goes one way but neither way seems like the right way well I mean I at the very beginning of the album was pretty proud of coining the term there will be no explanation there would just be reputation and so that was what I died it does go into the album like I
did one it was a good one and I stuck with it like I didn't go back on it I didn't I didn't try to explain the album because I didn't I didn't feel that I owed that to anyone there was a lot that happened over a couple of years that made me feel really really terrible and I didn't feel like expressing that to them I didn't feel like talking about it I just felt like making music then going out on the road and doing a stadium tour
and doing everything I could for my fans like everything I did was for them and I didn't need to try and get every headline or try to get the cover of this or the cover of that like I just needed to think of ways to reach out to them in ways I hadn't even thought of before so the relationship between me and my fans really actually strengthened throughout the course of reputation and that was
what made it something that I think I'll look back on and find to be one of the most beautiful times of my life was when I realized that like it's me and it's them and that's what makes this fun for me well they've been having a lot of fun watching the video and and going through easter egg by easter egg and putting them in the basket and i suppose the first question because this will be a little cat-and-mouse i'm sure this next
part of the conversation which is always fun with your tailor we're about to watch a master at work right here watch out cuz we're gonna try and we're gonna try and tangle a few things out of there but i wonder i wonder um I wonder how spot-on the fans are with some of the assessments of what they've been watching and what they've been discovering in the video there a lot of them a lot of them know it yeah they
create really smart they cracked it there are fewer people who know the single the next single title Wow so it's not lover well I'm not gonna say anything about anything I'm not gonna break I was just what I was doing is I was just like throwing it out there just to see how it landed and just over there on the chair behind you I'll come get it later okay I'll come get it later but of course you know people are very excited
about about what they've been discovering in the video and and it must have been really fun for you to go through and to write that treatment knowing full well that you were gonna take us all on a bit of an Easter egg hunt yeah I mean the Easter egg hunts when they stopped being fun for my fans I'll stop doing them but they seem to be having fun with them and I think that with music I'm always trying to expand
the experience from just being an audio one like if I can turn it into something that feels symbolic or seems like a scavenger hunt or seems like some kind of brain game that feels like it's more than I that's something to keep in mind as a goal for me like I just want to entertain them on as many levels as I possibly can the collaborators that you work with on on me obviously Brendan will talk about him in a couple of
seconds quickly but also working with Joe little in production which was must have been a great experience and for those that don't know Joel as a fellow Kiwi so we're obviously very proud of his success but he's worked with some amazing artists and has a great reputation in that world but but what was it like for you specifically how do you and he work that's unique for you well it's very uh it almost reminds me
of Nashville when I would go into a room I'd bring my guitar I play an idea I brought in and then we start writing the song it's you're not you know there are so many different ways you can write a song and especially in pop music a lot of the time people will make a track you sing over the track you think of ideas but with Joel it's very it feels very song to songwriters in a room crafting a song then you figure out what it's gonna
sound like and he's amazing and and you know with collaborators I did I did work with some new people this time around which is really fun in the past in terms of like duet partners I've always stuck with predominantly close friends like like Ed Sheeran or Zane like people that I just like I love them I trust them I adore them so for me to go outside of you know close friends I I figured like
Brendan would be a good one because I've been such a fan for so many years and I've watched his career and I've watched what seems to be his work a Sakina from the outside and then when you get in and you're in the room with him you're like it's the same you're exactly how I thought you would be he's amazing his energy is incredible and he's an amazing performer and I think whenever he works with with anybody or or he really pushes
the people as well in a great way and and I sort of wonder like getting you know getting him on a song like me with you must have been a really great kind of muster just a great experience to see how you could merge with somebody like that because this voice is so unique and it's so much drama to it he definitely has a really unique voice and she's kind of a unique presence and I also felt like there's sort of a playful
mischievous kind of side to his performance style we're and we both love to do that we both love to overtly dramatize something for the sake of humor yeah people don't always get the joke but we're having fun I know there's a lot of fun in the video so obviously there's a lot of information that you're gonna hold on to and I don't want to be the one to try and push for it cuz hopefully we'll get a chance to try and extract
that and have a deeper conversation later on I'm hoping we do I'm looking forward to it yeah but in the meantime maybe we could just give the fans something can you confirm yes or no that Brent Brandon is not the only performance or vocal collaborator on the record can you say that I can't say that but I really really appreciate you being curious about it so we've got the video we've got the song we know that there's
something else coming you're not gonna pop your head up and put one song out so we're looking forward to more to happen this year and are you thinking about touring you thinking about all that stuff for you and for are you in a full machine mode right now or you still at home just kind of kicking watching me just take hold and do its thing I mean I'm I'm gonna go and perform on the billboards the Billboard Awards tomorrow
with Brendan so I'm really excited about that I'm kind of I'm at home today but I'm definitely like I was just at rehearsal last night how's it going it's going really well I mean you got to wish us luck because we haven't really like performed this before but it's really really fun what we have planned and yeah we're just gonna like go up and like have fun amazing Taylor always good to catch up with you me the video obviously
is is up on Apple music now alongside the music it's all there featuring Brendon Urie from panic at the disco good luck at the Billboard Awards and and will there be any Easter eggs in your performance are you gonna continue having fun in this environment and Ken planting little tricks and treats for the kids we'll see we'll see there's a lot to look forward to thanks Taylor thank you thank you so much bye you're the best bye