Taylor Swift has spoken about reclaiming ownership of her songs, and the grief she’s worked through.
The singer recently appeared at the Tribeca Film Festival in conversation with director Mike Mills and actors Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien, who star in Taylor’s All Too Well: The Short Film.
During their panel, the 32-year-old opened up about regaining control of her master recordings.
“I’m in this situation, standing on this stage, talking about a short film I’m incredibly proud of, because I lost all of my work,” she began. “I was not able to own my work and I had wanted to since I can remember. It was a very hard time for me.”
She added that she’s been able to overcome “moments of extreme grief” and get to a place where “I’m very happy with where my life is now”.
The master recordings of her first six albums were sold to Scooter Braun by her former record label, Big Machine Label Group. She is in the process of re-recording all her albums.
The song All Too Well was originally released as part of the Red album in 2012, but with more than half a dozen additional verses cut. Responding to fan demand, Taylor dropped the full song as a single last year.
“You guys just wouldn’t let it go,” she said, before adding that “there’s so much happening in the music industry that’s so exciting. The fans have kind of subverted the label model of ‘we sit in a conference room and we pick the songs you’re going to like.’
“You guys are like, ‘No, we don’t want to do that anymore.’ I find it so radical and wonderful, and I’m just trying to listen to the heartbeat of what fans want.”
