Music

Aaron Dessner Answers Whether Taylor Swift Is Working on Another Album

Aaron Dessner collaborated with Taylor Swift on 'folklore' and 'evermore,' and he has a general idea of what Swift will do next.

by Eryn Murphy

Published on December 24, 2020

2 min read

On Dec. 11, Taylor Swift surprised fans by releasing an album called evermore. The album is a sister album to Swift’s album folklore which she released earlier this year on July 24.

Ever since Swift released evermore, fans have been convinced Swift could release another album soon. In an interview with Billboard, Swift’s folklore and evermore collaborator Aaron Dessner revealed what he thinks Swift will do next.

‘evermore’ was a surprise release

Swift turned 31 years old on Dec. 13. On Dec. 10, the singer-songwriter announced she would release evermore on Dec. 11 as an early celebration of her birthday.

As she did with folklore, Swift collaborated with producers Aaron Dessner, Jack Antonoff, and Bryce Dessner. The album also features Bon Iver, Haim, and the National.

“To put it plainly, we just couldn’t stop writing songs. To try and put it more poetically, it feels like we were standing on the edge of the folklorian woods and had a choice: to turn and go back or to travel further into the forest of this music. We chose to wander deeper in,” Swift tweeted when she announced evermore.

I’m elated to tell you that my 9th studio album, and folklore’s sister record, will be out tonight at midnight eastern. It’s called evermore.
?: Beth Garrabrant pic.twitter.com/xdej7AzJRW
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) December 10, 2020

Fans suspected Taylor Swift planned to release another album

After following folklore with evermore, fans of Swift realized that Swift worked on a lot of music in quarantine. Naturally, fans wondered if Swift created enough music to make another companion album and follow-up to evermore.

Rumors spread more when fans found the word “woodvale” written in the upper-right corner of the album cover of folklore. While appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Swift explained what “woodvale” meant.

“Basically, when I was making folklore… I was too afraid to even unveil the title of the album to even my closest teammates and management,” she said. “I didn’t tell anybody the album title until right before it came out. And so I came up with a fake codename that had the same amount of letters as folklore, chose a random name… ‘woodvale.'”

She continued, “We forgot to take the fake codename off of one of them.”

Kimmel asked if Swift would ever release a second companion album and third album overall in the folklore series. However, Swift denied that she was working on one.

“Jimmy, I’m so tired, I’m so exhausted. I tired myself out, I have nothing left,” she said.

Aaron Dessner on Taylor Swift’s plans

In an interview with Billboard, Aaron Dessner talked about what it was like collaborating with Swift on both albums.

He also revealed that as of right now, there are no plans for another album, saying:

“I think we both feel like it was Mission: Impossible — and we pulled it off. I imagine that we’ll make music together in some ways forever, because it was that sort of chemistry, and I’m so thankful and grateful for what happened, but I think there’s a lot there. It’s not just the two albums, there’s also bonus tracks, and two of my favorite songs aren’t even on this record. We’re not pouring into another one now.”

So what will Swift do next? Aaron Dessner does not know for sure, but after releasing two back-to-back albums, he thinks the first thing Swift will do is take a break.

“I think she’ll probably take a break,” he told Billboard.