“Hand It Over!” Travis & Taylor Break Silence on Shocking ‘No-Phone Rule’ at Private Events

I remember when I was a teenager, my parents would always the big fight we always had is I’d sneak my cell phone into my room and be talking to my best friend Abigail under the covers all night and they’d be like, “You have a test tomorrow. You need to rest. You we’re taking your phone, whatever.”  Yeah.  I’d get to the hospital, my my brother will have done the night shift and he’s like,  he’s like, “Tay, you got to take his phone.

” I caught him facetiming his friends all night. He needs his rest. He needs to be sleeping. He’s FaceTiming all night.  That’s like one of the main things you need is you need that your body to just like recover. And I’m like, I’m not taking his phone. He’ll get mad. He’s like, I’m not taking his phone. You got to be the one to take his phone.

 I’m like, I’m not doing it. My mom’s like, I don’t want to do it. My So, we’re just like, it’s like, we’ve got to like our teen, we’ve got to take our teenage son’s phone away from him cuz he’s facetiming all night. He came out of surgery, tried to  It was so cool to see how everybody interacted and, you know, with no phones comes, you know, not people not having to be on guard and like feel that, you know, something, you know, whatever whatever that feeling is for everyone.

It it makes it makes everyone be in the moment and be present. And it was uh it was so cool seeing everyone from my childhood not only mesh with Taylor and her childhood and her family and friends and uh and people that she works with to to who we’ve, you know, come encounter with over our career and who we just admire as people and um have become good friends with now.

 And it’s it’s just been so cool to see that world come together and hear through person by person uh you know after the wedding just how awesome of a time everyone had there and um and that’s what we wanted it to be. We wanted it to be you know a beautiful ceremony and it was so fun  but we also wanted to make sure that everybody left there having some fun.

 Yeah.  And uh and it was a it was a magical night.  I’m Taylor. Welcome to New York. I wanted you to meet me up here at the very top of the Empire State Building because I have some exciting news that I wanted to tell you about. Um, and as cool as this is, we can see all of New York. It’s a beautiful day.

 To be honest with you, it’s kind of scary up here. So, um, I was thinking maybe we could go inside someplace we could talk. [screaming]      WOW.   OH, hi guys. So cool. So hey um welcome to this live stream extravaganza adventureathon.  [screaming]  I mean  thank you for coming.

 Um tonight they’re telling me that we’re making history because this is the first ever worldwide live stream for ABC and Yahoo to get together. And I’m so excited I can’t even.  And I want to thank everybody here in the studio. We have some very dedicated, incredible people that we’ve handpicked to be here in New York.

  And we have so many people who have tuned in from around the world. So happy and so excited to see you. I have three big surprises for you today.   So,  um, but I really, really, really like the one at the end. So, please stick with me. Um, basically the first surprise I’ll just tell you about now.

Um, I have a new song I’m going to play you in like 30 seconds. [screaming]   SO,   would you would you like to know what it’s about?  Okay, I’ll tell you. [laughter] Uh, basically this is a song that I did with MAX MARTIN AND SHELLBACK. WE did we’ve done songs like I Knew Your Trouble and We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.

So, we decided to get back together to work together. That was a terrible joke. Um, and basically, uh, we went in the studio and we decided it was our number one priority to make a song that sounded nothing like anything Max and Johan had done and sounded nothing like anything I had done. So, um, the song that the idea I came up with and what I wanted to write about was the idea that I’ve had to learn a pretty tough lesson in the last couple of years that people can say whatever they want about us at any time.

YEAH. [screaming]  False rumors. Yes. Um, people can say whatever they want about us at any time and we cannot control that. The only thing we can control is our reaction to it. And I figure that we have two options. You can either let it get to you, let it change you, let it make you bitter, or not trust people.

 Or you could, you know, you can descend into insanity if you want. Option two is you just shake it off.  UM,     I want to play it for you now. Will you please get up and dance with me?   And everyone watching around the world, let’s go. You ready to do this?      You guys like it? Look at them back there.

Yay. Do you guys like it?   Come on. [laughter] Um, I can’t believe that that’s out now. Okay. Wow. That’s a secret I’ve been keeping for a really, really long time. And I was thinking about maybe telling you secret surprise number two.   All right. That’s a That’s a lot of cardio. It didn’t look like it, but it was.

 Um, okay. So, you might be thinking to yourself, “So, we just heard a new song.” I think that I should tell you that that has led to um the confession that I’ve been working on a new album for two years.     And um this album, I like to work on albums for two years because I feel like two years gives you enough time to grow and to change and to you know change your priorities, change where you live, change your hair, change what you believe in, change who you who you hang out with, what’s influencing you, what’s

inspiring you. And in the process of all of those changes that have happened in the last two years, my music changed. So what ended up happening was I woke up every single day that I was recording this record not wanting but needing to make a new style of music than I had ever made before. So essentially what ended up happening was in my opinion we made the most sonically cohesive album I’ve ever made.

 We made my favorite album I’ve ever made. AND    I loved how ahead of its time it was. And um so being inspired by that, I started delving into the late ‘8s and what that period of time actually meant. And what I found from asking people and reading up on it and just really diving into the late 80s was that it was apparently a time of just limitless potential.

 And the idea that you can do what you want, be who you want, wear what you want, love who you want, and you get to decide where your life is going. Bright colors, bold chances, rebellion, and the idea of that was so inspiring to me. And uh the idea of endless possibility was kind of a theme in the last year of my life. I’m still really out of breath.

 [laughter] So, I’m like, but basically, um, in thinking about that and think thinking about all those themes and thinking about how this new album is a bit of a rebirth for me because it’s it’s so new. I’ve never really made these kinds of changes before. Uh, and having been born on December 13th, 1989, this album IS CALLED 1989.

      AND IF YOU were if you were wondering what that picture is, that’s the COVER OF IT.  UM,  and for the record, uh, this is my very first documented official pop album.  So,  um, that photo that you’re seeing is actually a Polaroid that we took.

 We took, um, the album photos on Polaroids. So, it’s, um,  it’s a Polaroid that, um, I just loved the idea of. I loved it. It was kind of an accident which I decided, well, why not make that the album cover? Um, so basically, you can pre- buy the album right after this live stream. You go to taylor Swiftswift.

com, details,   and wait for it, in stores October 27th.     So, I realize I’ve kind of just unloaded a lot of information on you. There’s just a lot that’s been that’s been told to you. So, I figure maybe the most natural thing might be that some people might have some questions.

 So, we’re going to go to a question from Instagram and um Ashley Slater 13 has a question. She says, “Your style seems to change with every new album. How has your style changed in the past two years and how is it reflected on the new album? PS. Love the crop tops and short hair. [laughter] Yes, I’m glad.

 Um, you know, that’s a really interesting question. I think that as a songwriter and just as a person, I try to be really open to inspiration. I, you know, whether I’m walking down the street in New York and I see somebody wearing something cool and I I’m affected by those things. In the same way, you have to be vulnerable to new emotions and painful emotions and great emotions and let those things into your songwriting, I kind of let the same thing happen to me as far as fashion goes.

 And what you find is yourself experimenting and becoming comfortable uh you know, trying out things you weren’t comfortable with before. Um, but I do I’m very organized in weird ways and I kind of like to be able to look at old pictures and see what my hair looks like and what I’m wearing and be like, “Oh, that was the second album.” So, so that’s a that’s that’s that’s that.

Um, but okay. So, Joey in our audience has a question.  There you are. Hi.  My dancing partner.  I know. It’s such a pleasure to dance with you.  You, too. That song is so good. It is so [screaming] good.    Awesome. My question is um is there going to be a deluxe version of the album? And if so, what’s going to be on it?  There is ACTUALLY   there are going to be there going to be three new songs that I really was dying to put on the album.

 Um and I’m doing something I’ve never done before with this deluxe. And I’m basically I’ve gotten a lot of questions about songwriting, about the process, about you know what happens when you get an idea. The answer is the first thing I do is I grab my phone and I either sit it on the edge of the piano or put it right down on my bed in front of my guitar and I play whatever melody slash gibberish comes to my brain first.

 And um I’ve never released any of that before, but um I actually have three uh bonus tracks that are just uh voice memos from my phone.    And so you’ll hear you’ll hear me singing just an idea and a melody and some words and then you’ll be able to go to the record and the album and and you’ll listen to what it ended up being when it was finished.

 So hopefully that kind of adds some insight into songwriting and thank you for that question. Uh now from Facebook, Ashley May Jones asks, “Will there be secret messages in the album booklet as there has been with previous albums?” That uh that’s something that if you guys keep on liking that I do that, I’ll keep on doing it.

 I think   so.  A lot of what I decide to do, all of what I decide to do on albums is based on what I think you will like. So, if you like that, I’ll keep doing it. But I also was thinking about um you know, I’ve been taking lots and lots of Polaroids because I like the tangible quality of a photograph.

 Um, and so since we did this album photo shoot on Polaroids, and since I’ve been taking so many just in my life, um, for the last couple of years, we’ve actually decided that this time around we’re going to include these, uh, photo packets. They’re prints in the physical album. So, you’ll open up, you’ll be like, “Oh, CD. Oh, envelope of Polaroids.

” And there will be 13 in each pack, but there will be different packs. So, you’ll get various different kinds of photos. And  you like  good.    You guys, I’m so excited. This is so crazy. [laughter] Um, be cool from Twitter. I can address this. Um because I I’ve been reading so many things on Instagram and Twitter where you’ll say, “I’ve been to three shows and I’ve never met you.

I’ve been to I I waited outside of, you know, I waited outside a TV show. I slept on the street, whatever.” And I’m just like, “I want to meet this person.” And um so I’ve been thinking of new ways that we can do that. So we created something called the 1989 Swift Stakes. See, it’s like sweep stakes, but we MADE IT ANNOYING.

     AND SO WHAT IT MEANS IS that I’ll be giving away 1,000 tickets and 500 meet and greets to the next tour. So basically, uh, there are going to be in total 1,989 prizes, which is just 1989 with a comma in it. Um, there will be details at taylor Swiftswift.com. There’s going to be a lot of information on taylor Swift.com.

 all the pre-order stuff, deluxe stuff, where to buy stuff, what to do, all it’s it’s there’s a lot of stuff on that website. It’s very useful. Um, so from Norway on Skype, Anna Bandura asks, “When will you record a new music video?” Hey,  Norway,  we love you. You look beautiful. [laughter]  You have the shiniest hair. Oh, we [laughter] I like them.

 Um, so I’m going to rephrase the question uh from will you record a new music video? Will I’m going to rephrase it to have you already shot a new music video,    which segus me into uh surprise NUMBER THREE.     SO, UM, basically here’s the story on that.

 Um, there’s a director I’ve wanted to work with for years. His name is Mark Romantic. He, uh, has directed some of, in my opinion, the most iconic music videos, and he’s an amazing film director, too. So, I was all, he’s he’s unreachable. He’s too busy. He’s got all these things going on. And, but I anyway, we flew and played him the song months ago, and he was like, I’m in like one listen and I was so excited.

 And so we got together and we started talking about ideas. Uh, and in my mind, I wanted to tie this to this metaphor that I’ve been thinking about a lot because all I think about are metaphors and cats. [laughter] Um, my my idea was that life itself and who people actually are can be greatly reflected in how they dance.

 Um, I really think that and I don’t mean how good you are. I mean your willingness to dance. Um, you can kind of tell if you go to a house party and you see that there’s like this group of people over here that are too cool for school and they’re and they’re over here and they’re just like, you know, and they’re like, “Oh my god, those people are they’re making fun of the people who don’t care how they look dancing because they like dancing.

” UM,   I’m not projecting or anything. Um, but basically I I love the idea that you can tell who someone is by how they dance. And so we started talking about ideas and we basically decided that we would get this huge group of incredible professional dancers of all different types of dance and throw me into the middle of them and see what happens.

 So, at fun fact, at the end of the video, um, you will see a group of about a hundred fans. Those are people we plucked from Instagram, Twitter, website, letters, everywhere. And they have kept the secret that they were in this music video for two months. Can I get a round of applause?   I I have talked about it for now an hour and a half.

 So, I think it’s time we should actually just play THE MUSIC VIDEO.   LET’S GO.  Thank you to the FANS HERE IN NEW YORK AND AROUND THE WORLD listening on the radio, watching this live stream. We just made history. Thank you to ABC and Yahoo. This is the most unbelievable party you threw for us. Um, and to go pre-by the album, go to taylorswift.com.

You know what they say, there’s no sale like a pre-sale.   No one says that. I love you. Thank you for watching with us. See  you soon.