Taylor Swift's collaborator claims pop idol is sitting on a vault of early tracks
Taylor Swift's co-writer has spilled that the star has plenty of unreleased gems from her early songwriting days.
Taylor Swift is sitting on a wealth of unreleased material, according to her collaborator.
Songwriter Robert Ellis Orrall worked with Swift in 2003, when she was just 13, and co-wrote Invisible and I'm Only Me When I'm with You, bonus tracks on Swift's 2006 self-titled debut studio album.
However, the 70-year-old producer has revealed the prolific star had plenty more songs where that came from that have never seen the light of day.
Telling the upcoming Channel 4 documentary Taylor, Orrall said: “Right from the get-go Taylor directed the session. We wrote three songs in the first two days that we were together and two of those are on the debut album, Taylor Swift. After we’d written a few songs, her dad said, ‘Here’s another 15 that she wrote.’”
Showing the camera a CD, he continued: “I have tons of these from way back.
“Here are 16 songs copyright 2003, the same year we started writing. None of those are anything you’ve ever heard.”
The documentary features interviews with several of Swift’s early collaborators, painting a picture of a young artist who was not only prolific but also deeply involved in shaping her sound from the outset. Orrall, who worked with Swift for more than a decade, described the Black Space hitmaker as an unstoppable force, even in her teens.
He said of the track Place In This World: "Every kid feels that way and millions of kids could relate to that.
“She had a plan and she wasn’t going to go off that plan. She was not going to be stopped. People were telling her ‘no’ left and right… She was having none of that.”
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The documentary also explores the "telescopic scrutiny" Swift faces.
Journalist Zing Tsjeng says in a preview for Taylor that the 35-year-old pop megastar is seen as a flawless 'Miss American girl’, which opens her up to all kinds of judgement, especially in the age of social media.
She says: "I think it's enormously difficult to grow up with that kind of scrutiny on you.
"I think she really is a kind of bellwether for how we, as a society, view women, because she is, in many ways, the kind of perfect blank space; she's conventionally pretty, she's an attractive white American, she is the standard for so many of the things that we are worried about, that we are concerned about as a society, because she is that perfect 'Miss American girl'.
"When you become a symbol of a much greater whole - America itself - you are always going to have people that project a lot of things onto you."
A synopsis reads: "Taylor is a cinematic, emotional, and deeply human portrait of the most deeply beloved – and most scrutinised – pop artist of our time. From her childhood to today, the series digs deep across her 20-year career, using rare early tapes and insight from significant cultural voices, industry insiders and fans. Her journey has been epic, and this documentary reflects all the joy and artistry, heartbreaks and high stakes of her stunning career, while showing viewers sides of Taylor Swift that they might not know or expect."
Taylor is available to watch and stream on Channel 4, at 9.15pm on Tuesday September 30.
