Taylor Swift Wrote ‘Willow’ in ‘Less Than 10 Minutes,’ Reveals Aaron Dessner

If there’s one thing Taylor Swift knows how to do, it’s write a damn song! In a new interview with People, Swift’s frequent collaborator Aaron Dessner shared some sweet facts and anecdotes about the pop star’s talent — including how quickly she wrote Evermore‘s lead single.

“There are so many stories I could share. When I sent Taylor the music for our song ‘Willow‘ — I think she wrote the entire song from start to finish in less than 10 minutes and sent it back to me,” he revealed. “It was like an earthquake. Then Taylor said, ‘I guess we are making another album.’”

That album ended up being Evermore, the surprise follow-up to mid-pandemic’s Folklore. The two albums became fan favorites for leaning into indie and folk-pop sounds. Evermore featured songs like “No Body, No Crime” with Haim and “Coney Island” with Dessner’s The National.

“We were on FaceTime at midnight on the night Folklore came out and the first reviews and responses started coming in and it was really one of the most exhilarating, life-affirming feelings I have ever had,” he said. “The fragile songs we had made remotely during lockdown were suddenly becoming part of the fabric of so many people’s lives.”

In the People interview, which honored her as one of the “Most Intriguing People of the Year,” Dessner described Swift as the “hardest working artist I’ve ever encountered,” explaining that the singer is involved in “every aspect” of making her music and has an “incredible attention span and focus on detail.”

“The world has seen her play 44 songs a night on tour now, performing for over three hours. She makes it look easy, but it’s really a feat of incredible endurance,” Dessner said. “It’s hard to think of an example of someone who matches that kind of output, except maybe Bruce Springsteen, but he doesn’t have to cover as much ground as Taylor does up there.”

“Similarly, I’ve spent a lot of time with her and I’ve never seen anyone wait on her,” he added. “When I have stayed at her house, Taylor herself was cooking everyone breakfast and dinner. She’s legitimately just a very down-to-earth and hardworking person.”

As for Swift’s future? “I think Taylor has so many stories to tell. She will keep writing better songs and experimenting stylistically,” Dessner said, adding, “I think she’ll keep inventing new ways and methods of writing and keep expanding this enchanted universe of her own making that we all get to enjoy.”

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Dessner spoke to Rolling Stone after collaborating with Swift in 2020, saying that it took a lot of “chemistry” for the two of them to make the songs on Evermore.

“I’ve rarely had this kind of chemistry with anyone in my life — to be able to write together, to make so many beautiful songs together in such a short period of time,” he said. “Inevitably, I think we will continue to be in each other’s artistic and personal lives. I don’t know exactly what the next form that will take, but certainly, it will continue.”