MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Taylor Swift has entered a new era, and it's all about show business.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "...READY FOR IT?")
TAYLOR SWIFT: (Singing) Are you ready for it?
MARTIN: Swift announced Tuesday night she will release her 12th album on October 3. It's called "The Life Of A Show Girl." There are no singles just yet. The song playing behind us is 2017's "...Ready For It?" See what we did there? Since we don't have any music yet, we'll get a debrief on the rollout from NPR Music's Isabella Gomez Sarmiento. Isabella, welcome back.
ISABELLA GOMEZ SARMIENTO, BYLINE: Good morning, Michel.
MARTIN: OK, so I take it that Swift loves to surprise her fans. Take us through this week's announcement.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: That's right. So yesterday, Taylor Swift made her first-ever podcast appearance. It was on the show "New Heights," which is the football podcast hosted by her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, and his brother, former Philadelphia Eagles lineman Jason Kelce. Like you mentioned, Taylor is known for being very crafty with album rollouts. In the past, she's done total surprises, where she, like, announces the album just a few hours before it drops, or she has announced projects during acceptance speeches at awards show. But this announcement was totally different, and it was a little bit full circle for her because she started dating Travis Kelce after he made comments on this same podcast about being interested in her. And she said this album reflects a lot about her personal life right now. So she was kind of throwing hints that some of this might be inspired by their relationship.
MARTIN: OK, hints. All right, it's called "The Life Of A Show Girl." Why is that significant?
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: You might remember Swift spent over a year on her massive record-breaking Eras Tour. She performed in 21 countries, and she said on the podcast that this new project, "The Life Of A Show Girl," captures what her inner life was like during that time. She recorded it while she was on tour. And we also know that the only featured artist on the album is Sabrina Carpenter, who actually opened for Taylor on parts of the Eras Tour and whose star has risen considerably since then.
MARTIN: So it sounds like we're not getting acoustic Taylor this time around. Do we know anything about the music yet?
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: Well, Swift has described this as a very upbeat, infectious album. It's her 12th album, so, of course, that means it's got 12 songs on it, you know, at least until the deluxe edition comes out. And she recorded it in Sweden with producers Max Martin and Shellback. They've worked together before on these huge pop hits like "I Knew You Were Trouble."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I KNEW YOU WERE TROUBLE")
SWIFT: (Singing) 'Cause I knew you were trouble when you walked in, so shame on me...
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: And "Blank Space."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BLANK SPACE")
SWIFT: (Singing) So it's gonna be forever, or it's gonna go down in flames.
MARTIN: So, you know, Taylor Swift is all about hiding easter eggs, like little puzzles for her fans. Did she do that this time around?
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: You know that she did. So the colors for this album are mint green and orange, and she revealed that on the very last date of the Eras Tour. She didn't make her usual exit down an elevator, and instead, what she did was she walked out of an orange door. So she was trying to hint that this new chapter was coming. She's also a huge believer in numbers and what they represent. So her lucky number is 13. She announced this album on August 13, and as she said on the podcast...
(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "NEW HEIGHTS")
SWIFT: This album comes out October 3. It's easy...
TRAVIS KELCE: It's a good day.
SWIFT: ...To remember. It's 10-3.
JASON KELCE: 10-3.
T KELCE: Yeah.
SWIFT: Still annoying.
MARTIN: (Laughter) OK, so she's sticking to 13. Did she talk about anything else on the podcast?
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: Yeah, you know, it was a pretty candid conversation by Taylor Swift standards. The episode lasted almost two hours, and it was a really intimate look at a star that's had kind of a complicated relationship with the media. So she talked about baking sourdough bread. She talked about dating Kelce. And she also opened up about buying back her master recordings, which has been a huge story of her career. She said she'd been saving up to buy her catalog since she was a teenager, and when she finally did it in May, it was super emotional. So she's been thinking about show biz from all kinds of angles, and we're going to hear about it really soon.
MARTIN: All right. That is NPR's Isabella Gomez Sarmiento. Isabella, thank you.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: Thank you so much.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CLARA BOW")
SWIFT: (Singing) You look like Clara Bow in this... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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