Taylor Swift On Writing “I Knew You Were Trouble” As A “Really Sad Ballad” & Why She Wants To Honor Her Country Roots The “Further Along This Path I Get”

Taylor Swift has revealed more about the origin of her hit song “I Knew You Were Trouble” and why she wants to honor her country roots as her career continues.

In a new interview with Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. as part of the Icon Sessions, Swift opened up that she originally wrote “I Knew You Were Trouble” as a “really sad piano ballad.”

“It can either be compelling to make a song sound exactly how it feels or to flip it, which the people that really taught me the most about that are Max Martin and Shellback,” Swift said.

She continued, “I was really excited to bring it in, and I played them this really, really sad ballad, and I was like I think just no drums and they’re like, ‘What if it’s dubstep?’ I was like I don’t know, guys. Let’s give it a run. I don’t know.”

Swift said that it “ended up being the best thing for it, and I think as a collaborator, my favorite people to be in the room with are ‘Yes, and?’ people. So why not try it? If they heard it and they thought dubstep, and I came to them specifically because I didn’t want to be making lateral moves creatively, why wouldn’t we go down that path? Why wouldn’t we? I really think that enthusiasm in the studio, it can really make or break what you end up creating.”

During the same conversation, Swift opened up about why she seems to want to honor her country music origins.

“I love my country roots more and more the further along this path I get, and I want to honor them more and more,” Swift said. “I feel more tied to them, more loyal to them… The people that shaped who I am as an artist and as a writer, that all happened in Nashville.”

Watch Taylor Swift’s full interview in the video below.