
If musical soulmates exist, Taylor Swift and Aaron Dessner can be sturdy contenders for the name.
The pair have collaborated on a couple of albums in combination, including Swift’s hotly expected eleventh record, The Tortured Poets Department. Dessner, a founding member of the rock band The National, has lent his generating and writing abilities to many of Swift’s tracks, together with loved tunes like “Willow” and “Cardigan.”
Outside of the studio, the duo ceaselessly percentage top praise for one every other, with Dessner telling the “Broken Record” podcast in April 2023 that they’ve had “superb moments” all through their songwriting classes. “We’ve turn into actually shut pals and she couldn’t be extra beautiful and amusing,” he said. “Legitimately, she’s only a in reality beautiful, hyper-intelligent, down-to-earth individual.”
Keep scrolling for the whole timeline of Swift and Dessner’s friendship:
March 2014
Dessner first crossed paths with Swift on the set of Saturday Night Live. The National was featured as a musical guest on the comic strip comedy show when Lena Dunham, a detailed good friend of Swift’s, hosted the display. Five years later, the pair reunited when Swift attended a National concert in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park.
“She talked so much with my brother [Bryce] and me,” he recounted in an interview with Pitchfork. “That’s when we discovered how a lot of a fan she used to be, and how beautiful and down-to-earth.”
April 2019
Swift reached out to Dessner by means of text and advised the pair collaborate on her album Folklore. “I got a textual content and it stated, ‘Hey, it’s Taylor. Would you ever be up for writing songs with me?’ I stated, ‘Wow. Of direction,’” he advised Pitchfork.
July 2020
Folklore featured Eleven songs cowritten via Dessner, together with “Seven” and “Hoax.” Dessner later opened up in regards to the experience of recording the album amid the COVID pandemic, explaining how the songs came together right through this kind of difficult time.
“I believed it could take some time for song concepts to return and I had no expectations so far as what lets accomplish remotely. But a few hours after sharing song, my phone lit up with a voice memo from Taylor of an absolutely written model of a track — the momentum never really stopped,” he wrote via Instagram after the album’s marvel liberate, including that he had “rarely” been so inspired by anyone.
November 2020

Swift, along Dessner and common collaborator Jack Antonoff, starred in the Disney+ documentary Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions. Shot at Dessner’s Long Pond Studio in Hudson, New York, the movie featured conversations with the artists about bringing Folklore to existence, at the side of reside performances.
While the trio were filming the documentary, they started plotting their 2nd collaboration: Evermore.
December 2020
Evermore, a sister album to Folklore, also featured more than one songs cowritten by Dessner, together with “‘Ivy” and “Willow.” That similar month, Dessner told Billboard that he imagines he and Swift will “make track together in many ways ceaselessly.”
July 2021

Swift took to Instagram to share the Big Red Machine song “Renegade,” which she cowrote with Dessner. “When Aaron got here into my existence, I was ushered into his global of free-flowing creativity the place you don’t overthink, you just make song,” she captioned her submit. “His generosity of spirit and humility bleeds into each part of his existence.”
October 2022
Although Dessner didn’t proportion any writing credits on the standard version of Swift’s 2022 album, Midnights, fans have been thrilled to discover that he took part in the deluxe model of the album, cowriting and generating “The Great War,” “High Infidelity” and “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve.”
After the bonus tracks dropped, Dessner tweeted, “Congrats @taylorswift13 @jackantonoff and all who contributed to the bright primary album and [applause] to the chaotic 3am deluxe shift additionally…..extremely commemorated as at all times to help make songs with you.”
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June 2023

Swift introduced Dessner on level for the first-ever reside performance of “Seven” all over The Eras Tour in Pittsburgh. “A lot of you understand who this guy is right right here,” she told the gang. “This is any individual I’d categorize as a soulmate collaborator. He’s an incredible musician, instrumentalist, songwriter, producer, and with out him this complete excursion wouldn’t have took place.”
April 2024
Dessner worked on 17 songs with Swift for her album The Tortured Poets Department, together with “So Long, London,” “Clara Bow,” “But Daddy I Love Him,” “loml,” “Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus” and “How Did It End?”
“We set to work on these songs over two years in the past and it appears like they have got stored us company and advanced in stunning and unexpected ways through such a lot existence lived all over this procedure,” Dessner wrote by way of Instagram after the album’s free up. “It’s laborious to consider Taylor and I've now recorded over 60 songs together (17 throughout this anthology!!) in the 4 years since we began running together on Folklore in 2020. I am forever grateful to Taylor for sharing her insane skills with and trusting me with her tune. I believe those songs are one of the maximum lyrically acute, intricate, inclined and cathartic Taylor has ever written and I'm regularly astonished by means of her abilities as a songwriter and performer.”
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