Apple Music
Gracie Abrams and Taylor Swift have teamed up for a literal smash on their new collaborative track, “Us.”
Abrams sat down with Apple Music's Zane Lowe to talk about her songwriting sessions. Our Secret The song inspired Swift to put out an apartment fire after an all-night vigil: “It's so dramatic. We almost burned her house down. Literally.” […] We went to dinner, had a lot of drinks, talked about our lives, and then talked about the album. The suffering poets And, I [The Secret of Us]”We were talking about it and we were getting really excited, and she was like, I need to go back home and I want to play her some songs, or something. So we went back to her house, we opened a bottle of wine, and we sang each song in her kitchen, standing and running around the center island like kids in drama club. It was so funny. I kept thinking, 'This is ridiculous. This is crazy.'”
She continued, “At this point, it was like 2am and we had played many, many songs and were listening to a sketch that Aaron had done. [Desnner] The guitar part for the song “Us” that was sent to me started playing, and I immediately ran to the piano, without any planning. [song]”But it was like a songwriting session in Nashville. I sat at the piano, I looked for the keys, and I wrote the whole song between 2am and 6am. We filmed the whole thing, but not because I was like, 'I need to film this,' but because I just needed to get it all down. It was very fulfilling, and very dramatic, but so much fun.”
Of the fire, Abrams recalled hearing a “crack” sound coming from another room, which Swift thought was a cat meowing. “I finished working on the bridge and went into the kitchen to get some wine, and there was a fire on the center island in her house. It was this big ball of flames. I had a candle that I lit when I got home, and it got so hot it exploded. The candle had a wooden base, like a tree trunk,” she revealed. “I don't know how she knew where it was, but she ran and grabbed a fire extinguisher and spent minutes trying to get it to work, and it didn't work. I just cried, but I'd had this problem before. I'd had a candle explode in a weird way, and I learned that it was wax, oil, and water, so pouring water on it puts it out…. Anyway, she ended up putting it out. She put it out.”
She continued, “The whole kitchen was filled with smoke and we both had really bad chesty coughs for weeks afterwards. 'Us' comes from that night. It was a really good night. Nobody got hurt. We actually got burned by the wax and stuff. It was a horrible experience, but it was funny.”
Last week, Abrams shared a video on Instagram of the pair goofing around while making music, calling it “one of the funnest nights of my life.” He also posted a video of Swift putting out a fire in an apartment. “Now I know how to use a fire extinguisher. I love you,” Abrams wrote.
Abrams, 24, met Swift over the summer. Eras TourShe will reprise the role for select dates in North America this fall, before embarking on a solo headlining tour of theater-sized venues across the U.S., kicking off in Portland on September 5.
Our Secret It debuted at number 49 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and features the previously released tracks “Risk” and “Close to You,” and is a follow-up to Abrams' debut album. Good riddance, It was released in February 2023 and peaked at number 52 on the Billboard 200.
Check out the full interview below:
