When Taylor Swift released her 2020 album Folklore, the album’s credits spawned a mystery, as credited on a couple of songs was William Bowery, who nobody had ever heard of before. It wasn’t a longstanding mystery, though, as it didn’t take long for Swift to reveal that Bowery was actually boyfriend Joe Alwyn. Now, Alwyn himself has spoken about how he came to collaborate with Swift, revealing that it was unintentional.
In a new Vulture profile, he notes he was “messing around” on piano and singing the first verse of what would become “Exile,” which ended up being a duet between Swift and Bon Iver, when Swift overheard.
Alwyn continued, “It was completely off the cuff, an accident. She said, ‘Can we try and sit down and get to the end together?’ And so we did. It was as basic as some people made sourdough.”
He also noted of writing the chorus to “Betty,” “I’d probably had a drink and was just stumbling around the house. We couldn’t decide on a film to watch that night, and she was like, ‘Do you want to try and finish writing that song you were singing earlier?’ And so we got a guitar and did that.”
Read the full interview here.