Taylor Swift worked closely with The National’s Aaron Dessner and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon on her 2020 albums, folklore and evermore, and today the collaborators reunited for “Renegade.” The song comes from Dessner and Vernon’s collaborative artistic project, Big Red Machine, which they first formed in 2018. After releasing a self-titled album in 2018, they’re gearing up for their next project, How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?, in August.
“Renegade” is primarily a showcase of Swift, although Vernon provides background vocals and Dessner handles production and instrumentals. On the track, Swift sings about baggage getting in the way of a relationship:
Are you really gonna talk about timing in times like these?
And let all your damage damage me
And carry your baggage up my street
And make me your future history, it’s time
You’ve come a long way, open the blinds, let me see your face
You wouldn’t be the first renegade to need somebody
Is it insensitive for me to say “Get your sh-t together so I can love you?”
According to a press release, the song was recorded at Los Angeles' Kitty Committee studio in March 2021, the same week Swift took home an Album of the Year Grammy for folklore.
“Taylor and I sometimes talked about experimenting and writing songs together some day for Big Red Machine,” Dessner said. “Making music with your friends just to make it—that’s how Big Red Machine started and has grown—and that’s how ‘Renegade’ came about too. This song was something we wrote after we finished evermore and it dawned on us that this was a BRM song. Taylor’s words hit me so hard when I heard her first voice memo and still do, every time… I’m so grateful to Taylor for continuing to share her incredible talent with me and that we are still finding excuses to make music together.”
How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last? is set to drop on Friday, August 27.
Read all the lyrics to Big Red Machine’s “Renegade” featuring Taylor Swift on Genius now.
