The superstar scrapped the songs she wrote with Espen Lind and Amund Bjørklund in 2012. Now one of the duo’s songs is on her new album release.
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On Friday, Taylor Swift will release a newly recorded version of the 2012 album “Red”.
The release is part of her extensive protest maneuver against the fact that the rights to her first six records were acquired by industry mogul Scooter Braun, best known as Justin Bieber’s manager and with whom Swift has been in conflict.
She has therefore chosen to record all these records again, and release them as “Taylor’s Version”. First out was the 2008 album “Fearless”, which came in a new version in April and was a great success.
All-Norwegian
When “Red (Taylor’s Version)” is now released, it is with something that only almost happened in 2012: A contribution from Espen Lind and Amund Bjørklund, known as the songwriting duo and production team Espionage.
Swift includes generous doses of bonus tracks on the new editions. “Red” originally consisted of 16 tracks; the new version has 30.
Among these 30, the Lind / Bjørklund / Swift song “The Very First Night” appears. This is confirmed by the Norwegian office of Swift’s record company Universal to VG.
Espionage has produced this version, which according to the album’s credit has all-Norwegian music – with Lind on guitar, bass and keyboards, Bjørklund on keyboards, while drums are provided by Torstein Lofthus and dobro by Freddy Holm.
“The Very First Night” was recorded in Oslo, while Swift dropped its vocals in Belfast.
–However, Espen Lind and Amund Bjørklund are said to have met Swift earlier. In 2013, Lind told Dagbladet that they had been to Nashville and written three or four songs with her.
Out at the last minute
– At the very back they were taken off the record, Lind said then.
– The fact that we did not get on the record is about many things. The entire A-team will work with her. Your song must be good and fit into the concept of the album. I had faith in some of the songs we wrote together, but I force myself not to think about it anymore, he continued.
Espionage had by this time earned a respectable international hit CV.
It includes one of Beyoncé’s biggest hits, “Irreplaceable” from 2006, and not least the single “Hey, Soul Sister” with the American rock band Train.
The latter was designated as it in 2019 most played the song of all from the year 2009 on Spotify, where at the time of writing it has 924 million plays.
–In 2015, VG Lind asked where the songs written with Swift had gone.
– Gone. They are probably never used, he replied then, and was asked if he is not frustrated by such.
– No. My job is to make as good songs as possible. Afterwards I let go of them.
Lind and Swift have both released albums entitled “Red”. It was the name of Lind’s first album under his own name, which came out in 1997. It contained the hit “When Susanna Cries” and gave him three Spellemann Prizes.
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