Latest / Arroe Collins Like It's Live / How The Taylor Swift Fandom Changed Our Lives From Olivia Levine
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- 0:28Speaker 1: How is everybody doing?
- 0:29Speaker 3: Hi?
- 0:30Speaker 2: How are you?
- 0:31Speaker 1: Absolutely fantastic?
- 0:33Speaker 2: Good to be on the car with you.
- 0:34Speaker 1: Well, it's going to be very exciting to share a
- 0:36Speaker 1: conversation with you because the two of us deal with
- 0:39Speaker 1: Taylor Swift in so many different ways. Because I'm taking
- 0:41Speaker 1: it from the radio side on how she changed the
- 0:44Speaker 1: whole entire platform that I've been performing on for all
- 0:47Speaker 1: these years, and then you take it from the fans
- 0:49Speaker 1: side as well, and it's like they both had to
- 0:51Speaker 1: get along, and I mean with the fans that you
- 0:53Speaker 1: got and the fans that we had in radio. And
- 0:55Speaker 1: that's what I love about this book is that you're
- 0:58Speaker 1: not afraid to go in there and share the authenticity
- 1:01Speaker 1: of absolutely one of the greatest performers of our time.
- 1:04Speaker 2: Thank you so much for saying that.
- 1:06Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, she has built such a loyal, incredible,
- 1:10Speaker 3: positive community the last two decades and it's just crazy
- 1:14Speaker 3: to see where she started to where she is now.
- 1:17Speaker 1: Well, I remember when she was a middle teen and
- 1:19Speaker 1: she came to the radio stations. It was during what
- 1:21Speaker 1: I used to call the Patsy Kline kind of tour,
- 1:24Speaker 1: where she comes out, she shakes everybody's hands, gets to
- 1:26Speaker 1: know the radio disc jockeys. She doesn't forget that stuff.
- 1:29Speaker 1: And that's the part of the relationship that I love
- 1:32Speaker 1: about having Taylor Swift in our journey is the fact
- 1:35Speaker 1: that she just doesn't forget where she's been and who
- 1:37Speaker 1: has been there with her the entire time exactly.
- 1:40Speaker 3: She doesn't need to do all the little things that
- 1:42Speaker 3: she still does to cultivate the fandom, but she does
- 1:46Speaker 3: it because she knows we have so much fun with it.
- 1:48Speaker 3: I think she has so much fun with it. And
- 1:51Speaker 3: she never lost sight of, you know, who she was
- 1:53Speaker 3: when she started all of this, which I think is
- 1:55Speaker 3: one of the most beautiful things.
- 1:57Speaker 1: I got to give you kudos for the design of
- 1:58Speaker 1: the book, and the reason why is because I am
- 2:00Speaker 1: a daily writer. I use hardcover journals, and so the
- 2:03Speaker 1: texture of this book reminds me so much of a journal.
- 2:07Speaker 1: And then when you dive in, it really has the
- 2:10Speaker 1: texture of a journal. I mean, it just feels so
- 2:13Speaker 1: good and it looks even better.
- 2:15Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
- 2:17Speaker 3: I really was going for that vintage vibe, like it
- 2:19Speaker 3: could be a book that you've had on your coffee
- 2:22Speaker 3: table for you know, thirty forty fifty years.
- 2:25Speaker 2: And it kind of looks like a fairy tale. Yeah.
- 2:29Speaker 1: And not only that, but it's one of the things
- 2:31Speaker 1: that I put so much energy into is a thing
- 2:33Speaker 1: called Dear Future Reader. It's almost like her life is
- 2:36Speaker 1: dear future reader, this is and this is what I
- 2:39Speaker 1: did during this journey. Now look at where we are today.
- 2:42Speaker 1: So it's almost like that what you've done with this
- 2:44Speaker 1: book is you've created a path for us to say, oh, yeah,
- 2:47Speaker 1: now they're married, let's go to the next chapter with them.
- 2:51Speaker 2: Yeah. I like that the way you put that.
- 2:53Speaker 3: I mean, I think it's gonna I'm probably gonna need
- 2:56Speaker 3: to do a part two in another twenty years.
- 2:58Speaker 2: You know, so much is going to happen.
- 3:01Speaker 1: So is there anything that shocks you? And the reason why,
- 3:04Speaker 1: I mean, because first of all, I was shocked with
- 3:06Speaker 1: the story behind Love Story because once again, I'm a
- 3:09Speaker 1: mobile entertainer and a DJ. I know what it was
- 3:12Speaker 1: like that when Love Story came into our world. But
- 3:15Speaker 1: then to read about it and to feel it through
- 3:17Speaker 1: the actual, honest to god fan, it's a completely different story,
- 3:21Speaker 1: but it's all married together.
- 3:23Speaker 3: Yes, yes, And I think what's so beautiful in her
- 3:26Speaker 3: music since the very beginning is just her honesty and
- 3:30Speaker 3: she was never afraid to be vulnerable, no matter how
- 3:33Speaker 3: what people would say or if she was judged by
- 3:35Speaker 3: the rest of the world. She really always wrote music
- 3:38Speaker 3: and put it out for herself and for the fans
- 3:41Speaker 3: who would relate to it, and she knew it would
- 3:43Speaker 3: help us get through our own life experiences. So I
- 3:46Speaker 3: love that she's never lost that vulnerability as well in
- 3:49Speaker 3: the last twenty years.
- 3:50Speaker 1: Well, you are in that same boat because look at
- 3:52Speaker 1: that letter that you wrote to Taylor in this That
- 3:55Speaker 1: was pretty gutsy right there, because you know, darn good
- 3:57Speaker 1: and well, she could be walking through Santa Barbara, California
- 4:00Speaker 1: this book and go, well, that was sweet. Let me
- 4:02Speaker 1: reach out to her now so I can answer it.
- 4:05Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, people always ask me an interviews what
- 4:07Speaker 3: would you want to say to Taylor. I'm like, you
- 4:09Speaker 3: know what, open the first page of my book and
- 4:10Speaker 3: it's right there. Yeah.
- 4:12Speaker 2: I mean, I hope she reads it. I've sent it
- 4:15Speaker 2: to some people around her, so.
- 4:17Speaker 3: I'm pretty hopeful that when it's the right time, it'll
- 4:19Speaker 3: get into her hands, and I hope she loves it.
- 4:22Speaker 1: I've had the best time sharing this book with real
- 4:25Speaker 1: hardcore Taylor Swift fans, those that have seen her several times,
- 4:29Speaker 1: six to fifteen times in concert. And the thing is,
- 4:32Speaker 1: they look at this and it's like they want to
- 4:34Speaker 1: hold onto it and not let it go. And I say,
- 4:35Speaker 1: go get your own man. I meant, I don't want
- 4:37Speaker 1: to be mean like that, but it's like it's like,
- 4:39Speaker 1: come on. But it's fascinating to see how they embrace it,
- 4:42Speaker 1: going this is it, This is it, this is what
- 4:44Speaker 1: I lived. Yeah, this is it. So it's about the
- 4:46Speaker 1: fan as well.
- 4:48Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's crazy because it's such a personal
- 4:51Speaker 3: experience being a fan, but it's also such a universal
- 4:55Speaker 3: experience within the fandom. So I'm really glad that I
- 4:58Speaker 3: keep getting messages every day. I read the story of Us,
- 5:01Speaker 3: and you put everything I think into words. Perfectly, and
- 5:04Speaker 3: I'm like, yes, that was the goal because we all
- 5:07Speaker 3: have different experiences, but it really is a very similar one.
- 5:10Speaker 3: And I am glad that I was able to express
- 5:13Speaker 3: that in the book in a way that people resonated with.
- 5:17Speaker 1: What's one thing that fans are going to take from
- 5:19Speaker 1: the book in the wave going. I didn't know that,
- 5:21Speaker 1: Oh my God, because I always believe in OMG moments
- 5:24Speaker 1: and you definitely have a lot of edit it, but
- 5:26Speaker 1: to a true fan it might be, yeah, I've heard
- 5:28Speaker 1: of that.
- 5:29Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 5:30Speaker 3: I mean one of the oh my God moments for
- 5:32Speaker 3: me personally is in chapter one I talk about I
- 5:36Speaker 3: kind of go into detail for the first time with
- 5:39Speaker 3: what it was like going to Taylor's house and meeting
- 5:41Speaker 3: her and her family. So that's an oh my God moment.
- 5:44Speaker 3: And then another oh my God moment.
- 5:46Speaker 2: Is probably the.
- 5:48Speaker 3: Chapter three, the Tumbler moments, the parasocial chapter. I feel
- 5:52Speaker 3: like a lot of newer fans don't know that Tumblr
- 5:56Speaker 3: was such a big deal back in the day. Taylor
- 5:57Speaker 3: followed me on there, We would interact a lot on there.
- 6:00Speaker 3: It was kind of our own secret safe place within
- 6:03Speaker 3: the fandom with Taylor. So I think a lot of
- 6:06Speaker 3: inside jokes that people may not understand.
- 6:08Speaker 2: Like I always get people commenting on my post, wait
- 6:10Speaker 2: what does this mean?
- 6:11Speaker 3: And that's kind of it's the swifty Bible, I like
- 6:14Speaker 3: to say.
- 6:15Speaker 2: It's like we'll get caught up on everything and you'll
- 6:17Speaker 2: know everything once you read it.
- 6:18Speaker 3: Well.
- 6:18Speaker 1: I love what I came across today in the newspapers,
- 6:21Speaker 1: and that was is that Taylor is kind of, you know,
- 6:23Speaker 1: shifting down and taking life easy in Kansas City. She's
- 6:26Speaker 1: learning how to cook Italian food, and she's really becoming
- 6:29Speaker 1: a part of that community. I wanted to see this
- 6:31Speaker 1: a long time ago, but I'm happy with seeing it
- 6:34Speaker 1: now because I just know there's a human being somewhere
- 6:36Speaker 1: inside that imagination.
- 6:38Speaker 3: Yeah, I think she's just a creative genius. I don't
- 6:42Speaker 3: think she'll ever stop working. I think even if she's
- 6:45Speaker 3: taking some time off, she's definitely writing all the time.
- 6:48Speaker 2: But I'm glad that.
- 6:49Speaker 3: You know, she's enjoying her new married life. I'm so
- 6:52Speaker 3: happy she found someone like Travis Kelcey. I think the
- 6:54Speaker 3: whole fandom is and I truly think she couldn't have
- 6:57Speaker 3: married into a better family and vice versa.
- 6:59Speaker 2: FORR.
- 7:00Speaker 1: Travis, Please don't move. There's more with Olivia Levine coming
- 7:03Speaker 1: up next. The name of the book The Story of
- 7:07Speaker 1: Us How the Taylor Swift fandom changed our lives. We
- 7:11Speaker 1: are back with the author, Olivia Levine, well being a
- 7:14Speaker 1: daily writer when it comes to these journals. And I
- 7:16Speaker 1: recently saw a picture of Taylor with all of her journals, which,
- 7:19Speaker 1: by the way, charged me up like you wouldn't believe.
- 7:21Speaker 1: She hit a different side of my creative side. It's
- 7:24Speaker 1: one of those things where I would like to sit
- 7:25Speaker 1: down with Travis and say, what are you going to
- 7:28Speaker 1: do with the journals? Because my wife has no idea
- 7:30Speaker 1: what she's going to do with mine, because those journals
- 7:32Speaker 1: are so personal and so valuable to the future well
- 7:36Speaker 1: beyond us.
- 7:38Speaker 2: Oh yeah, oh yeah.
- 7:39Speaker 3: Well, one thing about Travis, I feel he celebrates her
- 7:43Speaker 3: so much publicly, but I'm sure privately as well. So
- 7:46Speaker 3: I think he's just so astonished by her work, ethic
- 7:50Speaker 3: and how much of.
- 7:51Speaker 2: A creative genius she is.
- 7:53Speaker 3: I think he's as shocked as the rest of the
- 7:55Speaker 3: world is when she puts out her through music.
- 7:58Speaker 1: So do you think that you know being a creative person,
- 8:00Speaker 1: because there's a lot of us and you being creative
- 8:02Speaker 1: as your well as well. I mean, there's probably things
- 8:04Speaker 1: like this that you've gone through and you've had to
- 8:06Speaker 1: learn how to deal with it where people look at
- 8:07Speaker 1: you saying you don't have to put that much of
- 8:09Speaker 1: yourself into it. Oh, yes I do. And it seems
- 8:12Speaker 1: like that in reading this book. Yes, that's the way
- 8:14Speaker 1: you play as well, and so does Taylor. She gives
- 8:17Speaker 1: it more than just what the average person would.
- 8:20Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 8:20Speaker 3: I think that if you don't give it your all,
- 8:22Speaker 3: and if you're not truly vulnerable and honest, then you're
- 8:25Speaker 3: not going to get the reaction that you want out
- 8:29Speaker 3: of people, because you want people to resonate with something,
- 8:31Speaker 3: and how can they resonate with it if you really
- 8:33Speaker 3: don't put your full vulnerable self into it.
- 8:36Speaker 1: You know, you use a big word in here which
- 8:40Speaker 1: I think would be a great marketing tool for you
- 8:42Speaker 1: for t shirts and bookmarks and things, and that is romanticization.
- 8:46Speaker 1: I like that word.
- 8:49Speaker 2: Yes, it's a big theme throughout the book.
- 8:52Speaker 3: It's a big theme and who you are as fans
- 8:54Speaker 3: and Taylor's music as well.
- 8:57Speaker 1: Has it been a fun journey, begin mean, to go
- 8:59Speaker 1: for city to city to city and to get as
- 9:01Speaker 1: close as you have by going to her house. I mean,
- 9:04Speaker 1: all of a sudden, it's no longer about I'm just
- 9:06Speaker 1: an innocent music fan out here who picked up her
- 9:08Speaker 1: song on Spotify or iHeartRadio. I mean, you really have
- 9:12Speaker 1: stepped into it now.
- 9:14Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, especially during the aerostour, it was a whirlwind.
- 9:17Speaker 2: I went to eleven shows.
- 9:19Speaker 3: I was going to award shows and Chiefs Games, so
- 9:22Speaker 3: that was a wild time to document on social media.
- 9:26Speaker 3: But it's funny because I used to do the same
- 9:28Speaker 3: thing when she was on tour and the Reputation Tour
- 9:30Speaker 3: nineteen eight nine.
- 9:31Speaker 2: I went to a bunch of shows.
- 9:32Speaker 3: I just didn't have as much of a social media following,
- 9:35Speaker 3: so I didn't document it as well as I did
- 9:38Speaker 3: during the aerostour. But also, you know, the ariostour was
- 9:41Speaker 3: true like Taylor Mania, the whole world was a swiftie.
- 9:44Speaker 1: I love what you did with the changing of the
- 9:46Speaker 1: font when it came to personal thoughts from different people,
- 9:49Speaker 1: because that really does come across as a journalisque, but
- 9:52Speaker 1: it's from the fan and I love that. And You've
- 9:55Speaker 1: got the feather in there with the ink that inspires
- 9:58Speaker 1: me as a writer that you would do that, because
- 9:59Speaker 1: that means is that you're speaking to those of us
- 10:01Speaker 1: on the opposite side of this book.
- 10:04Speaker 3: Yes, well, thanks for mentioning that. That's one of my
- 10:06Speaker 3: favorite parts of the book. I really wanted it to
- 10:09Speaker 3: not just feel like I was documenting my own experience.
- 10:12Speaker 3: I wanted to capture the universal experience of being a Swift. See.
- 10:16Speaker 3: So I found a way to include my followers into
- 10:20Speaker 3: the book.
- 10:20Speaker 2: They had no idea.
- 10:21Speaker 3: I just posted something one day and I was like,
- 10:23Speaker 3: answer these questions if you have time, and I kind
- 10:25Speaker 3: of just pulled the ones that I thought.
- 10:27Speaker 2: Would represent us the most.
- 10:30Speaker 3: And I remember getting teary eyed when I was writing it,
- 10:34Speaker 3: and from the sounds of it, a lot of people
- 10:36Speaker 3: needed their tissues during that chapter, so I'm glad that
- 10:40Speaker 3: one resonated well.
- 10:41Speaker 1: I was very glad to see Billy Joel's name on
- 10:43Speaker 1: this list of fans for Taylor Swift, and the reason
- 10:45Speaker 1: being is because I was listening to an interview with
- 10:47Speaker 1: him several years ago and he says, what's missing from
- 10:50Speaker 1: music are great songwriters. He was telling the Eagles that
- 10:52Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, here comes Taylor Swift.
- 10:54Speaker 1: So to see him on this list of a fan
- 10:57Speaker 1: favorite doesn't shock me at all. But at the same time,
- 11:00Speaker 1: I love it that he has made it very visible
- 11:02Speaker 1: for other people to say, yeah, she is a great songwriter.
- 11:07Speaker 2: Yeah, And that's the thing. I think Taylor is in.
- 11:09Speaker 3: One of her She's in her own league, and so
- 11:12Speaker 3: when people try to compare her to you know, other
- 11:14Speaker 3: pop stars of our generation, I'm like, I don't think
- 11:17Speaker 3: that's a fair comparison. I truly think she's in her
- 11:19Speaker 3: own category. And it seems like the legends, Billy Joel,
- 11:23Speaker 3: Paul McCartney, I think every one of them knows it
- 11:27Speaker 3: too now.
- 11:28Speaker 1: But I do want to know though. So you know,
- 11:29Speaker 1: we always talked about how the cultural effect that Taylor
- 11:33Speaker 1: Swift has had. But at the same time, I mean,
- 11:35Speaker 1: I've gotten to know a lot of the fans of Taylor.
- 11:39Speaker 1: I think they're the ones that created the culture. Maybe
- 11:41Speaker 1: it wasn't just Taylor all by herself. I think the
- 11:43Speaker 1: fans created their own universe.
- 11:46Speaker 3: Absolutely, but I think it was all obviously Taylor kicked
- 11:49Speaker 3: it off with, you know, wanting to invest time in
- 11:52Speaker 3: meeting fans and doing the easter egging with when releasing
- 11:55Speaker 3: music and in the album booklets. But yeah, we kind
- 11:59Speaker 3: of took it to a whole other level and made
- 12:02Speaker 3: it so that she could never stop doing that because
- 12:04Speaker 3: it became part of our culture.
- 12:07Speaker 2: So yeah, I think we're we are the most.
- 12:10Speaker 3: Influential fan community to date. And I think, you know,
- 12:13Speaker 3: if you're comparing it, I would compare it to Beatle
- 12:16Speaker 3: beatles Mania, but on steroids because of social media.
- 12:20Speaker 1: Yeah, and of course then to see the concerts and
- 12:22Speaker 1: then to see how it comes on to TV. And
- 12:24Speaker 1: I just know inside my heart we're gonna be watching
- 12:27Speaker 1: that video of their wedding. It's gonna be on Hulu
- 12:29Speaker 1: or something. I'm waiting for it patient late. But I mean,
- 12:31Speaker 1: but how many times do the fans out here have
- 12:33Speaker 1: to wait? Because I mean, this is gonna be huge
- 12:36Speaker 1: and we're going to be all over that. I'm hoping
- 12:38Speaker 1: they put it in IMAX and we can watch it
- 12:40Speaker 1: up there as well.
- 12:42Speaker 2: I'm sure all the fans would love that.
- 12:44Speaker 3: I don't know, I don't I'm kind of just hoping
- 12:46Speaker 3: we get wedding photos at this point, how about that?
- 12:49Speaker 1: Huh? Yeah, I would love to see those two because
- 12:51Speaker 1: I just I'm a wedding DJ, so therefore I do
- 12:54Speaker 1: love seeing wedding photos. They make me cry every time.
- 12:57Speaker 1: And even though I'm an old guy, it doesn't matter.
- 12:59Speaker 1: I still when I see great wedding photos.
- 13:02Speaker 2: Yeah, I just want to see that dress.
- 13:04Speaker 1: Yes, oh my god, not just the dress. Let's come on,
- 13:07Speaker 1: let's get Travis in there as well. I mean, because
- 13:08Speaker 1: come on, they both had the same designer, did they not?
- 13:12Speaker 3: Yeah?
- 13:12Speaker 2: I believe so. I'm sure they both looked great.
- 13:15Speaker 3: I would love to see, you know, Travis Tierry eyed
- 13:18Speaker 3: as she walks down the aisle.
- 13:19Speaker 1: And with the football season starting, you know we're going
- 13:22Speaker 1: to see her up there. And is that the reason
- 13:23Speaker 1: why I watch Kansas City?
- 13:24Speaker 3: Ahu? It is?
- 13:25Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I love the Chiefs, but I got to
- 13:28Speaker 1: see what she's doing first.
- 13:30Speaker 2: I kind of agree.
- 13:31Speaker 3: I mean, I am a Chiefs fan now, but it
- 13:33Speaker 3: was Taylor who got me there.
- 13:35Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. Where can people go to find out more
- 13:38Speaker 1: about what you're doing? Because this isn't gonna be one
- 13:40Speaker 1: of those books that's gonna sit on a shelf. You're
- 13:42Speaker 1: gonna you're gonna take it to so many different levels.
- 13:44Speaker 1: What are you doing with the book beyond this? And
- 13:47Speaker 1: how can people keep in touch with you?
- 13:49Speaker 2: Yeah? Thank you?
- 13:50Speaker 3: Well, you can keep in touch with me on Instagram
- 13:54Speaker 3: at Swift East for Eternity or at Olivia Levin, which
- 13:57Speaker 3: is my personal And yeah, I mean, I hope there's
- 14:00Speaker 3: there's more to come post book, and you can buy
- 14:03Speaker 3: the book wherever wherever you buy your books, whether that
- 14:06Speaker 3: be Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or any other bookstore. And
- 14:09Speaker 3: I'm excited for more fans to get their hands on.
- 14:11Speaker 1: It, and they need to buy two or three because
- 14:13Speaker 1: the thing about it is though, they're going to want
- 14:15Speaker 1: one that they read and then, like all Swifty fans
- 14:18Speaker 1: that I've talked with, then you want one that you
- 14:20Speaker 1: put in a box and you hang it on the
- 14:22Speaker 1: wall in one of those shadow boxes.
- 14:24Speaker 2: Yeah, and I.
- 14:25Speaker 3: Mean it's a great gift for any Swifty in your life.
- 14:28Speaker 1: Yeah, please come back to this show anytime in the future.
- 14:31Speaker 1: The door is always going to be open for you.
- 14:34Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me.
- 14:35Speaker 1: Will you be brilliant?
- 14:37Speaker 2: Okay, yes, you too.
- 14:40Speaker 1: Thank you