Joe Alwyn’s accidental collaboration with Taylor Swift

Joe Alwyn has insisted writing songs with Taylor Swift was “accidental”.

The ‘Conversations With Friends’ actor has two co-writing tracks on his girlfriend’s ‘Folklore’ album and three on the follow-up ‘Evermore’ under the pseudonym William Bowery, but he insisted the pair didn’t deliberately set out to forge a musical partnership.

Speaking to the new issue of GQ Hype magazine, he said: “It was really the most accidental thing to happen in lockdown.

“It wasn’t like, ‘It’s three o’clock, it’s time to write a song!’ It was just messing around on a piano and singing badly and being overheard and then thinking, you know, ‘What if we tried to get to the end of it together?’ “

Joe found it particularly “surreal” having Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon singing ‘Exile’ with Taylor, but described it as a “perk” of the coronavirus pandemic.

He added: “Sending it to Justin with the idea of doing a duet and getting voice notes back of him singing over the top and stuff was surreal. It was a perk of lockdown.”

The 31-year-old actor’s collaboration with the ‘Shake It Off’ hitmaker was originally kept secret because they didn’t want their relationship to overshadow the music.

Joe explained: “The idea was that people would just listen to the music rather than focus on the fact that we wrote it together.”

And though the songs were well received, Joe has no plans to write any more with his girlfriend, though he enjoyed the experience.

He said: “It was fun to do it together, and I was proud of it. It was nice getting such a positive reception.”

The ‘Harriet’ actor confirmed there’s likely to be a version of ‘Exile’ with him on it somewhere, but he hopes it’s never made public.

He exclaimed: “Jesus, there’s probably a voice note somewhere that should be burned.”

Read the full feature online at GQ Hype now: https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/joe-alwyn-interview-2022