Taylor Swift feels "lucky" not to have found instant success.
Taylor Swift
The 'Me!' hitmaker moved to Nashville and signed a development deal when she was 14 years old and she feels grateful not to have had her first hit single until several years later as she got to slowly adjust to her career.
She said: "I was about 18 when 'Love Story', a song I'd written alone, was a worldwide hit. I was lucky enough to work my way up in country music, for new artists nowadays, it feels like the trajectory of their career is like being shot out of a canon into a stratosphere they could in no way be prepared for.
"I got to sort of acclimate to every step of the path I was on, and by the time I had a massive hit I'd been working since I was 14. Moving from country music to pop was a crazy adjustment for me."
When she first moved to Tennessee with her family, the 29-year-old star was living a "double life" as she mixed her studies with honing her craft.
She recalled: "I was going to high school during the day and doing my songwriting sessions at night. It was a double life. I'd be writing notes in class, and my teachers never knew if they were notes for my class or if I'd gotten an idea for a song."
Asked how many songs she'd write in a day, she added: "Usually, never more than one. I had these sessions every day, and if I didn't come in with a good idea, I'd get stared at. You're not inspired every day, as you know, but you have to show up and treat it like a job. That's where I learned the craft of songwriting."
Taylor also seized every opportunity she could to perform.
She added to Britain's Vogue magazine: "It was really writing first. At the same time, I was singing the national anthem every time I could - at festivals and fairs and bars, anywhere I could get up on stage. I was trying to hone both sides of what I was doing, but I'm very well aware that I would not have a career if I hadn't been a writer. I wouldn't have just been a singer, it wouldn't have worked."
Tagged in Taylor Swift