Taylor Swift Drops New 'TS7' Details & Opens Up About Easter Egg Tactics

It's been about two weeks since Taylor Swift shared her brand new single (which is the first taste of TS7) "ME!" featuring Panic! at the Disco's Brendon Urie, and since then, Swifties have been working overtime to decode all of the easter eggs she included in the music video, as well as throughout her social media over the last month. And in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly for the magazine's music issue (on which she so beautifully graces the cover), Swift dropped a few more details about what fans can expect from her upcoming seventh full-length studio album, as well as opened up about all of her easter egg-hiding tactics, and even confirmed a few fan theories based on said easter eggs.

On the cover of EW, Taylor is also wearing quite a few buttons on her denim jacket, all of which are tributes about how various characters in pop culture have helped inspire her, which she also opens up about. But, let's dig deeper into TS7 and Tay's easter eggs below based on what we've learned from this interview, shall we?

Taylor's new album will have more songs on it than any other album she's put out.

"Swift confirmed that her seventh record (she hasn’t announced a title yet; the working nickname among fans is TS7) will include more songs than any of her previous releases. 'I try not to go into making an album with any expectation,' she says. 'I started to write so much that I knew immediately it would probably be bigger.'"

The songs on 'TS7' include an "emotional spectrum" of tracks including some joyful bops and some "really, really, really, really sad songs."

"There’s a lot of a lot on this album. I'm trying to convey an emotional spectrum. I definitely don’t wanna have too much of one thing…. You get some joyful songs and you get the bops, as they say." There’s also, she adds, some 'really, really, really, really sad songs,' but 'not enough to where you need to worry about me.'"

One of her favorite ways to leave easter eggs is via what she wears.

"Easter eggs can be be left on clothing or jewelry. This is one of my favorite ways to do this, because you wear something that foreshadows something else, and people don't really, usually, find out this one immediately. But, they know you're probably sending a message. They'll figure it out in time. Lots of examples of this exist over the history of my career."

She confirmed the theory that the Panic! at the Disco name-drop in her Elle interview was an easter egg.

"I'll do an interview that's supposed to come out way before something else that's supposed to come out, and I'll foreshadow this thing supposed to come out in this interview that I do that comes out way before this thing comes up. So for example, I did an a magazine interview where I mentioned Brendon Urie. I mentioned his band, Panic! at the Disco, months before anyone would then find out that I had done a song with him."

She also confirmed that certain dates with a wax stamp on them on her merch calendar have meaning. Like April 13th — the beginning of the countdown.

"I also had a calendar in my merch line. On this calendar, I made sure to put a wax seal stamp of a 13 on April 13th because I had an idea ages ago that I wanted to do a 13 day countdown starting on April 13th — so many thirteens. Anyway, people started noticing there's a wax seal on this date, what's going on with this date? And sure enough that was the date that we started the countdown for the new album, the new song and the whole thing."

She confirmed the symbolism behind the palm trees, a theory that fans were quick to pick up on.

"I did a post on my Instagram and I've posted seven palm trees and I posted it on the day I finished my seventh album. And a palm tree symbolizes rebirth, new beginnings, positive energy."

Her go-to easter eggs are cats and the number "13" ... and it's simply because she wants to express her undying love for both of these things.

"These are things that they may not lead to something in the future, but they're just an attribute to my love for them. Those things are thirteens and cats. If you see any symbolism in my easter egg situation, that's just cause I love cats. It's really that. It's that simple. Sometimes it means nothing other than just reminding you how much I love cats. Also, the number 13 [is] really close to my heart. I'll pick really important dates just because the numbers of that date add up to 13 — it rules my life. Any easter egg fiend has their go-to's, those are mine."

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