Mystery solved! Calvin Harris revealed the true meaning behind his new song, “My Way,” after fans immediately speculated that it was a dis of his ex-girlfriend Taylor Swift.
The 32-year-old DJ stopped by Elvis Duran and the Z100 Morning Show on Friday, September 16, and explained that it’s about ditching his grocery-store gig to pursue music, not his June breakup with the pop superstar.
“It’s breaking out of a situation,” he said. “I thought of the concept years ago, when I left Safeway. I was trying to move to London and I was working in the store in Scotland, I was trying to go on and make music for a living but I couldn’t because I didn’t have any money. I was like, damn this grocery store! If I could break out of this I could have enough time to work on music and get good.”
While he’s had the idea for several years, he was only recently inspired to finish the lyrics. “It’s hard to get a job in my town. You get brainwashed into thinking that’s as good as you’re going to get, and then you have to realize that actually there’s a whole world out there,” the Dumfries, Scotland, native said. “When you’re stuck in that situation, you can’t see that. You don’t think that you’re going to become anything! That was just the concept that was in the back of my mind, but I had no idea how to put that into words until very recently.”
Unlike Swift, 26, whose biggest hits have been inspired by her heartbreak and personal relationships, Harris said his tracks aren’t telling an autobiography. “I think for me personally, that’s not really my vibe. I’m not an autobiographical singer I’m very vague with my messages,” he said. “I don’t think they’re any less powerful, but there are less words in them, and I don’t think over the course of an album it would really make sense with me as an artist.”
The Scottish hunk shared some of his tricks of the trade, including concealing vocals (cough, Swift on “This Is What You Came For”) in his songs. “I hide things in everything. I hide other people’s voices,” he told the radio show. “In almost every track there’s a voice in the track from the previous. I just hide little bits, and it might just be an effect or treated thing in the background, as long as I know it’s there it makes me laugh.”
The “How Deep Is Your Love” hitmaker also opened up about his 2015 Armani underwear campaign after cutting ties with the brand this summer. “It’s just jokes, isn’t it? The only reason I did that is because it was after a long run of — I’m very blessed — success in music, and I was like, what else am I going to do?” he said of stripping down for the photo shoot.
As for whether he still has that amazing, chiseled six-pack, Harris said, “I ain’t Zac Efron! I don’t look like that! Nope, that’s not me!”
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