Taylor Swift is returning to one of her most successful creative alliances. The singer-songwriter confirmed that her longtime collaborators Max Martin and Shellback will serve as the sole producers alongside Swift herself, on her forthcoming 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl. The announcement came during her appearance on the New Heights podcast, where Swift reflected on their history of chart-topping work and described the new project as the most focused collaboration they have undertaken together.

Swift, who previously worked with Martin and Shellback on hits such as “22,” “Shake It Off,” and “Blank Space,” called Martin a “mentor” and praised both producers for their complementary strengths. “The three of us have made some of my favorite songs that I’ve ever done before,” she said. “They’re just geniuses in different avenues, in different ways.”

While the trio’s partnership has yielded some of Swift’s most commercially successful singles, this marks the first time they have produced an entire album as an exclusive team. “We’ve never actually made an album before where it’s just the three of us,” Swift explained. “There’s no other collaborators. It’s just the three of us making a focused album.”

The approach contrasts with her recent work, which has leaned heavily on collaborators Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner. That creative team shaped Swift’s last five studio albums and played a central role in her ongoing Taylor’s Version re-recordings. Between her last collaborations with Martin and Shellback and this new project, Swift also released folklore and evermore, albums she described as “esoteric” and deliberately experimental. “I was just kind of exploring and trying to challenge myself as a writer,” she said of that period.

Swift believes the time apart strengthened their creative dynamic. “By the time we came back together, I feel like we had so much more dexterity to what we do,” she said. “It felt like all three of us in the room were carrying the same weight as creators.” She added that the sessions have produced “the best ideas we’ve ever had.”

Much of the album’s production took place in Sweden while Swift was performing the Eras Tour. She recalled inviting Martin to a Stockholm concert and discussing the possibility of working together again. “I just feel like we could knock it out of the park if we went back in,” she told him.

Swift said she approached the project with the same standards she applied to her record-breaking Eras Tour. “I want to be as proud of it as an album as I am of the Eras Tour, and for the same reasons,” she explained. While Martin cautioned her about the pressure such a goal would create, Swift was undeterred. “I know the pressure I’m putting on this record by saying that, but I don’t care because I love it that much.”

She characterized The Life of a Showgirl as having an “effervescent” quality, shaped by a period of creativity marked by energy and confidence. “It comes from the most joyful, wild, dramatic place I was in in my life,” she said.