By now, it’s safe to say that Taylor Swift has musically teamed up with a lot of really cool people — but one of her most unexpected recent collabs has been with Dylan O’Brien, who plays the drums on Midnights’ song “Snow on the Beach” featuring Lana Del Rey. And honestly? The collab was unexpected for Swift, too. (But O’Brien actually is a drummer! What can’t this man do?!)
On Oct. 24, Swift spoke with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon all about her friendship with O’Brien and how she got him to play the drums on the track. Swift shared that since filming All Too Well: The Short Film alongside Stranger Things star Sadie Sink, she and O’Brien have actually become “really close friends.” Aww.
“With ‘Snow on the Beach,’ which features the genius Lana Del Rey… Dylan was actually in the studio with me and Jack [Antonoff], because a lot of the time, we record at his place,” Swift said. “And Dylan was just hanging out, like, drinking wine with us and listening to stuff.” OK, so how do I get in on drinking wine and listening to music with this iconic trio?!
Swift continued to Fallon, “And he was just trying out the drum kit there.” She added, laughing, “He wasn’t — he wasn’t serious. But as I said, we were drinking wine. And so, we were just sort of like, ‘Oh, we haven’t recorded the drums for this one yet, if you wanna…’ And he just played the drums on the song.”
Swift shared more about the two’s growing friendship, saying that she reached out to O’Brien to star in All Too Well: The Short Film because she “had always really loved his work.” “I also felt like he seemed like a very quick-witted person,” Swift told Fallon. “And I knew that I wanted the character to be charming. I wanted that sort of charming, quick cleverness, and charisma to be why we love the character because there’s a lot of complexity to that character that makes us not love him as much.”
Could another collab with O’Brien and Swift be on the horizon? I certainly hope so. Maybe the Teen Wolf star will even play drums on an upcoming song in Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), perhaps?