Before Taylor Swift wrote the lyrics to “august,” what did Jack Antonoff send her?

Before Taylor Swift wrote the lyrics to “august,” Jack Antonoff sent her the instrumental.

Antonoff produced the instrumental first and then sent it to Swift. According to the song’s documented creation story, Swift wrote the lyrics on the spot, describing the process as intuitive rather than developing from a pre-existing lyric or finished narrative.

That workflow shaped the track’s atmosphere. The instrumental’s keyboards, strings, guitars, and reverb establish a spacious sound before Swift’s words introduce the fictional summer romance. The music therefore functions as the emotional setting for the narrator’s memories of a relationship that was never fully hers.

This is different from saying Antonoff sent Swift a complete demo with finished lyrics. He supplied the musical foundation, while Swift created the song’s lyrical perspective and imagery. Their collaboration demonstrates how Folklore often grew from remote, rapidly exchanged ideas during the pandemic recording period.