The release of Taylor Swift’s surprise album The folklore it has awakened a new mystery: who is William Bowery? The name appears among the credits of Swift in the eighth and most recent studio album, but fans are already suspecting that there is a great secret behind the unknown writer.
In Swift’s Instagram announcement before the release of The folkloreshe credited several people who helped to make that happen. For the most part, were recognizable names: Aaron Dessner, Bon Iver, and Jack Antonoff, plus the sound team of Laura Sisk, Jon Low, and Serban Ghenea, and photographer Beth Garrabrant. Among those names, however, she also dedicated a line to “William Bowery (who co-wrote two [songs] with me)”. In all fairness, the music industry is a big world, so it’s certainly possible that Bowery is a real person who simply keeps a low profile behind the scenes. He is not the only name that does not have a labelling Instagram account, Swift post — Sisk, Low, and Ghenea are also without a label.
That said, Swift has a history of pseudonyms, both for herself and for other people, so also not that far-fetched to suspect that “William Bowery,” is a false name also. In May, Swift shared a version of his hit “Look What you made Me Do”, which was presented in Kill Eva and performed by the band Jack’s Leopards and the Dolphin Club — a group that seems to exist, and the fans suspected that it was actually his brother Austin pseudonym. Swift herself used the pseudonym “Nils Sjoberg” to co-write her ex Calvin Harris song “This Is What You Came for,” and Sjöberg was listed as a producer on the “Jack Leopard” cover.
Given Swift’s predilection for pseudonyms, it is understandable why fans assume that a totally unknown composer with no other credit is in reality a cover for someone else. But who? One theory is that Austin is Swift’s new. It is already known that to be a musician and have worked with her sister under a false name before, definitely would make sense that you had to have worked with her (and that she was going to put it in the list among his “musical heroes,” as his Instagram read post). Other fans, however, the theory that the Bowery is the pseudonym of his famous private boyfriend, Joe Alwyn. A fan account Twitter user @taylowkey13, suggested that the name makes reference to Alwyn’s great-grandfather and a hotel where Alwyn and fast once they met again in 2016. For now, at least, Bowery’s real identity will remain a mystery, and that is only likely to how to who “he” wants.
