i have a very wild theory but it makes much more sense than joe suddenly being a songwriter.
william bowery is michael malarkey (yup, enzo from tvd). he started speaking about taylor in 2020, this is also when he started following the national AND aaron, and both accounts followed him back. he is a song writer and all his songs are self-written, he is mostly doing indie-folk stuff like folklore in 2020 (a few months before folklore) during a livestream he said he "wrote a couple of songs inspired by taylor swift but won't release them", and then said it would be a dream to write something with her.
he is queer in a "open secret" way (ian somerhalder, anyone?)
then during release of midnights he started speaking about taylor again, and posting midnights on his instagram. when he talks about taylor, he speaks about how she is a great writer, her writing process is amazing etc, but he never worked with her? he was at the eras tour lowkey, no one saw him, but he is wearing the merch from the tour.
there is more: the parallels between his writing\sweet nothing, and some songs have links to his own situation.
Woah this is interesting! I don’t think I’ve ever drawn these parallels or have thought to ever. (I love TVD). I’m curious to see what everyone else thinks!!!
Feel free to comment your thoughts, resources, disputes etc!!