After having spent most of the last several years establishing himself as one of modern pop music’s most in-demand producers, Jack Antonoff has been getting back into the spotlight himself over the last several weeks. Appearing on Late Night With Seth Meyers to perform with his band Bleachers on Dec. 21, Antonoff sat down with the host to discuss his marriage, his recent Grammy nominations (including for Producer of the Year, which he has won two years running), and his low-friction approach to music-making.
Antonoff’s 2023 Grammy nominations all came via his production and songwriting work with Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey, both artists he’s worked with on multiple albums over the years. (Technically, Antonoff will be competing with himself in both the Album of the Year and Record of the Year categories, with Swift’s Midnights and Del Rey’s Do You Know There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd both nominated in the former, and “Anti-Hero” and “A&W” both nominated in the latter.) He spoke about how his long-term relationships with both have deepened over the years.
Antonoff has produced multiple albums for Lana Del Rey and Taylor Swift.
“I’m really proud of those two, because I think in my industry, there’s this endless [pressure to] pivot this way and that way,” he said. “And I’ve had a few [artists] — really, Lana and Taylor — where we’ve worked together for a long period of time, and found this space where it gets loonier and loonier, and more exciting. It’s the same thing with my band. We just made a new record. I think a big thing is investing in long-term relationships.”
Asked by Meyers about the notion that record-making should be fraught and combative, Antonoff defended his famously conciliatory approach in the studio.
“Making albums is hard enough on the mind and body that it seems an embarrassment to introduce dissonance in the actual process,” he said. “It’s like we’re fighting something so much bigger, we’re in a storm together trying to figure out these things, so it seems weird that you would pick on the person next to you.”
He then pivoted to a discussion of the rigors of life as a musician. “You know, when I was younger and I [told people I] wanted to do music, people would always be like, ‘Uh, well, that’s a tough life,’ And it’s like, well, it’s all a tough life, but it’s also a beautiful life. And I wonder which guidance counselors got together and said ‘we’re gonna s**t on this job.’ Because it’s not even that weird. It’s not like I want to be flying in space.
“There’s music everywhere, there are so many jobs in music. If someone wants to work in art or music, somewhere along the way there was this idea of ‘well let’s get a plan B.’ And that even if you do [succeed at] it, your life is horrible. Everyone’s like, ‘I don’t know how you do all the traveling.’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t know how you do all the f**king sitting.’ ”
Bleachers’ self-titled fourth album is scheduled for release on March 8.
