My 40 Minute Therapy Session with Jack Antonoff

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Most people at noon are on their lunch breaks. Me? I was at a zoom meeting with Jack Antonoff for 40+ minutes where we talked about anything and everything. Due to technical difficulties, it wasn't able to be recorded. However, because I was born with a great memory, I remembered everything we talked about.

He was late (pretends to be shocked), but he definitely made up for it. He joined the meeting on his iPhone from Bleachers U.S. tour rehearsals at a warehouse in where he described as "the middle of fucking nowhere". He asked me if he could keep his camera on to which I replied "Could you imagine if I said no? Like, no, actually I don't want to look at you this entire interview." It was very playful and we were being sarcastic with each other right from the start.

I started the interview by going over a mini checklist of things that have happened in just the first five months of 2024. I congratulated him on his third consecutive win for Producer of the Year. His response? "Not too shabby!" I mentioned how he's tied with Babyface's record for most consecutive wins and if he were to win it again, he would break the record. "I hope I didn't just jinx you" I said. He laughed.

Jack started a record label earlier this year called "Shadow of the City"; the same name as the festival he is hosting for its 6th year on June 15th at the Stone Pony Summer Stage. I asked him if he has signed any artists to the label yet. He has not. He wants the record label to be a hub for his people similar to the festival of the same name. However, he said he is looking at artists to sign to which I gave him a suggestion. Donna Missal is an independent artist based in....you guessed it: New Jersey! "Oh, I know her music!" he says. I went on to say how her music is incredible and how much I love her record Revel, which she independently released last year. Jack had no idea she was unsigned and told me "This is interesting. I"m glad you said this. I'm going to look into it." which then he added "I thought you were going to recommend a random cousin twice removed". At this point we couldn't stop laughing.

Okay...this is breaking news. Bleachers has now been a band for ten years. "I'm planning an anniversary show for July 11th, the day Strange Desire was released" Jack tells me. I gasped. I asked him where it's going to be. He wouldn't tell me. We did end up getting into a heated argument over the date the album came out though to the point where he literally Google searched the date in the middle of the interview. If you look it up, it was released on July 11th in Australia and July 15th in the United States. July 15th is my birthday. "No one has my birthday. Let me have this one thing" I said to him. His argument was that July 11th was the first time anyone in the world heard the album. I still don't agree with him, but it's fine.

Last month, Jack was named one of Time 100's most influential people of 2024 and he went to their event for it a few weeks ago. "Oh, I met the lady who helped make Ozempic at that event!" he says to me. "That was the last thing I was expecting you to say" I replied. He brought his sister Rachel who sat with him and his father, Rick, who ended up having to sit at another table (Poor Rick). Uma Thurman was there as an honoree and since I just watched Kill Bill for the very first time recently, I had to ask him if he got to say hi to her. Spoiler alert: He did not. 

For Time 100, each person honored has a peer write an essay about them that Time shares. Maren Morris wrote his piece, which anyone who knows me knows that this was my Super Bowl. "You're a big fan of Maren's right?" he says to which I replied "Well....yes!" I read him a quote from her piece: "One of my favorite memories of Jack was watching his father watch him perform last year. If I weren't having so much fun, I would have been sobbing at the beaming pride in his father's eyes. We were witnessing a literal rock-'n'-roll revival” I asked him how it made him feel to see his peers write such positive things about him. He said he thinks it's interesting to read nice things written about yourself because you're so used to hearing it in person, so when you read about it it's like "Oh? Okay well that's nice". Of course I had to tell him I'm excited to hear what he's been working on with Maren. "It's fucking great" he said.

"I need you to know that Bleachers is my album of the year" is how I started our discussion of the new self titled Bleachers album, their first record released on the label Dirty Hit. "Are you sure? There's been a lot of music released in 2024 so far..." to which I assured him I was being truthful. He had the help of Patrik Berger in co-producing the majority of the album. Why Patrik? "He truly understands me & our catalogue" he said. Bartees Strange co-produced the song I Am Right On Time with Jack and Patrik, which is my favorite song on the record and I let him know that. "I don't agree with that" he said. "Well....that's certainly an opinion" I replied. We both agreed however that it mirrors (haha) their song Dream of Mickey Mantle from the album Gone Now. Jack said how he's noticed both of those are fan favorites with both of them having similar themes and being introductory songs. "Both of those songs are therapeutic to people. Hold on...has this turned into a therapy session?" Jack says to which we both laughed.

Modern Girl was the first single released for self titled and has been out in the world for 8+ months now. "It feels like we put that out yesterday" Jack said. One thing I've noticed at the shows they've played recently: that song gets a LOUD reaction from the audience when they start it. Did Jack expect this to happen though? "Absolutely" he says. He goes on to tell me that's there's so many bits in it that fans who have been with the band for awhile will get. It's still one of his favorite songs to play live.

I talked briefly to him about the song "Jesus Is Dead" from the album or as I like to call it "The Lore Song". There's phrases & bits in the song that real Bleachers people will understand. I asked him about the "Texas Man cause a scene" line & why he decided to write that for Evan Smith's sax solo introduction. For those of you who don't know, Evan is one of the saxophone players for Bleachers and has been with the band since the beginning. Jack went on to say it was a bit where how Evan isn't the most stereotypical "Texas Man", so he would always introduce him that way to be funny. Evan grew up in Dallas but now lives in Maine. Flash forward to 2020, he writes a song with The Chicks called "Texas Man" and even played it at all of the Bleachers Texas shows during their 2022 tour. The audience got into the bit and it came so full circle that he had to have it in writing that Evan has now become an official "Texas Man". He revealed to me he wrote Jesus Is Dead very quickly.

Bleachers wrapped up their first leg of tour at the end of March where they hopped all around the U.K. In a few weeks, they will embark on their U.S. tour. I rattled off a couple cities to him that they are playing including how they kick it off in Salt Lake City, are making their grand return to Red Rocks, and how they're playing two nights at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Here is a quick dialogue of us talking about the Ryman shows:

"I'm so excited for the Ryman shows. It's my favorite venue in the world." 

"Really? I've never been there before. What makes it special to you?" 

"It's this old church turned into a venue and the vibes in there are always insane. I've only seen Jason Isbell there, but I know you guys are going to break the venue in half." 

"This just made me more excited for the Nashville shows."

He went on to say that when he tries to book venues with his longtime booking agent, Mike Marquis, he relays to him what venues are popular with the audience/where specifically they should play. Jack is always scrolling through Twitter to see where the fans want them to go. He revealed to me that during the 2021 tour, they played a couple venues that he didn't like (didn't say which ones) where he ended up calling Mike Marquis to say "We won't play that venue again". Jack in his controversial era!

As many of us know, Jack is composing the score for the upcoming Broadway revival of Romeo & Juliet starring Rachel Zegler and Kit Connor. "I'm so excited for people to see that" he says. Jack gave me the inside scoop by revealing to me that he met up with Rachel, Kit, and the director Sam Gold a few days ago. He said that he's been working on the score for quite some time and how it's very different working on this than when he made the Minions soundtrack and even The New Look soundtrack. Jack even told me he wants to be there for some of the shows playing the score himself! "Well, now I have to go to opening night" I said.

To conclude the interview, I asked him rapid fire fan questions submitted by Anna's followers from her Instagram page: bleacherscreatures. We both talked about how much we loved Anna, her page, and how the community has become an organism that's bigger than itself. Below is each question and what he gave me for answer:

1. Is the crowd going wild in the background of "Self Respect" a recording from a show?

Yes, it's from an actual show. He joked that now that people will know this, he'll get sued by us all for using our voices without permission. I told him everyone can just Venmo request him. He thought that was hilarious.

2. You've been ominous about the stage design for this cycle - any hints you can give? 

Jack said they're currently working on the U.S. tour stage design in rehearsals and how it may be a little different from the U.K. tour setup. They're currently working on the stage design for MSG, LA, and All Things Go as well since those are the biggest shows they are playing this year.

3. Will there ever be another unplugged performance / album?

Jack said he did MTV Unplugged once and that is enough. Neither one of us could confirm if MTV even still does Unplugged, but he did say that he would love to do that concept again in the future especially since they've released two more records since then.

4. Tell me your ideal road trip Wawa order.

"Now this is hard hitting journalism" Jack said to which I replied "The people want to know!" He went on to say how much he loves their meatball subs, but his go-to road trip order? "Sandwich on white bread, swiss, turkey, lettuce, vinegar, oregano"

Right before we said our goodbyes, I had to do it...I had to talk to him about my favorite songs off of The Tortured Poet's Department. How could I not? This is the tenth Taylor Swift album he's worked on including her re-recordings. "Oh my God yes I need to know what your favorites are" he said. I gave him my top three: Guilty As Sin, My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys, and The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived. "Guilty As Sin is my favorite right now and one of the best songs Taylor has made" Jack stated. I mentioned how I got really excited how he finally tweeted about that song last week because he was tweeting about all the other songs he worked on except the best one (Guilty As Sin), but I'm glad he agreed with me. He compared it to august & mirrorball, which I told him mirrorball is my favorite off of folklore and he said it's up there for one of her best songs. He went on to say that when Taylor played him The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived for the first time (the track was produced by Aaron Dessner) he was absolutely blown away by it and thinks the build up of the bridge is brilliant. "It brought me back to her Red album" he stated.

We're about to say our goodbyes. I thanked him for taking the time to talk to me which he replied with "This is my favorite interview I've done this cycle". You can imagine I was in shock as this is the first time I've ever done an interview in my life. He said he really loved the questions we had and was happy I didn't talk about how "he's the busiest man in the world", which he said does annoy him to an extent. This is how our conversation ended:

"I'll let you get back to rehearsal. I'll see you on tour!"

"Which shows are you coming to?"

"Both Nashville shows, Boston, and Shadow."

"Awesome. I can't wait for those ones. Have a good rest of your day and see you in a few weeks!"

Our call was supposed to be 15 minutes. As you can see, we went a little over. 

All in all, this was the best conversation I've had in a long time. I already want to interview him again.

All photos taken by Chloe Pace.