Jack Antonoff has credited Taylor Swift for starting his production career, saying he “was sort of shocked” during their first collaboration together.
In an interview with Variety, published yesterday (December 5), Antonoff talked about how his career as a producer first began. Antonoff was awarded ‘Producer Of The Decade’ by the publication.
“I actually would say she’s the first person who allowed me to produce, really, because I was already doing it,” Antonoff told Variety.
While the former fun. member and Bleachers leader had already racked up credits by then, working with Carly Rae Jepsen, Sara Bareilles, Tegan And Sara, and Panic! At The Disco, Swift was his highest-profile collaborator yet. They first worked together on her 2013 single ‘Sweeter Than Fiction’.
“The way my early collaboration with her came along was, I was making tracks, and she would write all the lyrics and melodies, then we’d get together and record it — it wasn’t that deep,” he continued. “And when it reached the point where, in the past, someone said ‘now we’ll hand it off to so-and-so producer,’ she just said, ‘It’s done’”.
“I was sort of shocked — and thrilled! I think that’s part of the reason why we’ve had such an incredibly long and beautiful collaboration.” Antonoff would go on to produce tracks on all Swift albums beginning from 2014’s ‘1989’.
The musician is currently working on the soundtrack with Charli XCX for A24’s Mother Mary – which will star Anne Hathaway, Michaela Coel, Euphoria‘s Hunter Schafer and FKA Twigs – along with Lana Del Rey’s upcoming album ‘Lasso’.
Antonoff recently released ‘Merry Christmas, Please Don’t Call’ under Bleachers, and his production work can be heard on Kendrick Lamar’s surprise album ‘GNX’.
In October, Antonoff praised Charli, along with Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter, for shaping pop music in a year called an “artist development summer”, in a reference to the ubiquitous phrase of the year.
“Sabrina, Charli and Chappell Roan — the three of them have had this shared experience of artists who have been crystallising, and that’s where you get gems,” he told the publication.
“And that’s the story of being an artist. That’s true artist development. And it doesn’t matter where we are in tech or streaming or anything — the only way to win is to create your own language.”
Antonoff co-wrote four songs on Carpenter’s latest album ‘Short N’ Sweet‘, including her hit ‘Please Please Please’. On her rise to acclaim this year, he said: “Sabrina’s been quietly growing, and her albums have been getting more awesome, and she’s been honing her sound and performances. It’s not like she just popped onto the scene — this has been a decade of grinding toward it.”
In an interview with NME, Antonoff spoke about how he chooses which artists to work with: “If there’s ever something that sounds interesting to work on, I try to meet people and see if I can imagine doing things with them.”
“You know, the ability to make something with someone is so delicate that you could like someone, you could love their work, but it might not work. You just have to try and be very honest when it happens and when it doesn’t.”
“And I tend and intend to follow the things where I feel a lot of inspiration and excitement. It’s all kind of gut feeling, but yeah, it can be a bit awkward if it’s not there. Because you can’t really fake it.”