Bleachers haven’t released an album since 2021, but the band’s frontman/songwriter Jack Antonoff has been busy. During that stretch the eight-time Grammy winner produced the latest records for Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, Lorde, St. Vincent, Florence + the Machine, and the 1975, which justifiably garnered Antonoff Producer of the Year at the Grammy Awards two years running — and he’s nominated again this year.

Over the past year and half, Antonoff has been writing for his New Jersey-based rock band. On March 8, the group will release their fourth record, Bleachers, which features the smoking, sax-drenched lead single, “Modern Girl,” and the wistful charms of “Alma Mater,” with moody guest vocals from Lana Del Rey.

 Despite a cold, Antonoff joined The Current for an insightful chat over Zoom, where he candidly discussed the creative inspiration he takes from working with such a talented array of artists, how personal and professional success has changed his approach to songwriting, and what it was like meeting Michael Stipe. Antonoff also shared that parts of Bleachers were recorded at the legendary Paisley Park Studio here in Minnesota.  

So, how and when did the new songs first start coming together?

Jack Antonoff: The past year and a half, I would say. Really the past year is the real concentrated period of making it. Because you have the period before when you're searching around – the real period of it really happening was about the past year and a half. And a little bit in Minneapolis, too.

Oh, is that right? Nice. What did you do here?

We were at Paisley Park for a few days in the studio. So, outside of Electric Lady and in Jersey, it was a little bit at Paisley Park, a little bit in New Orleans, and a little bit in LA. That was the landscape of the record.

Did you finish any songs at Paisley, or were you just working?

Everything was finished in New York, but it was kind of this ongoing thing where I was just touching everything in different places.

Did you feel the vibes there at Paisley? That's such a beautiful place.

Impossible not to feel.

Are you able to write your own music while you're working on other projects? Or, do you need to kind of distance yourself from your other work in order to focus on your own songwriting?

No, I find that everything kind of just happens all at once. You can do something one morning and then something else in the afternoon. It's all just like little folders in my head that I can open at any time.

What creative inspiration do you draw from working with the incredibly talented array of artists you've collaborated with?

The biggest thing is just these endless reminders to – I think it's a give and take between me and them just to drill further into yourself. To continuously block out anything that doesn't feel like yourself. It's the only thing you're in competition with. And I feel like that kind of goes back and forth. I see people do that and I feel more empowered to do it myself.

You've chosen to self-title the new album, Bleachers. What's the significance behind that choice for you?

It was the first album I've made where it felt like just us as the reference point. I always feel like I'm pulling together these collages in my head and bringing things together. You know, “play the drums like this,” “give me like a Ringo fill,” “let's blow this out like Suicide.” Let's do this, blah, blah, blah, making this whole patchwork until I can hear something totally different that's just me. And then, something about what the band has grown into, the magic that happens when we play together, the amount of touring we've done, I just found myself over the past year kind of being like “do this like you do it when we play the end of ‘Don't Go Dark,’” “play this part like when we're doing the solos in ‘Mystery’ and everything feels like it's on fire.” You know, it felt like our experience and the way we play just was the only reference point, drilling further into what Bleachers is. And it just felt very right in that moment. Some sort of arrival, some sort of planting of a flag to self-title it.”

“Modern Girl” is such a killer lead single. You managed to take cheeky aim at pop culture trappings while also making the song a celebration of the band itself. What creative statement were you trying to make by releasing that song first?

I liked how it opened with the sax, because you just don't hear that a lot. I always just want to further separate myself from anything else going on. So, I liked how it jumped out. I liked how it tells the story of some of the funny mythologies of the band. I like how I'm roasting culture. I like how I'm roasting myself. It just felt like the kind of message I would want to send to people if I've been gone for a minute. It felt joyous. It didn't feel overly indulgent. It was funny enough. It represented a lot of things that I've wanted to hear in music. People having a good time again, being a lot less precious, taking the piss out of themselves, taking the piss out of the world around them. And then, most importantly, playing their ass off.

Yeah, that was the thing, I kept hearing it and knowing that the song is just going to slay live.

Oh, it's been crazy. We played it three times now – no, four, we’ve played it four times. And it's a motherf**ker. It just goes off. But it was written that way. Even what I was talking about with the self-titled nature, it's like, I know this band, I know this audience, and the way that I can push on certain buttons. I know I can say certain things that are really for the audience, I can create these call and response moments. It's like the conversations you can have with people that you know really well or so much deeper than anything else, and the band is starting to feel like that with the audience.

You reference being a “pop music hoarder” in the lyrics. What exactly does that entail to you? I mean, I'm sitting here in a room with 2,000 records around me, so I know what that's like.

That whole bit of the song was where I was just trying to think of funny things that people could say about me. So like, “New Jersey's finest New Yorker” felt like a hilarious statement.

"Unreliable reporter," I think speaks to the nature of songwriting. You know, you're sort of reporting from your own deranged corner. “Pop music hoarder,” I thought that was kind of making fun of anyone who has the impression of me that I make every record ever made. And then, “Some guy playing quarters” felt like a funny flip. I wrote that stanza in like a minute. But it just felt like funny things to hear me say about myself.

But at the same time, there is a lot of the history of pop music intertwined in your music as well.

Yeah, that's true. Especially with the horns, like the New Jersey horns and the coastal sound, I just feel are very ‘50s. I obviously feel The E Street, I feel Four Seasons, I feel that early rock and roll in horns. There's a lot of that. And I like mixing it up. I like the idea that a song like “Everybody Lost Somebody” can have horns and 808s, all at the same time. It's just fun to play with all of it, because there's a newness to pulling from all these different things.

So you worked with your old friend and collaborator Lana Del Rey on “Alma Mater.” When I first listened to it, I thought you could fade out on Ocean Blvd and then fade right in on “Alma Mater.” It's like they're tied together that way.

 It was written at similar times.

Oh? Nice. How did that song come together? And how special is it for you to have Lana featured on your record?

It is the most special. I mean, there's a small group of people that I spend my life with. We kind of have a little scene going, of people that I'm in the studio with and working on each other's records.

I love that song because I think a lot about where I'm placing the listener. Often it's a car. Sometimes it's the show. You know, “Modern Girl,” it's the show. Songs like “Chinatown,” it's like I want you in a car. It could be in your bed, could be anywhere. But with “Alma Mater,” I really want to put them in the studio in that moment – when you kind of have all these sounds going and there's a click track going and people are talking. The sound of writing a song on a microphone. It's a very modern thing to just sit there and write a song on a microphone. And that's how we wrote it. And it happened in a flash, but I wanted to keep all of those elements.

Nice. Yeah, it kind of sounds like the song starts in mid-conversation.

Yeah. And I like it fading up and then kind of ending harsh, it gives the impression like you're being allowed to hear a piece of something that has been happening for a long time, like a real document and in a moment. Not just ‘here's the song, here's how we're starting it, here's how we're ending it.’ That's the glory of fade-ins and outs, though. It makes the listener wonder, ‘well what didn't I get to hear?’

You've achieved tremendous commercial and critical success in recent years. As well as personal highs, like your recent marriage. So congratulations on that!

Thanks! You're making me sound like I'm doing all right. That’s good.

Yeah, you sure are. It's actually my 14th wedding anniversary today. So yeah, love is in the air.

Congratulations!

And congrats to you, too. So, how are those professional and personal joys that you've experienced reflected in the songs on the new album?

When you arrive at places in your life that you didn't think were possible for you, it's really joyous. But, it's also really scary, because it challenges all our personal mythologies and all the armor that we wear. You know, “I'm someone who's only in bad relationships,” or “I'm someone who doesn't have success,” Even if they're negative or positive, it's kind of the armor that we wear. And so, a lot of the album was written at a time and a place when a lot of things that I had decided were just facts about me were coming up untrue. So it's pretty vulnerable. I would say that's the biggest theme.

So I just read the brilliant profile on Michael Stipe in the New York Times.

Yeah, I saw that. I'm in there.

Yeah, you sure are. It's a great little section. So what was it like meeting and chatting with Michael on the roof of Electric Lady Studio?

It was just brilliant. He's one of the greatest to have ever done it. He was so sweet and kind. Maybe because his songs can be abrasive, I thought that maybe he'd be scarier. But he was just wonderful. And obviously, only a snippet of it was written about, but there was a lot more said that really meant a lot to me.

It just sounded like a wonderful night of talking music.

Yeah, it was really beautiful. Really special.

It was lovely to chat with you, Jack. Congrats on everything, and we look forward to seeing you bring that hot live show back to Minneapolis sometime soon.

 I promise I will.

Bleachers’ self-titled fourth album is out March 8.