When he's not collaborating with other artists from Taylor Swift and Lorde to Bruce Springsteen, Jack Antonoff is producing and writing music for his band Bleachers.
The Grammy-winning singer, songwriter and producer sees a link between his wide-ranging collaboration and his work with the American rock band he founded in 2013.
"I know I'm in a minority here, but they're all connected to me and I really don't mind it," Antonoff told NPR's Morning Edition. "In the past, I've tried to create this illusion that there was more separation, but it's all happening at the same time. There's no tension in me in that."
He described Bleachers' latest album, everyone for ten minutes, as wanting to kick the door into the next phase of life.
"It's very rare that I write from the perspective of an everyone-ness," Antonoff said ahead of this week's release. "Obviously, the album is about my personal life, but when I was writing it, I was like, 'We've never disagreed more. We've never been more torn apart.' And yet there's one core thing that everyone agrees on, which is: this version of modernity is trash. No one's having a good time."
People are now craving connections and have nostalgia for a more analog time according to Antonoff. He points to increased interest in going to movie theaters, collecting vinyl and attending concerts.
In "the van," Antonoff sings about his early life on the road when he was a member of the bands Outline and Steel Train. He said there's a learned behavior from touring, of seeing each person in the crowd as an individual and understanding their journey to that show.
"If you can find joy playing to nine people in a bar, that never leaves you," he said. "The truth is, it doesn't matter if the studio got nicer or the venue got bigger. My life is the same as it was when I was 14 and 15, which is: I record music, I write music and I move around and play it."
He said he wants to honor the fans who come to his shows and engage in deep conversations with them.
Grief often frames Antonoff's songwriting, and he points to part of the new Bleachers album as a reflection on how much talking about death can be taboo.
"I feel like we're all death-closeted or something," said Antonoff, whose sister died when he was 18. "When I was there in the depths of grief, I had this feeling like, why is no one talking? I went through years obsessing about it. It's baked into the work I do because I really got going in the years when I was dealing with the most grief. Making art is such an exercise in mortality."
On the flip side, the album also explores marriage. Antonoff married actress Margaret Qualley in his New Jersey hometown by the beach in 2023.
In "dirty wedding dress," he sings about how he and Qualley were inside their wedding venue with the people they love the most, oblivious to the crowds outside.
"There's this great psychological study that the human brain does an empathy drop-off at about 125 people," Antonoff said. "I don't think it's cynical. I think it's beautiful. We have our capacity. My partner, my band, my family, my audience, like this is who is allowed in. That's it. I always say, Bleachers is for anybody, not everybody."
Barry Gordemer edited the broadcast version of this story. Olivia Hampton edited the digital version.
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