Key Songs In The Life Of… Jack Antonoff

MBW’s Key Songs In The Life Of… is a sequence by which we ask influential music trade figures concerning the tracks which have outlined their life and profession to date. Right here, multi-Grammy-winning songwriter and producer, Jack Antonoff, unveils his musical autobiography. The Key Songs… sequence is supported by Sony Music Publishing.

He’s been a defining affect on the sound of 2025, co-writing and producing most of Kendrick Lamar’s GNX and Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Greatest Good friend – along with his fingerprints on chart-topping smashes Luther and Manchild.

However when MBW catches up with Jack Antonoff, talking from a studio in Portugal, it’s to not talk about the hits of right this moment. It’s to speak concerning the music that made him who he’s.

All through our dialogue of his Key Songs playlist, Antonoff repeatedly returns to themes of authenticity, restraint, and the mysterious alchemy of excellent manufacturing.

He’s notably animated when discussing AI’s limitations in inventive fields, likening its potential/incapability to put in writing a joke or a shifting track to “asking a clown to come back over and repair the electrical energy – two totally various things”.

“A terrific joke is in some methods similar to an excellent track,” he continues. “Each play with every part occurring in your previous, current, and future, making a visceral response, one thing you can’t management.

“Folks can mislead themselves in politics, in society, about who they’re and what they really feel – they will placed on all these completely different masks. However you may’t mislead your self about music and comedy.

“Comedy doesn’t simply make you snort; comedy reveals what you assume is humorous, whether or not you prefer it or not. It’s the identical with music. It’s the good revealer of individuals’s hearts and souls.”

“Folks can mislead themselves in politics, in society, about who they’re and what they really feel – they will placed on all these completely different masks. However you may’t mislead your self about music and comedy.”

These aren’t simply summary theories for Antonoff. His method to manufacturing – whether or not working with pop superstars or indie darlings – is rooted in a deep respect for the listener.

“There’s zero a part of me that thinks sick of the public’s intelligence in relation to music,” he tells MBW of his method within the studio, even when sculpting pop hits that stream of their billions.

“I don’t see my work in pop music as being in any kind of service trade,” he provides. “I’m not making an attempt to please. It’s about making one thing that feels unimaginable, sincere, and value placing out.”

He’s equally considerate concerning the music trade’s snowballing obsession with artist visibility.

Discussing Fiona Apple‘s genius, he means that viewing her quiet public profile as an anomaly in fashionable music “speaks to how marketing-obsessed we’ve gotten. All that issues is your songs, the way in which you file them, and the way in which you carry out them.”

Right here, in his personal phrases, are the seven tracks which have formed Jack Antonoff’s journey — from a middle-class childhood in New Jersey via teenage angst, devastating private loss, and finally changing into considered one of music’s most sought-after hitmakers…

1) The Beatles, Happiness Is A Heat Gun (1968)

Once I was younger, my mother and father simply performed tons of music in the home. My dad is that this sensible ragtime guitar participant who grew up in New Jersey and by some means ended up taking guitar classes from Reverend Gary Davis.

There was actually eclectic music in the home, every part from ragtime to British music, music from each era. Happiness Is A Heat Gun is especially important as a result of it’s the primary manufacturing reminiscence I ever had: I hear every part, and I’m totally fascinated as to why these decisions have been made.

I’d at all times remembered listening to music, loving music, loving melodies and devices, all this stuff about songs. However this was the primary time pondering: ‘Holy shit, why is that voice coming from this speaker? Why is the time signature altering? Why does the guitar sound prefer it’s melting?’

“The Beatles have been similar to a reality. You didn’t fuck with it. It was a reality.”

Clearly, Happiness Is A Heat Gun is without doubt one of the biggest productions ever, however all of that jumped out at me – partially due to its brilliance, partially due to its panning, partially due to its oddity normally.

I’m most likely 9 presently, changing into acquainted with the favored music of the period – Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, issues like that.

However in my home, The Beatles have been only a reality. You didn’t fuck with it. It was a reality.

My mom was a nurse who’d stopped working to lift us youngsters, and my father had an organization that did carpet cleansing. It was a really regular, middle-class American existence.

The best way they raised me, there was every part, after which there was The Beatles.

2) NOFX, The Decline (1999)

I at all times beloved NOFX rising up. However once they put out The Decline… it’s principally like a rock opera. It’s 40 or so minutes, it’s one track and by no means stops.

At the moment, in mainstream tradition, politics have been [treated as] separate. So numerous issues I used to be studying about — world politics, race politics, veganism – got here far more from underground music. I beloved bands like Unhealthy Brains and Propagandhi and issues like that.

The Decline related numerous pursuits for me, as a result of there was a theater to it. I nonetheless assume it might make one of many biggest performs or musicals of all time. I studied it from starting to finish — the way in which they sewed it collectively.

“The largest takeaway from The Decline is the intention for critical listening.”

Listening to The Decline, that’s my root of throwing guidelines out [in the studio], making actually harsh adjustments this fashion and that manner. I suppose that began with Happiness Is A Heat Gun too, however The Decline is a really large-scale model of it.

I suppose the most important takeaway from The Decline is the intention for critical, critical listening. It was virtually decidedly fan-only.

Its structure makes it unimaginable to have an off-the-cuff pay attention, and I believe that’s a very necessary factor for artists.

There’s zero a part of me that thinks sick of the general public’s intelligence in relation to music. I don’t know the place this narrative [of pop fans not listening as intently as fans of other genres] comes from, however I’m by no means fascinated by making something instant.

Music and songwriting, recorded music, is a really treasured factor and meant to be expressed solely on the highest stage – even the only track. I’ve by no means understood how anybody might [enter the studio with the intent] to dumb something down.

Music comes from the guts and the soul; I don’t know how you’d even start to dumb that down. It could be like making an attempt to dry out an ocean; it is senseless to me.

3) Air, La Femme D’Argent (1998)

This was a time in my lifetime of trying to flee a really acute state of grief. I began taking medicine, I used to be on tour lots, and I used to be on the lookout for issues that basically took me away from myself.

My youthful sister died of mind most cancers once I was 18. It occurred round the very same time that I began to depart residence and tour as a musician.

Once I assume again on it, it was miraculous that I used to be in a position to transfer, not to mention tour. However I used to be dwelling on this very compartmentalized emotional house, making an attempt to dwell a life on the highway whereas grounded on this grief.

What I do know now, that I didn’t know then, is that some issues are simply too huge. I used to be making an attempt to carry all of it in, quickly shifting between full breakdown and utter escapism.

“Within the eye of the storm, I couldn’t articulate it. It was too huge.”

Somebody placed on Moon Safari, which is undeniably an excellent album, all of its personal style.

As quickly as I heard this primary track – this plucked bass, very Beatles-esque, however with this ambient factor – I bought completely misplaced in it. This music actually transported me.

However the largest factor, which I take into consideration day by day once I’m within the studio: There’s a second on this track, in direction of the tip, the entire thing is constructing and constructing, climaxing, after which proper on the tip of the climax, when it’s nearly to utterly explode, a tambourine enters, doing sixteenth notes. One instrument. And this tambourine, doing sixteenth notes, is larger, extra impactful, and extra euphoric than a 5,000-piece orchestra.

Whether or not I’m consciously fascinated by it or not, that second, this track, is such part of my DNA in relation to fascinated by restraint, shifting mountains with one thing tiny.

Apparently sufficient, throughout that point, I wasn’t in a position to write very nicely. Within the depths of the grief, the attention of the storm, I couldn’t articulate it. It was too huge.

I needed to distance myself from it; time wanted to exist earlier than I might specific it in songs. Now it’s in all of my writing.

4) Tom Waits, I By no means Speak To Strangers (1977)

I like Tom Waits. He’s in my prime 5 favourite songwriters, and he’s lived many alternative lives.

He’s an excellent inspiration to attempt new issues. He clearly had his extra working-class songwriter part, then virtually like a pirate-sounding part, a spooky part.

Nevertheless it’s when he goes to date into this crooner jazz place… that’s this track – a duet with Bette Midler.

“It jogs my memory of pondering that I could make a jazz file on the similar time I’m making a hardcore file, which is one thing I nonetheless assume.”

It’s simply wonderful that he can do songs like this and do songs like Maintain On, do songs like Time, and do songs like Singapore. It provides me numerous religion.

It jogs my memory of being younger and in love and pondering I might make a jazz file concurrently making a hardcore file, which is one thing I nonetheless assume.

I listened to this lots in my late teenagers; a woman I used to be courting on the time would play it lots. It’s simply a type of items of labor that reminds you of an individual and a spot in time.

5) OutKast, Babylon (1996)

With OutKast, it’s unimaginable to select something, as a result of it’s all so sensible. However for some cause, this track is on the core of their spirit to me.

Once I heard it, once I bought this album [ATLiens], it was life-changing.

“OutKast and Tom Waits form of dwell in the identical a part of my mind.”

To me, OutKast, very similar to Tom Waits, deal with style as a jacket to throw on. It’s under no circumstances the centerpiece. The centerpiece is simply the guts and soul of what they’re doing.

OutKast and Tom Waits form of dwell in the identical a part of my mind.

6) Fiona Apple, Paper Bag (1999)

In my late 20s, I began to consider engineering and recording on a special stage. Typically you simply hear one thing that you simply always remember, and it adjustments you without end. That is a type of sonic moments.

The track is unimaginable. The recording is unimaginable. Clearly, she’s pretty much as good as anybody can probably get.

However when the 2 drums are available, the panning left and proper, the way in which they bounce off one another, they’re pulling ahead, however they’re additionally so heat. Like that tambourine on Moon Safari, it’s simply with me on a regular basis, whether or not I do know it or not. A type of deep sonic references.

“I don’t know anybody who doesn’t hearken to Fiona Apple.”

It’s bizarre [that some people] see Fiona Apple as working on the periphery of the music enterprise. That’s solely out of her selection to not be very current in public promotion, and it’s a view that speaks to how marketing-obsessed we’ve gotten.

Her music couldn’t be much less peripheral. It’s entrance and middle – I don’t know anybody who doesn’t hearken to Fiona Apple.

To me, she’s an artist who makes sensible issues and wishes her house, and that’s not bizarre. It’s solely bizarre via the lens of everybody being continuously seen.

There’s nothing mistaken with being continuously seen, by the way in which, however you need to solely do this if that’s one thing that you simply don’t thoughts.

Fiona Apple is only a nice inspiration of anyone the place all that issues is your songs, the way in which you file them, and the way in which you carry out them.

7) TLC, Unpretty (1999)

Unpretty is ideal. The recording, the way in which it form of strikes and floats, I discover it very uplifting. It virtually looks like a meditation.

I don’t actually know why I join with it a lot. The sprinkly, high-end nature of the guitars and the beat – it’s simply doing this weird, magical factor, and I really feel like I’m floating once I hearken to it.

“It’s simply doing this weird, magical factor, and I really feel like I’m floating once I hearken to it.”

It has a sonic high quality which you can’t actually dissect.

I don’t keep in mind the primary time I heard it, nevertheless it’s simply at all times been there. It’s a relentless in my life.

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