Jack Antonoff says working on the new reworked version of ‘1989’ with Taylor Swift was like “finding an old diary”.
The 39-year-old musician was a producer on the original 2014 hit LP and returned to collaborate with Swift, 34, on ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ which was released in October 2023.
Antonoff was so excited to listen back to the masters and hear the techniques he used to layer the tracks back then, admitting it gave him the feeling of stepping back in time just how you would feel if reading back an old journal entry.
In an interview with Vulture, he said: “I would liken it to finding an old diary. There are so many things on so many of those sessions that I was like, ‘Oh, you little freak. Little layering I would do then, ’cause you go through phases, and it made me feel really sweet. That younger version of me that was just piling stuff on, I mean, ‘Out of the Woods’ is just like kitchen sink. That’s the glory of it: As someone who didn’t really have any success as a producer, there was no reason for me to pile all that on other than it was just giving me a lot of joy. And it made this weird, messy symphony and I love it to this day.”
Jack and Taylor’s working relationship began with ‘1989’ and has continued ever since spanning five new studio albums, including 2022’s ‘Midnights’.
The Bleachers member hopes that they will continue to write songs together for as long as the pair both make music, because he always feels as though they are breaking new ground in the studio.
He said: “I’ve never been in a room with her and felt like we were doing anything but treading new ground that we’ve let last for even ten seconds. If we’re not feeling it, we’ll move right the hell along.
“We started working together on ’89′, we did a ton of work on ‘Reputation’, which was so wonderful and intense, and then Lover, we started to do some more strange things. When we did ‘Folklore’, that was obviously a really different angle, and some of the earlier songs, like ‘August’ and ‘Mirrorball’, are some of my favorite things we’ve ever done. You know, writing a song and collaborating with somebody, once you do it, you’re like, ‘Well, who knows if that’ll ever happen again,’ ’cause it’s just magic. With her, I’m constantly taken aback. I’ll joke with her sometimes when we get something crazy, like, ‘Okay, I guess we still got it!’ There’s really nothing for her and I left to do if we’re not completely stretching ourselves out there into the darkness. And that was the whole story with ‘Midnights’ — we did so many things that we had never done before.”