Bleachers on Green Day, Taylor Swift & Tom Waits

Photo: Press

If you were considering the worst possible profession for a germaphobe, 'rock band frontman' would be high up the list.

Jack Antonoff, the man behind Bleachers and member of Fun., suffers from the condition - and yet when Gigwise watches him perform at a packed Bush Hall in London, you would have no idea of the intense discomfort he experiences.

"When I'm on stage everything disappears" he explains afterwards, sat in a spotless suite of the Ace Hotel in Shoreditch. "All anxieties and things like that. As soon as I get off stage I'm like 'Argh! What have I done?'"

Being in the spotlight clearly has something of a transformative effect on him. "When I'm up there.... all the darkness in your life drifts away and that 'anxiety lens' that you sometimes see the world through goes away for an hour. And then comes back. I'm lucky that I have at least one area of my life where I can escape."

Antonoff is an exceptionally gifted songwriter, not only with as one third of Fun. but also working with everyone from Grimes to Taylor Swift to Charli XCX. His new project Bleachers has produced a bold and brilliant record in the form of Strange Desire. To mark his return to the UK with a London gig at Dingwalls, he discusses getting advice from Dave Grohl, his admiration for Green Day and what it's like to play songs to his girlfriend Lena Dunham.

Gigwise: You used to listen to 'Born In The USA' by Bruce Springsteen before you went on stage. What do you listen to now? 
Jack Antonoff: I've been obsessed by 'Downtown Train' by Tom Waits recently. The snare drum sound, the lyrics, the melody, it's just such a perfect song I can't stop thinking about it. I'm a huge Tom Waits fan. Massive. Always have been.



With Waits, sometimes you need a guide to suggest where to start...
If you hear the wrong thing first,  you never want to hear him again. There's so much there. There's decades and decades of different styles. There's moments where he sounds like a jazz guy in a smoky bar, there's ones were he sounds like a pirate. There's one where he sounds like Keith Richards singing! It's all over the place.

I heard Foreign Affairs first - an ex-girlfriend used to play it all the time, which is a full on jazz record and I fell in love with it. Then I branched forward and back - his first records, Closing Time and The Heart Of Saturday Night sounds a lot like acoustic Springsteen, almost like Nebraksa vibes. Once you fall in love with him, you love everything - all the pirate shit on Small Change and stuff like that. Swordfishtrombones is actually my favourite album by him, as well as Mule Variations: the song 'Hold On' is my favourite.

When were you last starstruck?
Vince Clarke, who I ended up working with. When I met him I was very starstruck, very amazed, because his music has influenced me so deeply for so long. It doesn't change. When you know someone so well and they don't know you, it's weird. I know his music and his message and sonically what he does so well. I've never really become close friends with someone who I was so starstruck by: so I don't know if that's possible. Maybe at that point you're existing on such different planes that you can't really connect. Vince and I just worked together.

 

Yoko Ono features on the Bleachers album track 'Strange Desire'. What was the most surprising conversation you had with her?
We didn't talk too much. We just got right to work - she was doing all these wild things. She got in the booth : screaming and singing and talking and humming and making animals noises. All this stuff! I remember going through it and cutting it up all the pieces and crazy noises - because in the middle she'd say something incredible, like singing 'I'm ready to move on' - your heart would break hearing it. I just cut it up and put the song together out of that. I still on my MPC have all these amazing Yoko samples - of her making noises and screaming. They'll show up on other songs.

Describe your worst ever gig.
I played in San Diego once, nine years ago, probably 40 people there. Was not a great show and two kids in the front row turned their backs and sat on the stage, facing out. And it broke my heart. That was the opposite of what I want. I want to be connected with people. I want to have an experience with the crowd. I've played shows where five people have been fucking amazing - it's not about how many people are there it's all about the attitude and the feeling. That was a tough one.

Manish Raval, the musical supervisor of Girls, said you are the 'secret weapon' on the series. What's your favourite musical moment on the show?
There's a song I did with Grimes that I'm really proud of ['Entropy']. She's got that same thing that Tom Waits has and Bruce Springsteen has and all the greatest artists in the world have: they don't sound like anyone else.

If someone said 'What does Grimes soundlike?', you have to put it on. You couldn't say'It's a mix of Seventies post punk and Nineties R&B'. You'd just be like "It's... her." And that's the most important quality in art: to be completely unique to yourself. Then beyond that she's a brilliant songwriter, her voice sounds like an angel, her production, everything. That's what I'm most excited about: new sounds. Things that sound different. And she couldn't sound more fresh. It's incredible. It's a special moment. Also Manish is great and I ike to help whenever I can.

You worked with Taylor Swift on 'Out Of The Woods' and bonded over Tom Hughes movies - which one in particularly?
It was never specific: it was more the concept of that time in history when the biggest songs was also the best songs. It wasn't specific it was more just that vibe: the songs that play in those movies. The shit sounded so innovative but was also huge pop. Whereas in modern times the biggest stuff also has to sound dumb and it's just not true. It's just not good for the world. Making interesting music that a lot of people here is good for culture it gets people thinking and it gets people excited. It's not mundane. The soundtrack to the world, the shit that gets played on the radio, it's got to be good. Or else it's dark times.

What's the strangest gift you've got from a fan?
A replica doll of myself but everything was perfect: the shoes, the pants, my exact shirt. It was eerily perfect. I was so scared of it that I put it in a very safe place because I got scared that it was a voodoo doll: if it got hurt that I would get hurt. So it's in very safe place in my apartment - it freaked me out.

What lyric are you proud of writing on the new record?
"Everything must die / For anyone to matter." Which is a lot about just about what it means to live and coming to terms with only having a certain amount of time but also things die - it's not all bad. If nothing died then nothing would matter, because there would be nothing at stake. It's like playing poker without real money - its no fun. If nothing ever dies nothing matters. I really feel a deep connection with that line every night when I sing it.

You said in one interview that your would like to write a 'diary entry you can shout out in a bar'. Who do you think does that really well?
The Mountain Goats. Listen to a song called 'This Year'. It's the epitome of that vibe. The chorus is 'I'm going to make it through this year if it kills me'. the rest of the song is about alcoholism and domestic abuse and a stepfather. Amazing content, all wrapped up in a poppy sounding acoustic song that everyone can sing together in a bar. Exactly what I love.



You were a huge Green Day fan. Have you ever met Billie Joe Armstrong?
Never met him. I think Dookie was such a moment for me growing up. I remember that time period 93-94 and that album and just that whole time of music was when I shifted from loving music to wanting to be in music. When the Nineties happened with Green Day, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Spacehog, Weezer, I was like "Oh this is my generation". That's when I felt a part of it and when I wanted to exist in music rather than just listen as a fan. It was a very interesting shift.

Is there a musical trend you hope dies out this year?
There's a musical trend that's been going on ever since I can remember which I hope dies out: it's this weird apathy. The "I don't give a fuck that I'm here" trend in live music. I hate that. It's so phoney. It takes so much to put on a show and so many moving parts and so much goes into it. Nothing bothers me more than when a band gets on stage and does this whole 'We don't even care that we're here.' It's like waiting in line to get into a club and saying 'I don't really care if you get in.' It's so phoney but it's such a part of rock'n'roll forever. I've always hated that. Rock n' roll and music is at its best when its sincere.

How was it playing your album for the first time to Lena?
Her and also my friends and family were hearing it as it was happening. It was a collage - they saw every part until it was the whole picture. At least with the people close to me I like to share early on to see it through their eyes for a second, hear it through their ears, just figure out which parts excite me or things like that.

Is there a song she's given you a lot of specific feedback on?
No it's more like broad stuff - I like that, I don't like that. Just very broad but that's what I look for in people. I never want specific criticism I just want a gut reaction to something. Everything else I feel like I can handle but someone's gut reaction is forever valuable for me.

You've going on tour with Charli XCX. Do you think people underestimate her?
She's brilliant. She's a great writer, a great performer, she's so different from everyone else. I think she's wonderful.

Name a small festival impressed you?
We did this festival in Arendal in Norway: I think it was called Hove. It was the neatest festival: it was in this total random place that looked like paradise. It was just fascinating. Everything was good: we got to ride boats, we got to hang around this bizarrely cool town - the whole thing was just a wild two days.

Have you ever have cheated death?
I had terrible pneumonia three years ago and I was in the ICU. Very literally modern medicine turned it around. I was in the hospital for five days but I was out for four months - it was very fucked up. A really stressful time. When I got back on tour marked the end of it. Even when I got back I was still very tired but I was like 'At least I'm on tour again and I'm back in the movement of your life."

What did people get wrong about Fun.?
The biggest misconception was that we came out of nowhere. We made an album before the album that got really big, all three of us had bands that did well before. There's a long musical history and culture. It's not a bad thing: it's just when a lot of people find out about something all in one moment sometimes people think 'The day I found out about it is the day it exists.

Who would you still love to see live?
Spiritualized. I don't know him in context of albums but I just know him from this mess of material on the computer. I love Air - I've never seen them live. I'd love to see Moon Safari played live with a whole band. There are so many cool drum and bass parts I'd love to see played live.

What hip-hop do you love?
I love Kanye. I love his production, how everything he does sounds. Lately I like a lot of clean, ticky kinda sounds like really high-end snares and things like that. I was listening to the song 'Gone' the other day and that might be my favourite marriage of 808s and kick drums in the history of the world. It sounds so fucking killer: it hits you in the gut in the perfect way.



What's the best advice you've ever received?
Dave Grohl said to me "Don't fuck it up." I don't know if he was talking about music or my life or any of it but it was quick, in passing and I never forgot it. And it's good advice.

Bleachers play Dingwalls in London on 12 May. The album Strange Desire is set for release in the UK on 6 July. For tickets and more information visit here.

Below: Exclusive photos of Bleachers live at Bush Hall, London