Jack Antonoff shares origin story behind Taylor Swift collaborations

Jack Antonoff and Taylor Swift – one of the perfect pairings in the music industry came out of a sweet friendship which started for a shared love of similar melodies.

The 42-year-old musician shared how the pop superstar, 36, inspired his career as a producer by believing in his abilities during their collaborations.

Antonoff and Swift have worked on over ten records together, and the Bleachers frontman told Dax Shepard on The Armchair Expert podcast that they connected over the song Only You by Yazoo.

The After Midnight hitmaker said, “So she’s about to, you know, the first time we worked together was on the making 1989. So we just we were just kind of humming on this thing together,” noting that he too was working on the first Bleachers album at the time.

Antonoff added that “all the stories of my collaborations are just very simple. They’re you meet you see the same thing. you hear the same thing and then you chase it together.”

The dirty wedding dress singer recalled, “So, we’re humming on this thing without knowing we’re talking about it. At the moment, it’s simple. I love this song. Oh, cool. Here’s what I’m working on. Here’s what I’m working on. We should mess with something. Send her tracks.”

However, at this point things escalated quickly and while others had to work with other collaborators had to work with different producers on their songs together, Swift trusted him to do the producing himself. 

Thus, the Grammy winner became the first person to support Antonoff’s career as a producer, after which he built a reputation as a major producer working with rising pop stars like Lana Del Rey and Sabrina Carpenter.