There's definitely less strange ways to spend the afternoon than bowling with pop stars, but last week we took on Jack Antonoff of new band Bleachers (you'll already be familiar with his other project Fun, the multi-Grammy winning indie-pop chaps behind the anthemic We Are Young) on in a cracking game that ended in our triumphant win (sorry, Jack). In between rounds, we chatted to the musician about his new project, what it's like to have Lena Dunham as a girlfriend and what Lamby the dog is actually like.
Hi Jack, thank you for taking us bowling! Are you enjoying the UK so far?
It’s very different, but I don’t know why. The food and weather and the way the ground looks. It’s cool, I love it here. My new project Bleachers, because we have nothing out yet, we’re just coming over to say hi very, very early. It’s nice to be able to introduce things, and not just have it introduced by a song or something.
So you were in Fun beforehand, are you guys still going?
Yeah, we’re writing right now. To me, Fun and Bleachers are both entirely different, which is what compels me to do it. It feels like what I imagine for people who have two kids or something. You can say why you love them differently. Everything kind of happens at once. We wrote and recorded the Bleachers record on the past world tour with Fun, like all over the place, so it’s nice to be able to have the two things co-existing. I don’t want separation.
So why did you start a new band?
Something happened in the past year and a half where we were touring the world with Fun where I just started waking up and having ideas. I’d be in Malaysia or Europe or Australia or Japan or something, and I’d start working in a hotel room or go to random studios, and you never know when it’s going to hit you. You can be home for six months and have no good ideas, or you can have no time to eat or sleep and all the ideas happen. And that’s the magical part, you have to just go with it when it’s there. It all hit me in this funny moment and it was exciting and nerve-wracking and sort of panic-inducing because it was stressful to imagine when it was all going to get done, but I just tried to look at it one day at a time.
Lena directed the video for I Wanna Get Better right?
Yeah! I wanted her to take control because she’s such a great director. So I was happy to be told: ‘You do this.' And videos are weird, you have a vision, but sometimes it’s a long road to get it to come out the right way, so it was nice. With a video, I don’t understand the process or what I’m going to do,so it’s sometimes hard to tell what it’s going to feel like or look like, but when we made the video together I was very relaxed because it was like: 'You got this.'
Do you think she’ll direct more of your videos?
Maybe, we haven’t talked about it yet. Our issue together was only scheduling…
You’re both so busy! How does that work?
I think it’s like anyone. But it’s almost better that way for both of us to be so busy because at least it’s a shared experience. I think it would be really hard if one of us was so busy and the other wasn’t, but I think it’s no different than any two people with similar life circumstances who find ways to work it out.
Totally. Do you work in the studio together, or do you let 'work' into the house?
Yeah, we try to be relaxed and I think when you’re doing thing,s like travelling the world or working on records or things like that or working on TV shows, I think that you could get overly intense on it. But it’s good to just, at some point, be like: 'This is our work, like it’s anyone’s work.'
You suffer with anxiety and have spoken openly about it before. How do you handle that as it comes up?
** **It’s a huge thing, and I used to have really bad pangs – my sister died when I was 18 and I had a tour shortly after that, so it was this really intense moment in life. I started touring straight after that and I got extremely freaked out, having panic attacks, and my OCD got really bad – just a lot of really crippling anxiety and it took many years to look at. It’s not something you get better from, it’s just something that you work on and live with and slowly get better and better – just put it in a place where it’s extremely little. But I think the biggest thing about it for me is writing about it and talking about it and being open about it. Not only is it important, but it’s also extremely therapeutic, sharing it and hearing those words back and hearing other people’s stories. It can be such a profound experience.
And for people reading this who suffer from anxiety, what advice would you give them?
Just to be delusional about it. To go all the way with something, you have to be your own believer before anyone else is going to believe in you. Creating art, music and film is very different to anything scientific. It’s like, if you want to do this and A, B or C aren’t working out, you probably shouldn’t do it. If the universe is telling you not to do something, I think music is very different and you have to just make it because you have to make it, and whether or not it works out is a separate thing you work towards, but you have to make it a purpose.
The LGBT community respond positively to the music you make – do you have a clear focus on that audience or is it something that’s come about organically?
We’ve talked a lot about it and we work a lot. I’m part of an organisation that does a lot of work and raises a lot of money for a lot of LGBTQ’s – I think it’s the most important issue of our time, the biggest human rights issue going on right now, in America and around the world. It’s massively important and it’s something for everyone to be focused on.
With songwriting, how do you know when it’s for someone else and not for you? (Aka Taylor Swift, who Jack’s written for in the past)
It’s just a feeling. I’ll work on an idea, it could be a whole progression or idea, or it could be just a drum part, but I automatically just know – this is for Fun or this is for Bleachers, or this is for someone else. So literally there are like three folders filed in different places. I don’t know why it’s very easy, but it is, and there’s a whole ‘other’ folder so if I’m working for someone I’ll show them some random ideas, whether it’s a tiny thing or a big thing, and it’s just nice to have a jumping-off point. It’s also nice to have a place for these ideas that I think are very interesting and matter, but aren’t something that I would want to do. They can still exist.
Also, just on an end note, your dog is really famous.
Really? People know my dog?
Yeah, Lamby, right?
Really? He’s the best. He’s a rescue dog so we really don’t know much about him – how old he is or what he is, we don’t really know for sure. But he’s extremely humanised, and he’s been recognised in the street before. The dog walker will be walking him and then someone will tag me on Instagram and I’ll be like: ‘Look, someone took a picture of my dog.’ It’s very strange, he’s wonderful, though.
You can follow Jack on @JackAntonoff
Bleachers on @bleachersmusic
Emma on @girllostincity
Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.