Describing himself as a ‘mad scientist’ of music, Jack Antonoff is also one half of New York’s hippest power couple. He met Girls writer/director/star Lena Dunham in 2012, when mutual friends set them up on a blind date. And now the pair epitomise the creative eccentricities of Millennial life. With two Grammys under his belt for his multi-platinum-selling band Fun, this year the 31-year-old is generating huge buzz as the writer behind some of Taylor Swift’s biggest tracks. And now he’s striking out on his own.
Jack is far from joining the nerd herd, despite his trademark Woody Allen glasses. Recording his first solo album Strange Desire under the anonymous-sounding name Bleachers, you get a feel for the complex character behind the music.
Part showman, at home in front of a massive crowd, part fame-shy, anxious millennial writing hit songs from his box room, he’s the perfect character for a Lena Dunham project.
Jack might be an inspirational influence for his girlfriend, but he’s also become known as the ‘Taylor Whisperer’ – one of Ms Swift’s most prominent collaborators on her album 1989. They met at the MTV Europe Music Awards in 2012 and bonded over a shared normality and their common love of ’80s band Yazoo – the inspiration for both Bleachers’ andTaylor’s latest albums. ‘She’s become such a good friend,’ he says, of everyone’s favourite BFF. So is it possible to be that famous and as nice as she’s cracked up to be? ‘She is wonderful and real. I think at the end of the day, people think that culture is all f**ked up, but the things that break through – it’s usually very honest.’
Jack himself is enjoyably down-to-earth when we speak to him during a one-day trip to London. Bleachers songs are synth-infused indie pop, whose videos owe a debt to the sunshine and fun times of John Hughes’ teen movies. But Jack is also known for bouts of angst between the upbeat tunes. ‘On tour, even if I feel fully unravelled as a human being can, there’s still a schedule I have to follow,’ he says of coping with stress on the road. ‘I can’t become dysfunctional because I have to be where I have to be.’
His struggle with anxiety and OCD began during a tumultuous time at the end of his teens, when he lost his 13-year-old sister Sarah to brain cancer, and his cousin to the war in Iraq. ‘We all have moments in our life that change things forever. I write a lot about how I lost my sister. I struggle a lot with anxiety and depression. It’s ongoing – everything goes through that filter.’
This experience has given him a strong bond with his family, and he only properly moved out of his family home in New Jersey when he moved in with Lena. Despite attending the famous Professional Children’s School in New York City – where he took high-school sweetheart Scarlett Johansson to prom – he’s very much a suburban homebody. ‘Ex-girlfriends lived at my parents’ house with me,’ he admits. ‘Maybe I toured so much I never felt the need to leave. All the neighbours thought I was nuts.’ After a brief stint staying with his older sister, fashion designer Rachel Antonoff (whose & Other Stories campaign film was directed by Lena), he made the move, and is now making his own home with Lena. ‘It just feels like a constant. I also still live 10 minutes away from my parents and I still see them, like, four times a week, so that lifestyle hasn’t changed.’
"When it comes to people's art, you need to give them space."
So, what’s it like being part of the most artistic couple in pop culture right now? ‘There’s a lot of trust there,’ he says of their creative relationship. ‘When it comes to people’s art, you need to give them the space they need. When you start considering other people and their feelings you can really f**k up what you are doing.’ Of snatched moments of downtime, Jack says, ‘I love having nothing to do and not having somewhere to be.’ Obviously with their crazy schedules, doing nothing doesn’t happen too often, though, and when he’s at home, he’s mostly recording.
So how does he escape when he’s making music from his spare room? ‘Running is a good way of trying to break the tension. And I watch a lot of TV shows...’ However, it’s The Sopranos and Game OfThrones he immediately thinks of when the HBO titles fizz on screen – not Girls. Speaking of which, has Lena ever written any replicas of him in the show? ‘Here and there, but nothing offensive,’ he laughs.
Now, even the famous couple’s dog has become a celebrity. Lamby, a tufty beige rescue pooch with hypnotically human eyes, has his own Instagram account (@lamby_antonoff), set up by an eager fan. ‘I knew it was getting weird when people were tagging me in pictures of him out with the dog walker,’ says Jack, ‘but anything related to him, I think it’s cool.’
So with Lamby as their furry child, are the Antonoff-Dunhams broody for a real baby any time soon? ‘I just think about it a lot and it seems like fun. We talk about it all the time... but Lena has her own thoughts on that.’ We shudder to think how cool their offspring would be.
‘Strange Desire’ by Bleachers is out this week