MBW’s Key Songs In The Life Of… is a collection during which we ask influential music business figures concerning the tracks which have outlined their life and profession to date. Right here, multi-Grammy-winning songwriter and producer, Jack Antonoff, unveils his musical autobiography. The Key Songs… collection is supported by Sony Music Publishing.
He’s been a defining affect on the sound of 2025, co-writing and producing most of Kendrick Lamar’s GNX and Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Greatest Pal – together with his fingerprints on chart-topping smashes Luther and Manchild.
However when MBW catches up with Jack Antonoff, talking from a studio in Portugal, it’s to not focus on the hits of at this time. It’s to speak concerning the music that made him who he’s.
All through our dialogue of his Key Songs playlist, Antonoff repeatedly returns to themes of authenticity, restraint, and the mysterious alchemy of good manufacturing.
He’s significantly animated when discussing AI’s limitations in artistic fields, likening its potential/incapacity to write down a joke or a shifting tune to “asking a clown to return over and repair the electrical energy – two completely various things”.
“An ideal joke is in some methods similar to a fantastic tune,” he continues. “Each play with every little thing occurring in your previous, current, and future, making a visceral response, one thing you can not management.
“Folks can mislead themselves in politics, in society, about who they’re and what they really feel – they will placed on all these completely different masks. However you may’t mislead your self about music and comedy.
“Comedy doesn’t simply make you giggle; comedy reveals what you suppose is humorous, whether or not you prefer it or not. It’s the identical with music. It’s the nice revealer of individuals’s hearts and souls.”
“Folks can mislead themselves in politics, in society, about who they’re and what they really feel – they will placed on all these completely different masks. However you may’t mislead your self about music and comedy.”
These aren’t simply summary theories for Antonoff. His method to manufacturing – whether or not working with pop superstars or indie darlings – is rooted in a deep respect for the listener.
“There’s zero a part of me that thinks in poor health of the public’s intelligence in the case of music,” he tells MBW of his method within the studio, even when sculpting pop hits that stream of their billions.
“I don’t see my work in pop music as being in any type of service business,” he provides. “I’m not attempting to please. It’s about making one thing that feels unbelievable, sincere, and value placing out.”
He’s equally considerate concerning the music business’s snowballing obsession with artist visibility.
Discussing Fiona Apple‘s genius, he means that viewing her quiet public profile as an anomaly in trendy music “speaks to how marketing-obsessed we’ve gotten. All that issues is your songs, the way in which you document them, and the way in which you carry out them.”
Right here, in his personal phrases, are the seven tracks which have formed Jack Antonoff’s journey — from a middle-class childhood in New Jersey by way of teenage angst, devastating private loss, and finally changing into one in all music’s most sought-after hitmakers…
1) The Beatles, Happiness Is A Heat Gun (1968)
Once I was younger, my mother and father simply performed tons of music in the home. My dad is that this sensible ragtime guitar participant who grew up in New Jersey and in some way ended up taking guitar classes from Reverend Gary Davis.
There was actually eclectic music in the home, every little thing from ragtime to British music, music from each technology. Happiness Is A Heat Gun is especially vital as a result of it’s the primary manufacturing reminiscence I ever had: I hear every little thing, and I’m totally fascinated as to why these decisions have been made.
I’d at all times remembered listening to music, loving music, loving melodies and devices, all this stuff about songs. However this was the primary time considering: ‘Holy shit, why is that voice coming from this speaker? Why is the time signature altering? Why does the guitar sound prefer it’s melting?’
“The Beatles have been similar to a truth. You didn’t fuck with it. It was a truth.”
Clearly, Happiness Is A Heat Gun is among the biggest productions ever, however all of that jumped out at me – partially due to its brilliance, partially due to its panning, partially due to its oddity normally.
I’m in all probability 9 presently, changing into acquainted with the favored music of the period – Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, issues like that.
However in my home, The Beatles have been only a truth. You didn’t fuck with it. It was a truth.
My mom was a nurse who’d stopped working to boost us children, and my father had an organization that did carpet cleansing. It was a really regular, middle-class American existence.
The best way they raised me, there was every little thing, after which there was The Beatles.
2) NOFX, The Decline (1999)
I at all times beloved NOFX rising up. However once they put out The Decline… it’s mainly like a rock opera. It’s 40 or so minutes, it’s one tune and by no means stops.
At the moment, in mainstream tradition, politics have been [treated as] separate. So a whole lot of issues I used to be studying about — world politics, race politics, veganism – got here way more from underground music. I beloved bands like Unhealthy Brains and Propagandhi and issues like that.
The Decline related a whole lot of pursuits for me, as a result of there was a theater to it. I nonetheless suppose it could make one of many biggest performs or musicals of all time. I studied it from starting to finish — the way in which they sewed it collectively.
“The largest takeaway from The Decline is the intention for severe listening.”
Listening to The Decline, that’s my root of throwing guidelines out [in the studio], making actually harsh adjustments this manner and that manner. I suppose that began with Happiness Is A Heat Gun too, however The Decline is a really large-scale model of it.
I suppose the largest takeaway from The Decline is the intention for severe, severe listening. It was virtually decidedly fan-only.
Its structure makes it inconceivable to have an off-the-cuff pay attention, and I believe that’s a extremely essential factor for artists.
There’s zero a part of me that thinks in poor health of the general public’s intelligence in the case of music. I don’t know the place this narrative [of pop fans not listening as intently as fans of other genres] comes from, however I’m by no means serious about making something fast.
Music and songwriting, recorded music, is a really valuable factor and meant to be expressed solely on the highest degree – even the best tune. I’ve by no means understood how anybody might [enter the studio with the intent] to dumb something down.
Music comes from the center and the soul; I don’t know how you’d even start to dumb that down. It will be like attempting to dry out an ocean; it is senseless to me.
3) Air, La Femme D’Argent (1998)
This was a time in my lifetime of making an attempt to flee a really acute state of grief. I began taking medication, I used to be on tour loads, and I used to be on the lookout for issues that actually took me away from myself.
My youthful sister died of mind most cancers once I was 18. It occurred round the very same time that I began to go away residence and tour as a musician.
Once I suppose again on it, it was miraculous that I used to be capable of transfer, not to mention tour. However I used to be residing on this very compartmentalized emotional house, attempting to reside a life on the street whereas grounded on this grief.
What I do know now, that I didn’t know then, is that some issues are simply too massive. I used to be attempting to carry all of it in, quickly shifting between full breakdown and utter escapism.
“Within the eye of the storm, I couldn’t articulate it. It was too massive.”
Somebody placed on Moon Safari, which is undeniably a fantastic album, all of its personal style.
As quickly as I heard this primary tune – this plucked bass, very Beatles-esque, however with this ambient factor – I received completely misplaced in it. This music actually transported me.
However the largest factor, which I take into consideration day-after-day once I’m within the studio: There’s a second on this tune, in the direction of the top, the entire thing is constructing and constructing, climaxing, after which proper on the tip of the climax, when it’s nearly to fully explode, a tambourine enters, doing sixteenth notes. One instrument. And this tambourine, doing sixteenth notes, is larger, extra impactful, and extra euphoric than a 5,000-piece orchestra.
Whether or not I’m consciously fascinated by it or not, that second, this tune, is such part of my DNA in the case of fascinated by restraint, shifting mountains with one thing tiny.
Apparently sufficient, throughout that point, I wasn’t capable of write very nicely. Within the depths of the grief, the attention of the storm, I couldn’t articulate it. It was too huge.
I needed to distance myself from it; time wanted to exist earlier than I might categorical it in songs. Now it’s in all of my writing.
4) Tom Waits, I By no means Speak To Strangers (1977)
I really like Tom Waits. He’s in my prime 5 favourite songwriters, and he’s lived many alternative lives.
He’s a fantastic inspiration to strive new issues. He clearly had his extra working-class songwriter part, then virtually like a pirate-sounding part, a spooky part.
Nevertheless it’s when he goes to date into this crooner jazz place… that’s this tune – a duet with Bette Midler.
“It jogs my memory of considering that I could make a jazz document on the similar time I’m making a hardcore document, which is one thing I nonetheless suppose.”
It’s simply superb that he can do songs like this and do songs like Maintain On, do songs like Time, and do songs like Singapore. It provides me a whole lot of religion.
It jogs my memory of being younger and in love and considering I might make a jazz document similtaneously making a hardcore document, which is one thing I nonetheless suppose.
I listened to this loads in my late teenagers; a lady I used to be relationship on the time would play it loads. It’s simply a type of items of labor that reminds you of an individual and a spot in time.
5) OutKast, Babylon (1996)
With OutKast, it’s inconceivable to choose something, as a result of it’s all so sensible. However for some purpose, this tune is on the core of their spirit to me.
Once I heard it, once I received this album [ATLiens], it was life-changing.
“OutKast and Tom Waits form of reside in the identical a part of my mind.”
To me, OutKast, very similar to Tom Waits, deal with style as a jacket to throw on. It’s under no circumstances the centerpiece. The centerpiece is simply the center and soul of what they’re doing.
OutKast and Tom Waits form of reside in the identical a part of my mind.
6) Fiona Apple, Paper Bag (1999)
In my late 20s, I began to consider engineering and recording on a distinct degree. Typically you simply hear one thing that you just always remember, and it adjustments you without end. That is a type of sonic moments.
The tune is unbelievable. The recording is unbelievable. Clearly, she’s nearly as good as anybody can probably get.
However when the 2 drums are available in, the panning left and proper, the way in which they bounce off one another, they’re pulling ahead, however they’re additionally so heat. Like that tambourine on Moon Safari, it’s simply with me on a regular basis, whether or not I do know it or not. A type of deep sonic references.
“I don’t know anybody who doesn’t hearken to Fiona Apple.”
It’s bizarre [that some people] see Fiona Apple as working on the periphery of the music enterprise. That’s solely out of her selection to not be very current in public promotion, and it’s a view that speaks to how marketing-obsessed we’ve gotten.
Her music couldn’t be much less peripheral. It’s entrance and heart – I don’t know anybody who doesn’t hearken to Fiona Apple.
To me, she’s an artist who makes sensible issues and desires her house, and that’s not bizarre. It’s solely bizarre by way of the lens of everybody being continuously seen.
There’s nothing unsuitable with being continuously seen, by the way in which, however you need to solely try this if that’s one thing that you just don’t thoughts.
Fiona Apple is only a nice inspiration of anyone the place all that issues is your songs, the way in which you document them, and the way in which you carry out them.
7) TLC, Unpretty (1999)
Unpretty is ideal. The recording, the way in which it form of strikes and floats, I discover it very uplifting. It virtually appears like a meditation.
I don’t actually know why I join with it a lot. The sprinkly, high-end nature of the guitars and the beat – it’s simply doing this weird, magical factor, and I really feel like I’m floating once I hearken to it.
“It’s simply doing this weird, magical factor, and I really feel like I’m floating once I hearken to it.”
It has a sonic high quality you can’t actually dissect.
I don’t keep in mind the primary time I heard it, but it surely’s simply at all times been there. It’s a continuing in my life.
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