Jack Antonoff cuts off interview when asked about Taylor Swift’s ‘Tortured Poets Department’

Jack Antonoff has reportedly ended an interview abruptly when asked about Taylor Swift’s upcoming album.

• READ MORE: Bleachers: “This album is about wanting to hold joy, and not understanding why you can’t”

The singer, songwriter, producer and Bleachers frontman was taking part in a new discussion with a Dutch news outlet when he was asked about his involvement in Taylor Swift’s upcoming 11th studio album, ‘The Tortured Poets Department’.

According to various outlets including The Independent, the musician hung up on the reporter from NRC after being asked to talk about the pop icon’s new material. “You know I don’t talk about that,” he is reported as telling the outlet.

“If you’re looking for clickbait, you’ve come to the wrong place. Thank you for this conversation,” he added, cutting off the interview from there.

Earlier in the interview, however, Antonoff did speak about his time working with the ‘Bad Blood’ singer, and explored how his work with Bleachers differed from his collaborations with Swift and Lana Del Rey.

“I don’t see it as producing. I create music with my friends. It comes as it comes. I’m not the kind of producer to bark commands from behind a mixing board. I involve myself in the music itself; the way you can steer the creative process,” he said. “Being able to listen to each other well is one thing. The artists I work with trust that I can help them make their music better.”

While he refused to share any details about Swift’s highly anticipated album during the interview with NRC, he did previously share insight in an interview with the Los Angeles Times in February – revealing that he had “completed” work on ‘The Tortured Poets Department’.

Swift revealed news of the LP while on stage at the 2024 Grammys, where she took home awards for Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album for ‘Midnights’. Along with the Album of the Year win, Antonoff also won the award for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical.

The two have worked together for 10 years now, with their first collaboration extending back to 2014 when they joined forces on Swift’s ‘‘1989’ album.

They continued to work together on her next five studio albums – ‘Reputation’, ‘Lover’, ‘Folklore’, ‘Evermore’ and ‘Midnights’ – and also joined forces on the ‘(Taylor’s Version)’ re-recordings of her first four albums.

‘The Tortured Poets Department’ is set to arrive on April 19 and, while details remain sparse, Swift has shared the full tracklist for the album and confirmed it will feature guest appearances from Post Malone and Florence + The Machine.

Numerous variants of the album have also been announced – each of which contain a bonus track – and the pop icon has also told fans that writing the album felt like “a lifeline” for her.

In other Jack Antonoff news, it was recently revealed that Bleachers will be embarking on a series of UK and European tour dates, set to kick off this autumn. The live shows will see the frontman head to the UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands across the latter half of 2024, in support of the band’s latest studio album ‘Bleachers’.

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