Jack Antonoff hits back at critics who question Taylor Swift’s songwriting
Jack Antonoff has hit back at the critics who have questioned Taylor Swift‘s songwriting ability.
The producer and Bleachers frontman has worked on every Swift album since her huge 2014 record ‘1989’, and once again teamed up with the pop star on her new LP ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ (out April 19).
That’s according to the Los Angeles Times, which asked Antonoff about his reaction to Damon Albarn’s incorrect past claim that Swift doesn’t write her own songs. In response to the remark (itself coming from an LA Times interview), the producer said at the time: “If you were there…cool…go off. If not…maybe…shut the fuck up?”
Antonoff later called Albarn’s controversial comment “completely absurd”, explaining: “You’re talking about one of the greatest songwriters of our generation who has her name as the only name on many songs. You don’t need me to explain it – it’s fact.”
He added: “I don’t like it when artists take almost this Trumpian approach of just making things up.”
When the LA Times reminded Antonoff of the spat in their latest conversation with the producer, he said: “I’m a little bitch sometimes. But you come after my friend Taylor, you’re toast to me.”
He went on to say that questioning Swift’s songwriting skills was “like challenging someone’s faith in God”, adding: “You just don’t go there.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Antonoff hit out at Kanye West – who has been embroiled in a long-standing feud with Swift – saying that the ‘Vultures 1’ rapper “just needs his diaper changed so badly”.
When asked if he had ever thought twice about having a dig at an artist he might someday want to collaborate with, the producer replied: “It’s been a long time since I would’ve taken Kanye’s call.
“I’m so incredibly bored when someone doesn’t have the sauce anymore, so they go elsewhere to shock. It’s just a remarkable waste of space.”
Earlier this month, Antonoff won the Producer Of The Year award at the Grammys 2024. The ceremony also saw Swift’s 2022 record ‘Midnights’ (on which Antonoff is credited as a producer and co-writer) win the Album Of The Year and Best Pop Vocal Album statues.
The pop star recently said that writing ‘The Tortured Poets Department” “was really a lifeline for me”, adding: “Just the things I was going through and the things I was writing about.”
She continued: “It kind of reminded me of why songwriting is something that actually gets me through my life, and I never had an album where I needed songwriting more than I needed it on ‘Tortured Poets’.”
In other news, Taylor Swift is nominated for International Artist Of The Year at the BRIT Awards 2024. This year’s ceremony will take place at The O2 in London on Saturday (March 2).
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Tom Skinner
NME
