It’s easy to evangelize about how great the system is when you hold all of its gears in your pocket. Such is the case for ubiquitous producer and collector of pop stars Jack Antonoff, who, in addition to performing with his band Bleachers, has produced hits for Taylor Swift, Lorde, Lana Del Rey, The 1975, and many others. Put another way, Antonoff has created—or at least had a hand in—much of what we consider to be “the modern music scene” nowadays .
It used be that the process of choosing singles was a constant back and forth with record companies between that song that, for the artist, “if you cracked me open is my soul” and whatever the business side thought would resonate with people, he explained. This led to a constant tension for artists between wanting to stand by their vision for their own art, while also not breaking their contract or losing out on future opportunities. “But the new world, it’s just sort of over.