Jack Antonoff Says Taylor Swift Was the 'First Person to Recognize' Him as a Music Producer
The musician and celebrated producer is expressing his appreciation for the 'Anti-Hero' songstress.
Jack Antonoff and Taylor Swift have been working together since 2013, and in that time they've created some of the most popular and celebrated tunes of the entire decade.
By co-writing and producing some of Swift's most enduring tracks, Antonoff's work as a producer has taken off in a big way, and led to collaborations with Lorde, St. Vincent, Florence + the Machine, Lana Del Rey, Carly Rae Jepsen, The Chicks, Tegan and Sara, the 1975 and many others.
However, Antonoff recently appeared on Time's Person of the Week podcast, and shared his praise of Swift specifically for taking a chance on him and sparking this chapter of his music career.
"She’s the first person who recognized me as a producer," Antonoff said, looking back at their work together on the song "Sweeter than Fiction," followed by his contributions to her 2014 album, 1989 -- which included the single "Out of the Woods," which Antonoff produced and co-wrote.
"A lot of people are afraid to sign off on something that isn't done by a proven person. I had written lots of songs and produced them, but they would always sort of go somewhere else... So the label or whoever could say, 'Oh, we had this person produce it,'" Antonoff shared. "I put my heart and soul into that song and she said, 'I love it.'"
The success of the album and the popularity of the song -- as well as Swift and Antonoff's immediate musical chemistry -- led to their frequent collaborations on her future albums, including Reputation, Lover, Folklore, Evermore and Midnights. Antonoff also helped produce her rerecorded masters for Fearless (Taylor’s Version), Red (Taylor’s Version), and Speak Now (Taylor’s Version).
When it came to Swift's most recent album, Midnights, Antonoff co-wrote 11 of the 13 tracks -- including the album's popular lead single, "Anti-Hero."
"I had played her that track, and I remember, we were at my apartment in New York. And sometimes she gets this look in her eye where she’s like, 'Oh, I’m going in'... But on that one, I just remember watching her and being like, 'Uh-oh. We’ve got a live one!'" Antonoff recalled.
For his work as a producer, Antonoff has won eight GRAMMY Awards, including back-to-back wins for Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical in 2021 and 2022. He also won two Album of the Year Grammys for 1989 and Folklore.
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