Jack Antonoff is the biggest name in pop music production right now. The three-time Grammy winner for Producer of the Year (non-classical) is most famous for his work with Taylor Swift, Antonoff has now worked with a number of other artists, including Lorde, Carly Rae Jepsen, St. Vincent, The 1975, Florence and The Machine, and most recently, Sabrina Carpenter. The proliferation of his signature ’80s-inspired synth-pop sound has led to some backlash from listeners who have grown tired of Antonoff’s style. But Carpenter, newly anointed as pop music’s next It Girl, has one thing to say to his haters: “Fuck them all.”
In a new Rolling Stone profile of the starlet, Carpenter throws in another “Fuck them all” for good measure, defending someone who not only produced half her new album but also someone she describes as one of her best friends. “I think he’s one of the most talented people I’ve ever met. When he’s in a room, he’s able to literally touch every instrument in the room and make it sound magical,” she says. “He also works very fast, which I really appreciate because I work very fast.”
When Carpenter first met Antonoff some years ago, she “was peeing my pants because I wanted to work with him for my whole life.” (Carpenter was about 15 when Swift and Antonoff’s collab 1989 hit the airwaves and around 13 he cracked the mainstream with “We Are Young” by his band, fun.) They became friends and “it was only a matter of time” before they started making music together: “He heard some of the stuff that I was working on for this album, and we just started to make magic.” Working together on her upcoming album Short N’ Sweet was “some of the best days of my life.”
Despite the rumblings of some critics (including, admittedly, this one) about Antonoff’s production stagnating on Swift’s Tortured Poets Department, he is undeniably still a hitmaker. His first track with Carpenter, “Please Please Please,” is expected to debut near the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart this week. The tune has already stormed the Spotify streaming charts, with its main competition coming from Carpenter’s own song of the summer contender “Espresso.” With such a track record of success and a clear ability to put artists he works with at ease, Antonoff’s influence on pop music isn’t subsiding any time soon.