US singer-songwriter Bartees Strange released his third album earlier this year. Horror was co-produced by Jack Antonoff and in a new interview with NME, Strange has made a surprising comparison, suggesting that the multi Grammy award-winning producer approaches records “like a plumber”.
This conjures up images of Antonoff taking off his shoes as he comes into the studio, fiddling under the mixing desk for a while before exclaiming “which cowboy installed this?”
No, to get an idea of what Strange meant, you need to see the context. The 4AD-signed singer-songwriter was explaining how the producer was good at building up trust in an artist. When asked why, Strange said: “I think it’s because he kind of approaches records like a plumber.
"He’s not a precious guy. He’ll pull up there early; he’s working hard. Everything’s set up. Every idea, we can throw it at the wall. No idea is bad.”
He continued: “He’s not a tremendously talented player, so when he plays, it disarms the situation. He’s not a freaky guitar player or drummer. He’s just good at getting the ideas out.
"So after he plays, you’re like, ‘Oh, I can play that better’, and then it becomes a conversation. It’s very low-stakes and it becomes really beautiful stuff because he has great taste. That guy’s great.”
Antonoff was brought in comparatively late in the recording of Horror. In fact most of it had been completed by the time he showed up: “He added a lot. He helped me take it from 80 to 100 per cent, for sure. There were some songs that completely came alive once he got involved. He’s really good, man. I really like him.”
“All the structures and stuff stayed the same, and a lot of all the lyrics, but for example Too Much, he just kind of made that song sound like it was from outer space. (He added) all these weird ship noises and the synths, swells and dynamics were all things that he was able to build around the framework of my production.”
He gave an example of his song Wants Needs: “He just helped me punch it up and simplify it. He made my bridge work.
"The bridge didn’t work and he started sampling parts of other songs on the record and bringing them in. It was really amazing.
"The dude’s freaky… he’s like a blue-collar pop guy. It’s sick.”
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