Bleachers

At the helm of Bleachers stands Jack Antonoff, a Grammy-winning producer, multi-instrumentalist, and singer-songwriter who channels 1980s pop and college rock into uplifting, emotionally expansive tracks. Amid his commitments to Fun. and production roles for Taylor Swift, Lorde, and Lana Del Rey, he crafts sincere anthems such as the 2014 platinum-certified debut single “I Wanna Get Better.” Bleachers’ first album that year, Strange Desire, reached the Billboard 200’s Top 20 and showcased the band’s accessible synth-pop style in its clearest form. Even as Antonoff expanded his sonic range on 2017’s Gone Now, explored his New Jersey origins alongside Bruce Springsteen for 2021’s Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night, and turned inward for the self-titled 2024 release, the project remained anchored in his skill for cloaking authentic feeling inside expansive, polished arrangements.

Antonoff quietly developed material for Bleachers while on the road with Fun. during promotion of the Grammy-winning album Some Nights. Drawing from his affinity for 1980s pop and the moodier tones of college rock, especially the soundtracks to John Hughes films such as The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink, he issued the debut single “I Wanna Get Better” through RCA in February 2014. It topped Billboard’s Alternative Airplay and Bubbling Under Hot 100 charts before earning RIAA platinum status. The project’s inaugural full-length, Strange Desire, arrived that July and performed strongly, climbing to number 11 on the Billboard 200 and number two on the Top Rock Albums chart. With co-production from John Hill and Vince Clarke of Depeche Mode, Yaz, and Erasure plus contributions from Yoko Ono and Grimes, the record yielded further singles “Rollercoaster” and “Like a River Runs.”

Once Strange Desire was out, Antonoff assembled a touring lineup that performed extensively throughout 2015. In September the group issued Terrible Thrills, Vol. 2, presenting reinterpretations of every Strange Desire track by female artists such as Carly Rae Jepsen, Elle King, Tinashe, and Antonoff’s sister Rachel. Also that year, Bleachers recorded a cover of the Beatles’ “Dear Prudence” and appeared in the film Hello, My Name Is Doris under the name Baby Goya and the Nuclear Winters.

After Antonoff collaborated with Taylor Swift on Reputation and contributed “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever” to the Fifty Shades Darker soundtrack, Bleachers resurfaced in June 2017 with Gone Now. Once again working with Clarke, the album featured Lorde and drew from Antonoff’s recollections of the 9/11 attacks and his sister’s death from cancer at age 18. Cut in his home studio and teased via an installation recreating his childhood bedroom, Gone Now reached number six on the Billboard Alternative Albums chart and included the singles “I Miss Those Days” and “Don’t Take the Money,” the latter certified gold by the RIAA. While touring, Bleachers taped an MTV Unplugged performance in Asbury Park, New Jersey that surfaced as an album in November 2017.

March 2017 brought the Love, Simon soundtrack, to which Antonoff added tracks both as Bleachers and under his own name; one, “Alfie's Song (Not So Typical Love Song),” peaked at number 36 on Billboard’s Rock & Alternative Airplay chart. Terrible Thrills, Vol. 3 followed in March 2019, offering female-artist renditions of Gone Now material with MUNA, Mitski, and Julien Baker among the participants.

Alongside production work for Lorde, Lana Del Rey, Taylor Swift, and the Chicks, Bleachers covered R.E.M.’s “At My Most Beautiful” and joined Carly Rae Jepsen on the May 2020 single “Comeback.” That November the band released “45” and “Chinatown,” the latter a duet with Bruce Springsteen that reached the Top 20 of Billboard’s Adult Top 40 Airplay chart. Both tracks appeared on July 2021’s Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night, a more organic Bleachers statement produced with Patrik Berger and St. Vincent’s Annie Clark and featuring vocals from Lana Del Rey. The album landed at number 27 on the Billboard 200 and contained the further Adult Top 40 hit “Stop Making This Hurt.”

In 2022 Bleachers contributed a cover of John Lennon’s “Instant Karma!” to the Minions: Rise of Gru soundtrack and remixed Swift’s “Anti-Hero.” Following a tour supported by Wolf Alice, Beabadoobee, and the Lemon Twigs, the band rejoined Del Rey in early 2023 on the single “Margaret” from Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, which charted on Billboard’s Hot Rock/Alternative Songs tally. After signing with Dirty Hit, Bleachers released Live at Radio City Music Hall in August.

The next month Antonoff unveiled the sax-led single “Modern Girl” as a preview of the forthcoming album. Issued in March 2024—shortly after Antonoff received his third consecutive Grammy for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical—the self-titled Bleachers adopted a gentler, more introspective tone and included another Del Rey collaboration, “Alma Mater.” The record reached number 62 on the Billboard 200 and number five on the Top Alternative Albums chart.