Taylor Swift Collaborator Reveals Pivotal Moment With the Pop Star That ‘Shocked’ Him

Jack Antonoff, a longtime collaborator of Taylor Swift’s, recently revealed a pivotal moment that he shared with the pop superstar before he became known as a hit-making producer.

The Bleachers frontman spoke about one of his early projects with Swift, 2014’s 1989, during an interview with Variety that was published on Thursday, Dec. 5. The magazine recently named Antonoff—who has also worked with Lana Del Rey, The 1975, Lorde, Kendrick Lamar, and many others—its Hitmakers Producer of the Decade.

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Before Swifties ever heard music from the album that transformed Swift from a country artist into a pop star, Antonoff said he’d essentially been doing the work of a producer, but in an unofficial capacity. It was the “Shake It Off” singer who turned that around for him.

“I actually would say she’s the first person who allowed me to produce, really, because I was already doing it,” he told the magazine. When Antonoff worked with Swift at that time, he prioritized “making tracks” while the “Love Story” singer focused on “writing all the lyrics and melodies.” Once both sides of the creative process were complete, they joined forces to record the songs together.

But when the time came for a producer to be brought in to put the finishing touches on 1989, Swift didn’t feel it was necessary. Instead, Swift “just said, ‘It’s done,’” Antonoff recalled. “I was sort of shocked — and thrilled!”

The album ultimately won Album of the Year at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards. In the decade since the album’s release, Swift and Antonoff have reunited several times, with Swift releasing their most recent collaboration, The Tortured Poets Department, earlier this year. Despite their well-documented success in that decade as colleagues and friends, Antonoff credits that moment when Swift “allowed” him to step into the producer role as being “part of the reason why we’ve had such an incredibly long and beautiful collaboration.”

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