Lorde calls out ‘insulting’ narrative surrounding Jack Antonoff’s ‘stable’ of female musicians

New Zealand singer confronts ‘sexist’ and ‘retro’ ideas in a new interview

Lorde has spoken about the “retro” and “sexist” idea that she is part of a “stable” of female artists who have worked with producer and musician Jack Antonoff.

The “Green Light” singer recorded her new album Solar Power, which is scheduled for release next week, with Antonoff, who also produced her 2017 record Melodrama.

In recent years, Antonoff has become known for contributing to albums by some of the world’s biggest female pop stars, including Taylor Swift, St Vincent, Pink and Lana Del Rey.

In an interview with The New York Times, however, Lorde objected to the way her work was being discussed in relation to Antonoff.

“I haven’t made a Jack Antonoff record. I’ve made a Lorde record”, she said, “and he’s helped me make it and very much deferred to me on production and arrangement. Jack would agree with this.”

She added: “To give him that amount of credit is frankly insulting… I know that there are certain hallmarks of what Jack does, and some of those things I really love, and some of them I don’t like. And I beat them out of the work that we do together.”

Antonoff, 37, is also the lead singer and guitarist of the indie pop band Bleachers. As a songwriter and record producer, he collaborated with Swift on her two most recent albums, Evermore and Folklore (both from 2020).

He also collaborated with Del Rey on her most recent album Chemtrails over the Country Club, which was released on 19 March.

Fans recently noticed a similarity to Del Rey’s song “Wild at Heart” with Lorde’s latest single, “Stoned at the Nail Salon”. Both songs were produced by Antonoff and released this year.

Lorde compared creating an album with Antonoff to designing a house: “I say this with so much love and affection, but I feel like we’re doing up a house together and he’s like, ‘Look at this serviette that I fashioned into the shape of two swans! Look at this set of woven baskets!’” she said. “And I’m like, ‘Great — one per room.’”

Solar Power is out on 20 August via Republic Records.