Bleachers' Jack Antonoff talks Modern Girl, Sex Education and their new album

13 October 2023, 12:34

The Bleachers frontman shares how the single came to appear on the Netflix series, their upcoming album and plans for a UK tour.

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Bleachers are back and frontman Jack Antonoff spoke to Radio X's Dan O'Connell about everything from Sex Education to their forthcoming album.

The New Jersey outfit have released their Modern Girl single, which featured on the final series of the Netflix drama and speaking of how it came to pass Antonoff explained: "We were finishing the album as just as the songs were getting finished my manager was kinda sending out some songs to people he likes where he thought the music could make sense and this was just one where they said 'This song would be good for this scene' and I checked out what the scene was gonna be and thought it was cool."

Bleachers - Modern Girl (Official Video)

Speaking of the Springsteen-esque and its fun video, he added: "the idea of the sound of the song and the look of the video was to capture what it's like to be at a show, which is very easy to say, but very hard to do.

"And so when we made that video, we made that room really hot and we were sweating and that's also a thing that happens when a band has toured the way we've toured and have the kind of live audience we have where we can channel something because of that."

Listen back to the interview on Global Player

Asked if the song is part what's to come from B4 - aka the fourth Bleachers album and the follow-up to 2014's Strange Desire, 2017's Gone Now and 2021's Take The Sadness Out of Saturday Night - which is expected in 2024 he said: "Yeah, we're gonna announce that [soon]. All the information is coming out in the next couple of weeks."

Quizzed if it means the band will be returning to the UK for tour dates next year, the Rollercoaster singer added: "Yeah, we have a proper UK tour, which will also be announced soon in pretty early '24."

Antonoff was "bummed" to miss out on some huge shows in the UK this summer, like Bruce Springsteen and Lana Del Rey's BST Hyde Park gigs.

Asked if he enjoys large festival shows like some of the gigs, which took place in the capital this year, he said: "They're really fun. It's a different thing, but I always say that it's almost like when you're doing a huge show, your goal is to make it seem like a small show and when you're doing a small show, your goal is to make it feel [big], so when you're playing to 40-50,00 people, you're thinking about how to reach everyone."

Bleachers' Jack Antonoff on making gigs intimite

Quizzed how he manages to achieve that as a frontman, the singer responded: "It's different for everyone, but to me it's almost leaning on the things that only the hardcore fans know."

He added: The simple answer is deliver yourself no matter what."