Watch Jack Antonoff and Nardwuar Talk ‘Watch the Throne,’ Music Scenes and Ron Sexsmith

Long earlier than all his star-making with Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff had a titan of hip-hop crown himself "the king of Coachella" on a Diamond-certified single by his band Fun. — a model of the track the in-demand producer has but to listen to for himself.

Antonoff was requested about an unreleased model of Fun.’s "We are Young" that includes Watch the Throne-era JAY-Z and Kanye West throughout an interview with Nardwuar the Human Serviette earlier this yr at Coachella 2024.

The Bleachers bandleader recalled how in 2011, producer Jeff Bhasker was working each with Fun on the fabric that may kind second album Some Nights, and JAY-Z and West on Watch the Throne. Bhasker has beforehand famous in interviews how "We are Young" was "an inch" away from showing on the duo’s monumental collaborative LP.

"We had been informed the refrain was taken, and that JAY-Z and Kanye had made the track," Antonoff mentioned, seeing "We are Young" seem on a leaked Watch the Throne tracklist earlier than it was pulled forward of the album’s launch.

"The story I heard was that JAY-Z thought [‘We are Young’] was too pop," Antonoff mentioned of the choice, "He might have been proper, as a result of it ended up turning into an enormous pop track. But I’ve by no means heard this [version].

"The one bit of knowledge I acquired to listen to in regards to the JAY-Z model of ‘We are Young’ is that in some unspecified time in the future, he shouts one thing like, ‘Lighters up, I’m the king of Bonnaroo, I’m the king of Coachella.’ And I do not assume I’ll ever hear this track, and at this level I do not wish to!"

Antonoff additionally shared loads of reflection about his concertgoing days in New Jersey, recalling all types of reveals he and his mates would attend at Wayne Firehouse — together with At the Drive-In, the Aquabats, Boy Sets Fire, Saves the Day, and the Get Up Kids. Naturally, Nardwuar then produces a poster for a profit present a younger Antonoff performed on the venue with early band Outline, who he says "sounded loads like Kid Dynamite."

At the tip of the interview, Antonoff gave a shoutout to Ron Sexsmith, the acclaimed Canadian singer-songwriter who may very well be the producer’s strangest movie star encounter.

As Antonoff detailed in his 2017 Exclaim! Questionnaire, "Ron Sexsmith, who’s an awesome Canadian artist, as soon as got here as much as me and thought I used to be Albert Hammond Jr. from the Strokes, as a result of I used to have my hair all huge like that. He simply began speaking to me like I used to be within the Strokes about experiences that we would had collectively, although he did not know me. But I used to be a very huge Ron Sexsmith fan on the time, so I used to be blown away that he got here as much as me."

Gifts for Antonoff embody a pair of Jeff Lynne-related vinyl records, a bobblehead of Agnostic Front’s founding gutiarist Vinnie Stigma, Minor Threat’s Out of Step Outtakes 7-inch and a Nardwuar-branded increase guitar pedal.

Antonoff just lately shared a self-titled Bleachers album and helped produce a diss monitor from Kendrick Lamar.

Nardwuar’s latest uploads from his time at Coachella 2024 embody interviews with Skepta, Renee Rapp, Ken Carson and 21 Savage.