Bleachers

Bleachers are an American alternative rock group from Bergen County, in the United States, active since 2013. The project is the stage name and band name used by songwriter and record producer Jack Antonoff, and the live group includes Zem Audu, Mikey Freedom Hart, Sean Hutchinson, Michael Riddleberger and Evan Smith alongside Antonoff. The band releases music through Bleachers Music.

Style and influences

Bleachers’ sound is described as drawing heavily on 1970s music, late 1980s and early 1990s pop and rock, and the high school films of John Hughes, while also using modern production techniques. Their tags include indie pop, indie, pop, power pop and folk, alongside alternative rock, indie rock and rock.

Releases and activity

The group’s debut album, Strange Desire, comes out on RCA Records and includes the single “Rollercoaster”. Its second album, Gone Now, follows in 2017, with “Don’t Take the Money” as its lead single. Around that period, the band tours extensively, including the Come Alive! tour, the Strange Desire World Tour, and the co-headlined Charli and Jack Do America Tour with Charli XCX.

Bleachers also stage an unusual album-launch performance around Gone Now, bringing a reconstructed version of Antonoff’s childhood bedroom on tour and allowing fans into the installation before the album’s release. The band later performs on MTV Unplugged at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey; that session is issued as a live album containing material from both Gone Now and Strange Desire.

Collaborations and related projects

Antonoff produces the soundtrack for Love, Simon and contributes five songs to it, including four credited to Bleachers: “Alfie’s Song (Not So Typical Love Song)”, “Rollercoaster”, “Keeping a Secret” and “Wild Heart”, plus “Never Fall in Love”, a duet with MØ credited under his own name. Bleachers also appear on Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Comeback”. The band releases the third volume of Terrible Thrills, a vinyl series of covers of Gone Now songs by female artists together with new demos by Bleachers.

Later singles

Bleachers begin recording a third album in late 2019 and play a short “mini-tour” titled I Love Making This Album but I'm Also Losing My Mind in Here & Need to Come Out and Play. The band then releases “45” and “Chinatown”, with “Chinatown” featuring Bruce Springsteen, followed by “Stop Making This Hurt”.