Bleachers frontman gathered female friends Charli XCX, Sia, Carly Rae Jepsen, Sara Bareilles, Tinashe and more to recreate a few of those songs on bad Thrills, Vol. 2, a re-imagination of unusual Desire, re-recorded with all female voices. Scarlett Johansson, Alia Shawkat, Tegan and Sara and others covered the last studio album Antonoff released with his former band Steel Train in 2010. Dixie Chicks’ Natalie Maines was the first artist to sign on to the “alternate universe” recording of the album, as Antonoff puts it, with her cover of album closer “Who I Want You To Love”, and Jepsen’s “Shadow” was the final track to make the cut. “I wish I had one”, Antonoff said. When I write songs, I typically hear things in a female voice and then match it an octave lower so I can hit the notes. “I could change the key, but I like things sounding like a male version of what in my head was a female-sung song”.
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For Vol. 2, Antonoff hooked back up with some of his frequent collaborators of the past few years. Are a few songs better suited to be sung by one gender over another?
Antonoff also revealed that he is now at work on the next Bleachers album. We even see contributions from Brooke Candy and Rachel Antonoff, who is the fashion designer and Jack’s sister.
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