With a snippet from a voicemail, a soundbite from a video of his girlfriend, and a few piano notes, Jack Antonoff of Bleachers had the framework of an idea that evolved into the song “I Wanna Get Better”. In the video above you see how a few sounds became a full song.
Antonoff is better known as the lead guitarist for the Grammy-winning band Fun. “I Wanna Get Better,” a catchy summer jam, is one of the first singles off Strange Desire, the debut album from his solo project, Bleachers.
The above YouTube clip is a look at Antonoff’s creative process. It’s one of those cases of a talented musician making something hard like songwriting look like something any schlub could do. Take some sounds, throw them in some basic audio editing program, add some drum loops, and pop in some synths? For all intents and purposes, you could do that too. Actually, Bleachers are putting out a call for fans to do up their own remixes of “I Wanna Get Better” with stems you can download right here. After you’ve created one, you can send it into BleachersHotline@gmail.com. We’d also love for you to load them up on SoundCloud and post them in the comments.
Regardless of your own musical prowess, you can enjoy the video for “I Wanna Get Better” below. Strange Desire is out July 15.