Taylor Swift fans wait outside restaurant to catch glimpse of pop star
Taylor Swift fans crowded outside of a New Jersey restaurant where she attended the wedding rehearsal dinner for Margaret Qualley and Jack Antonoff.
Ryan Ross, USA TODAY
Record producer and songwriter Jack Antonoff plans to build a recording studio on the site of a former swimwear shop in Long Beach Township, which he purchased for $1.2 million in 2023.Antonoff has won 11 Grammy Awards, including Producer of the Year. He’s most well known for his collaborations with pop superstar Taylor Swift, but he isn’t credited on her upcoming album.Antonoff told Long Beach Township officials that the studio will be completely soundproofed and only have a few people on site at a given time.
LONG BEACH TOWNSHIP – One of pop music’s most in-demand producers and songwriters is setting up roots on Long Beach Island.
Jack Antonoff, known for his frequent collaborations with pop superstar Taylor Swift, hopes to build a recording studio at the former Bikini Headquarters location on Long Beach Boulevard in the township, across the street from Nardi’s Tavern.
The property on the corner of Nevada Avenue has been vacant since last summer, which is when Bikini Headquarters relocated to Beach Haven after the building was sold.
The Henry Street Trust purchased the site for $1.2 million in August 2023. Antonoff’s name does not appear on property records but Antonoff himself testified about the project at a September 2023 land use board meeting, in which he won a variance to use the site as a recording studio.
“He is seeking to spend more time (on Long Beach Island) rather than New York City and needs a space to work while he is on the island,” minutes of the meeting state.
The building is expected to be demolished to make away for Antonoff’s studio, which would not be open to the public. At a September 2023 land use board meeting, he testified that the studio would only be used by his clients, with an engineer living in an on-site apartment.
According to meeting minutes, board members expressed concerns about busses arriving to load in equipment, but Antonoff appeared to assuage those concerns, describing the small groups of two to four people likely to be on-site at any given time.
He did push back at Long Beach Township board member Richard Jones, who suggested a 10 p.m. curfew on business operations.
“(Antonoff) doesn’t want to feel like he couldn’t enter his own office if he wanted to do something outside those hours, and obviously will adhere to any noise ordinances,” Antonoff responded, according to meeting minutes.
He denied an interview request through a representative.
Antonoff, 41, grew up in New Milford and Woodcliff Lake in Bergen County, but “spent every summer on Long Beach Island,” he told the Asbury Park Press in a 2017 interview. His parents owned a home on Mac Evoy Lane in Long Beach Township, he told the township land use board.
In October 2020, he purchased a $1.8 million oceanfront property nearby. He also owns a house in Colts Neck.
“Everybody wants to accommodate people like Jack Antonoff and Ray Romano, but they don’t want their time here to be a distraction to the rest of the crowd,” said Kevin Bergin, a realtor and president of the LBI Chamber of Commerce. “We’re fortunate enough that we have public figures here who understand that.”
Springsteen, Grammy awards, and Taylor Swift
Antonoff’s music career includes New Jersey bonafides, including launching the annual Shadow of the City music festival in Asbury Park and collaborated with Bruce Springsteen on “Chinatown,” a Bleachers song released in November 2020.
Antonoff cut his musical teeth in the New Jersey punk rock scene before starting the band Steel Train in 2002, which began Antonoff’s ascent into pop music, first with his bands Fun and Bleachers before taking on songwriting and producing roles with major pop stars.
Since 2013, Antonoff has won 11 Grammy Awards, including three awards for Producer of the Year, and 11 songs to top the U.S. charts.
While his fingerprints are on records released by Lana Del Rey, Lorde and Sabrina Carpenter, Antonoff is most well-known for his collaborations with pop superstar Taylor Swift.
Antonoff has a producer credit on all 11 albums released by Swift since 2014, including four re-recorded albums released amid a dispute between Swift and her former record label.
“I’m really really lucky that I get to write songs with one of my best friends in the world,” Swift said at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards. “His name is Jack Antonoff. He is so talented, it’s incomprehensible and I’m so lucky I’ve been making music with him since we worked on an album called ‘1989.’ We’ll continue working together until 2089.”
But, that relationship might be in the midst of a transition. Last week, Swift announced her new album, “The Life of a Showgirl” and fans were quick to notice that Antonoff wasn’t listed among its credited producers.
Swift visited Long Beach Island in 2023 when Antonoff married actress Margaret Qualley. The couple celebrated their nuptials at Parker’s Garage and Bird and Betty’s in Beach Haven, with a rehearsal dinner at the Black Whale Bar and Fish House.
Crowds gathered outside of the Black Whale when news broke of the star-studded event, which also included Lana Del Rey and Channing Tatum.
Nevada Avenue resident Jacqueline Klinker mentioned the “chaos” of Antonoff’s wedding in expressing her skepticism to his studio project, and expressed “similar concerns of mass crowds forming out front of the building,” according to meeting minutes.
But that was a one-time situation, Antonoff said. The studio is private property, and will look “very unassuming” without any public advertisement of acts present in the studio.
“It’s hard to get people to come to the island,” Antonoff said.
Mike Davis is an investigative reporter with the Asbury Park Press, where he’s covered local news, politics, transportation and the cannabis industry. His work has changed laws, prompted government investigations and even won a few awards, which make his parents very proud. Contact him at mdavis@app.com, @byMikeDavis on social media platforms or send an encrypted message via Signal @bymikedavis.22.
Chris Jordan, a Jersey Shore native, covers entertainment and features for the USA Today Network New Jersey. Contact him at @chrisfhjordan; cjordan@app.com