Say this: Jack Antonoff, one of the Los Angeles players, talks about….

Pop music’s production master Jack Antonoff discusses Taylor Swift, his new record, and the “about to blow” genre.

Three soggy days prior to this month’s 66th Grammy Awards, Jack Antonoff is seated cross-legged on an overstuffed sofa in the private recording studio he recently constructed on a seedy Hollywood side street, sipping his second oat-milk latte while feeling toasty and dry.

He looks through a soundproofed window that he promises would prevent us from hearing two cars colliding directly in front of us and declares, “I hate this weather.” “When it comes to weather, I’m really basic: I like warmth and sun, and anything else makes me uncomfortable.”

Currently unknown to Antonoff is the fact that he will win three consecutive Grammy Awards for producer of the year and album of the year for his work as songwriter and producer on Taylor Swift’s smash hit song “Midnights.” The latter accomplishment will match a record achieved by Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, the innovative R&B artist and Antonoff’s favorite, in the mid-1990s.

Before the Grammy Awards, Antonoff is aware of something that Swift will reveal on stage during the ceremony in an unexpected announcement that quickly goes viral: he has already finished another record with Swift, “The Tortured Poets Department,” which we are unable to discuss while we seek cover from the rain. Arriving on April 19, it’s the seventh studio album that Swift and Antonoff have collaborated on over the past ten years (excluding her popular re-recordings of her early work). It will also undoubtedly solidify Antonoff’s position as possibly the most sought-after pop music producer—a technical wizard with a gift for attention-grabbing sounds and a natural collaborator who can put musicians at ease.

Among the records he has guided to various degrees of both critical and commercial success

Natalie Maines of the Chicks, who selected Antonoff to produce their 2020 comeback album “Gaslighter,” calls him a “genius.” “I was eager to work with him in the studio every day.” She chuckles. “I’m going to resign, so he better work with us again.”