After working with Jack Antonoff on her last two albums, Lorde surprised fans in April when she announced her fourth studio LP, Virgin, and the producer’s name was nowhere to be found in the credits.
But in a Rolling Stone cover story published Thursday (May 15), the New Zealand pop star finally explained why she chose not to work with her longtime collaborator this time around. Calling Antonoff a “positive, supportive” teammate, she revealed that she simply felt like it was time to make a change.
“I’m very vibes-based,” she told the publication. “I just have to trust when my intuition says to keep moving.”
For Virgin, Lorde’s intuition led her to Jim-E Stack, who executive produced the album alongside the “Royals” singer. She also worked with producers Fabiana Palladino, Andrew Aged, Buddy Ross, Dan Nigro and Dev Hynes of Blood Orange on the record.
Her partnership with Stack and Hynes will extend to touring when she embarks on her Ultrasound trek in September, with both collaborators serving as opening acts along with The Japanese House, Nilüfer Yanya, Chanel Beads, Empress Of and Oklou. “Very proud and excited to be bringing my most talented friends in support,” Lorde said when she announced the tour on May 8. “Come see what’s under the skin.”
Dropping June 27, Virgin will arrive four years after Lorde’s last album, Solar Power. Both the 2021 LP and 2017’s Melodrama were produced by Antonoff, with whom the “Green Light” artist famously had a close friendship.
“When I came to New York, we had only written together maybe a couple of times, and we were very obsessed with each other on a creative level and as buds,” Lorde told Billboard of her dynamic with the Bleachers frontman in 2018. “I was sort of doing nothing in New York, and we did this thing where for five days in a row, we just kept having dinner every night, just getting to know each other.”
“We still FaceTime almost every day,” she added at the time. “When you work with someone, you sometimes think, ‘Maybe it will just be for this time, and we say we’re going to keep in touch but we won’t.’ But we really … I’m like, ‘Hey, dickhead, what are you getting me for Christmas?’”
The two stars were so close as friends and collaborators, they often found themselves faced with rumors that their relationship had turned romantic. Both parties, however, denied the speculation on multiple occasions, with Antonoff tweeting in 2018, “normally i would never address rumors but i resent having the most important friendships and working relationships in my life reduced to dumb hetero normative gossip … im not seeing anyone. lol.”
The next month, Lorde told fans on an Instagram Live, “Jack and I are not dating … I love him. He’s awesome, but we’re not dating.”
See Lorde on the cover of Rolling Stone below.
