The best restaurant in New York City is called Noodle Pudding. It’s the greatest place on earth. It reminds me of New Jersey for some reason. The name is super misleading; it’s just an amazing and classic Italian restaurant.
“I’m very inspired by New York, but I’m inspired by New York as someone from New Jersey,” says Antonoff. “I don’t walk around New York thinking, This is me. I walk around thinking, Oh, fuck, I hope I’m good enough to be a part of this.” It’s the inner anxious underdog in 31-year-old Antonoff, the lead guitarist of NYC indie-pop success story fun., that spurred him to start his solo project, Bleachers, which debuted last year. As a frontman, Antonoff fuses his choruses with bright, unapologetic flashes of ’80s pop and his lyrics with a palpable sense of loss and depression. It’s a thrilling combo—Antonoff name-checks everyone from Robyn to the Mountain Goats as influences—that leads fans to cathartic ass shaking. “I’ve often thought that the perfect song is something you can dance to or cry to,” he says. Regardless of the success of his bands, his high-profile collaborations with the likes of Taylor Swift or his very famous roommate and girlfriend (Girls creator Lena Dunham), Antonoff looks forward to his gigs the same way his fans do: “I’m not there to get paid,” he says. “I’m there to feel like I’m not alone.” And any real New Yorker can relate to that.
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