Jack Leopards & The Dolphin Club

Influences

• Nine Inch Nails — Antonoff has cited Trent Reznor’s production on Hesitation Marks as a massive influence on how he approaches dark, rhythmic tension. You hear that mechanical dread in the way the bass interacts with the sparse percussion here. It’s the sound of pop songwriting being dragged through an industrial filter.
• Tom Waits — The vocal processing and the clattering, unconventional percussion choices mirror the junk-shop aesthetic Waits mastered on Bone Machine. The track leans into that same intentional grit and distorted low-end. It rejects the clean, digital polish of the Top 40 charts for something that feels rusted.
• Joy Division — The heavy use of the Mellotron and the stark, isolated bass lines are straight out of the Martin Hannett production playbook. There is a cold, post-punk distance in the arrangement that prioritizes space over melody. It’s a deliberate nod to the atmospheric gloom of the late 70s Manchester scene.
• Lana Del Rey — Antonoff’s work on Norman Fucking Rockwell! clearly bled into this session’s DNA regarding the use of silence and breathy vocal layers. The minimalist approach to the acoustic guitar tracks mirrors the understated arrangements they developed together. It’s the same moody DNA, just with a darker, more masculine vocal lead.
• The Beatles — Antonoff’s obsession with the Mellotron is a direct lineage from the Strawberry Fields Forever sessions at Abbey Road. He uses the instrument here not as a gimmick, but to provide a haunting, flute-like texture that grounds the track in 1960s psychedelia. It gives the modern track an immediate sense of historical weight.