How Dare You Want More

Album: Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night (2021)
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Songfacts®:

  • Over driving, classic rock instrumentation, Bleachers mainman Jack Antonoff sings of always wanting more, and feeling guilty about it. "'How Dare You Want More' is this feeling I was seeing with friends and family," he told Apple Music. "Everyone's going through this big struggle to have more, to ask for more, and to be in control of their life. I saw it was producing so much shame in other people, and therefore, really just myself. Why is it so hard?"
  • Bleachers recorded the song in New York's iconic Electric Lady studio for their third studio album, Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night. The Jack Antonoff-fronted band began laying down tracks in late 2019 but the COVID lockdown forced them to down tools for a while. "How Dare You Want More" was the first tune the group recorded after they reconvened.

    "This song is the sound of people in the room playing for the first time since they were not sure if they'd get to play together again," said Antonoff. "The band playing together after not being together for so long added a feeling of hope that I didn't know the song needed."
  • Bill Benz directed the live music video, which captures the spontaneous moment where Antonoff trades riffs with saxophonist Evan Smith. "I used that film as the backbone of the song," said Antonoff to the BBC. "For the guitar-sax battle, I overdubbed one or two of my lines, but that's the exact live take. If you watch the video, the sax player is exactly just playing it in the moment."
  • Antonoff co-wrote and co-produced the song with Patrik Berger (Icona Pop's "I Love It, Charli XCX's "Boom Clap"). The Swede co-produced all but one track on Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night.
  • Bleachers debuted the song during a May 2021 performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. They later performed "How Dare You Want More" on the January 15, 2022 episode of Saturday Night Live along with "Chinatown."

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