Lorde and Jim-E Stack Spark Dating Rumors at Glastonbury Music Festival

Elle

19 hours ago

Lorde is stepping into a bold new chapter, both musically and personally. The Grammy-winning singer just released her album Virgin and gave a surprise Glastonbury performance. While at the British music festival, she also sparked rumors that she is dating producer and collaborator Jim-E Stack. The Sun ran photos of Stark and Lorde cuddling in the crowd.
On June 30, Daily Mail added more fuel to the speculation by publishing photos of them arriving together at London Heliport. Stack had his arm around Lorde's shoulder.
Neither Lorde nor Stack has confirmed the relationship, but fans are buzzing about the possibility. So, who exactly is Jim-E Stack? From his prolific music career to his yearslong creative partnership with Lorde, here's everything to know.
Stack isn't just Lorde's rumored boyfriend; he's also her main creative partner on Virgin, the singer's fourth studio album that came out on June 27, 2025. He co-wrote and co-produced some of the project with Lorde (real name: Ella Yelich-O'Connor).
In a June 27 Instagram post, Stack described their collaboration as something deeper than just studio work: 'Ella & I met and made some songs in 2022 before an album was on either of our minds,' he wrote. 'A year and a half later we had [an] album. There's no one I'd rather be in the trenches with. Eternally grateful for the journey together. Love you forever, Ella.'
In a May 2025 British GQ interview, Stack elaborated on how the project came together: 'Finishing the album was amazing, but you get so close and familiar with it,' he said. 'It was basically just Ella and myself making and producing the whole [song, 'What Was That']; my close friend Dan [Nigro] helped me somewhat with the production. Sometimes you get in this zone where you're like, 'Okay, we love this; is anybody else gonna care?' Seeing people go nuts for it made us both feel we're not crazy.'
While it isn't known exactly when they met or potentially began dating, Stack revealed their creative partnership began in early 2022. 'She hit me up in 2022 right before she was about to start rehearsing for the Solar Power Tour,' he told British GQ. 'I think she was eyeing what would be next for her creatively. We hung and got along super well, and then after a leg of the tour, she came to my studio, and we spent a week cranking out ideas.'
'Then in summer 2023, she had some festivals booked and asked for me to help put together some remix versions of Solar Power songs for her live show. There were also a couple songs we did, [like] 'Silver Moon,' that she wanted play live. And I think once she finished that festival run, she was feeling creatively energized, though also in a scary new phase of her life—she had just gone through a breakup of a very long-term, significant relationship...It felt very true to where she was at personally—this new era, living alone in New York for the first time, and things just feeling fresh and new.'
Born James Harmon Stack, the 33-year-old San Francisco native has spent over a decade quietly shaping some of the most experimental pop and indie records of the 2010s and 2020s. His collaborators include Bon Iver, Charli XCX, Caroline Polachek, HAIM, Empress Of, and Diplo, among others.
In an April 2021 Interview conversation with Kacy Hill, Stack described the core of his production approach: 'When I'm working on someone else's stuff and there are decisions to be made in the production and writing of which I'm unsure, I can always defer to the person whose song it is to make that decision, and I don't have to make a big call.'
Stack began playing drums at age 11 and started making beats as a teenager using a friend's old Mac. 'My beats were some collision of rap and grime,' he told Fader in 2014, describing them as 'really, really terrible' in the beginning. 'That's kind of the beauty of it: there was no vision whatsoever. It's just trying to make some shit.'
He credits growing up in San Francisco with shaping his sound: 'Growing up in the city [when I did] meant exposure to different cultures,' he said.
In Rolling Stone's May 2025 cover story, Lorde described how working with Stack helped her unlock a new phase in both her music and identity. She recalled a moment during the Virgin recording process when she texted him a photo of herself in men's jeans and asked for his opinion. Stack replied, 'I want to see the you that's in this picture represented in the music.'
'This was before I had any sense of my gender broadening at all,' she explained.
Stack has shared several posts celebrating Virgin and his creative bond with Lorde. 'The kinda song I was put on earth to help make,' he wrote on X after 'What Was That' was released.
In April, he shared a short video of him and Lorde working in the studio on 'What Was That,' captioning it, 'The night we finally got the drums right.'