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Phoebe Bridgers on Boygenius: “I have this certain reticence at looking under the hood of this band”
The band also revealed going to group therapy to ‘cultivate our friendship’.
Image: Harrison Whitford
Indie supergroup boygenius have opened up about what it’s like writing songs as a band in a recent interview.
Asked what it is they admire about each other’s songwriting, Phoebe Bridgers — one third of the musical trio that includes Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker — tells The Guardian, “I have this certain reticence at looking under the hood of this band.”
“I know what I love about you both as solo artists, but I think it changes in the band, and it’s just alchemy. There’s a secret fourth thing happening so it’s hard to articulate.”
“I’d been trying to sneak a curb-biting lyric into a song for years,” she adds. “That was one of my darlings that I hadn’t killed. It’s nice to try to shake something loose that you’ve tried very laboriously to fit into your solo shit.”
For member Lucy Dacus though, much of the fun comes from ‘figuring out the other members’ puzzles’.
“I tend to come up with a bunch of options – you know when the eye doctor’s like ‘This, or that? This or that?’ And then it’s knowing which thing is better and closer, and not being satisfied until it communicates the feeling we’re going for,” she explains. “I’ll write a whole song and [Bridgers will] be like: ‘Change this one word.’ And it does something.”
The band — who have previously spoken about the stickier aspects of their newfound fame — also revealed going to group therapy to navigate those challenges, with member Julien Baker describing the whole thing as “prophylactic therapy”.
“My favourite thing about this band is that it’s fun for me, it’s a respite for me,” Baker says, adding that her “real-life friendships” with Bridgers and Dacus are ”among the dearest relationships in [her] life”.
Releasing an album feels “like you’re at the top of a big rollercoaster that everyone keeps hyping because they’re excited about you being good at what you do,” the musician says. “I was super anxious there wouldn’t be time to cultivate our friendship. I was precious and protective of it.”
The band’s new album, The Record, will arrive on 31 March via Interscope. Listen to the new singles Emily I’m Sorry, $20 and True Blue Below.