2023 Rolling Stone, LLC. Except these Boys dont take themselves too seriously. I feel like I had a deep engagement with songs that even I didn't immediately like and learned to pick apart music by returning to a smaller catalogue. Bridgers: Im going to have a toxic tattoo year, I can tell. Send us a tip using our anonymous form. Any given point on the record belongs to any given band member Bakers power howls on $20, Bridgers aching confessions on Emily Im Sorry and the results are their own lovely, defined gems. Theres a realm in which I feel permitted to be ambitious in this band, in a way that I cant for my own solo stuff, because its something shared with people that I love who are the greatest songwriters ever, Baker says. I just sat in my dressing room eating my little hummus tray and before I left I timidly tapped on their door. Bridgers is sipping an oat milk cortado, occasionally standing to warm her hands over a nearby fire. Had this interview taken place a few years ago, Julien Baker says, she might have tried harder to publicly reconcile being both gay and Christian. Ill give them each a little kiss on the head and tuck them in.. It was so cold and there were like ten people there, but when we were playing a whole bunch of people we'd never met before knew all the words to a song we had recently put out. A.M. I take inspiration from the people I see who are happy, and Im still trying to [be], she says. Id need a break. She orders an orange juice in her oh-so-SoCal speaking voice, and reluctantly accepts water when told OJ is not an option. BOYGENIUS ARE THINKING about promoting The Record with press conferences in major cities, partly to avoid an avalanche of interviews, but also because it sounds like a good time. But for The Record, they say, Interscope made the most sense. All of a sudden, Phoebe Bridgers appears behind me like an apparition. Above all, she keeps her friends close, especially her bandmates. It might have been Take This To Your Grave by Fall Out Boy. I was also extremely star struck then. The boygenius cover, photographed by Ryan Pfluger, casts Bridgers in the center as frontman Kurt Cobain . They check in on each others attempted vibes. Bridgers has been making music for a while and released her first album in 2017. Three songwriters in their 20s Lucy Dacus, Phoebe Bridgers, and Julien Baker performed on one bill. We want to hear it. When their strikingly pure vocals combine in folky, elegiac harmony they are extraordinary, as on the opener, Without You Without Them, or in starker, lyrical moments , when they address love, friendship, philosophy, self-effacement. And, despite solely operating as a trio thus far, earlier this year Bridgers admitted her admiration for Big Thief lead vocalist and guitarist Adrianne Lenker and said she would be an "ideal fourth member" for the group. Boygenius love classic rock after Bridgers spoke to Paul McCartney on Instagram Live in 2021, she broke down in tears. Something thats been really important to us is to be able to exist like any other band: to make a sick song and have that not be weighted because of all these extraneous identifiers that we work within, says Baker. My embarrassing demos are, like, an 18-year-old kid who said he worked with Justin Bieber and auto-tuned me like crazy. The beloved indie trio is on the cover of Rolling Stone's February issue, wearing suits and staring down the camera in the same way that Nirvana did in 1994.. The line Salt in my lungs recalls the Dacus-sung boygenius track Salt in the Wound, while later, a melody from Bridgers Savior Complex surfaces. And then Covid was this built-in boundary [where] we cant see each other, so it was nice to realize what I actually wanted: to be able to talk with no strings attached. Not long after our interview, Bridgers dad died at age 60. In 2019 Bridgers, spoke about how she was mistreated by. In another life we were arsonists, goes a lyric on this first album from Boygenius, the supergroup consisting of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus three of the most thoughtful, wry and quietly powerful indie-rock songwriters of the past decade. And I dont feel bad about it., Bridgers, listening carefully, says hearing you say that is helping me love myself. And its just a bottomless well of love and emotion, and were not gonna run out of love for each other., This summer, Boygenius will crisscross the U.S. and Europe playing festivals and amphitheaters. Indie supergroup Boygenius: Anything that starts a fire in you is the stuff of life, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. The third album from Julien Baker is nearly here, and ahead of Little Oblivions (Feb. 26 . This all shines brightly on their debut album 'the record' which recently went number one in . When you internalize it, your personality is sadness, which is a lot of the time tied to depression, which a lot of the time is tied to detachment from life. Bridgers smiles thinking about another contender. Download and subscribe to Rolling Stones weekly podcast, Rolling Stone Music Now, hosted by Brian Hiatt, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts). (Despite this, a man walks up to Bridgers, says, My girlfriend sleeps in a Phoebe Bridgers shirt, and asks for a photo anyway. I never thought that a major was what I needed or the kind of trajectory that I aspired to, explains Baker. Dacus [to me]: Sorry if your birthday is in February or something. After touring together in 2018, the band members went back to their own busy solo careers: Bridgers released her 2020 album Punisher and in 2021, Baker put out her album Little Oblivions and. Baker says the track is about the wanting-to-poke-the-bear impulse that Im trying to mitigate; its also a meditation on Bernie Bostons famous Vietnam protest photograph Flower Power. It started to remind me of the tension between unrest and discontent with your life individually and the world writ large as a child, she says. It feels like one of Tony Sopranos dreams. Now, when she goes through LAX, she's tracked by paparazzi, and online fans rabidly tear apart whoever walks alongside her, speculating about her romantic attachments. Baker, 27, is pure raw-nerve-endings. And now the astrology-loving, early rising, slightly witchy 25 . Boygenius Is Bigger Than the Moment. The highly-anticipated album's been a long time coming. Boygenius was on my mind a lot, and we had been texting, like, Oh, my God, what the fuck is happening on the Earth? I just wanted to talk to my friends. On Not Strong Enough, Dacus takes the bridge, chanting us into a meditative trance: Always an angel, never a god / Always an angel, never a god. And then Bridgers and Baker jump in, almost screaming their assent. Im just looking pissed off, Bridgers reports. I was so nervous. Ziptie "'Little Oblivions' is the third studio album by Julien Baker. Styling by jared ellner at the only agency. See their exclusive Coachella photo diary. She had shelved the line Not strong enough to be your man, a nod to Sheryl Crows Strong Enough, long ago, waiting for the perfect song. After that, each member went back to her individual career Baker and Dacus each released level-up third records; Bridgers collaborated with everyone from Conor Oberst to Taylor Swift, and her. No blood for oil! And my parents were like, Youre literally 10., Baker grew up gay in an evangelical household in Memphis. Gordon Lightfoot: 10 Essential Songs by the Canadian Folk Icon, Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian Folk-Rock Troubadour, Dead at 84, Stagecoach 2023: Lainey Wilson, Chris Stapleton, and Nostalgia Dominate Countrys California Fest, Ed Sheeran Plays Van Morrison Song as Proof He Didn't Steal From Marvin Gaye in Copyright Trial, New Jeans, Rina Sawayama, Saweetie Among Gold House A100 Honorees, Newsmax Accuses Murdochs of Designing a New-World-Order Globalist Kill List Against Tucker Carlson, DeSantis' Disney Board Will Countersue the Mouse, 'Redfall' is a Decent Looter Shooter With an Identity Crisis. I dont feel that adventurous at 11.. After her career exploded with Punisher, going out in public became tougher. The . I simply need to talk about the genius (haha) new album from renowned Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker indie outfit, boygenius. Bridgers is reading Katherine Dunn's 1989 novel "Geek Love" at the urging of the boys. Diary-like candour: Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, AKA Boygenius. In 2018, singer-songwriters Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus and Phoebe Bridgers, all known for their solo acts, debuted as boygenius with their self-titled EP. It hurts me to even say that because I wish that I could in some way fulfill a reciprocal relationship with my fans, but I think the three of us feel the need to assert ourselves as individuals . In the context of the bands ascendance, the grander sweep of the production feels only right. We're all. Styling assistance by jess mcatee. In 2021-22, the four-time Grammy nominee took her "Reunion Tour" to venues all over the country and lent her talent to numerous music festivals. While the song has broader meaning about a dysfunctional relationship . (modern). Our boy! Dacus coos. I played 100 Years" by the band Five For Fighting on the piano. And when I write for other people, Im playing Bananagrams., Yeah, well, that makes sense, Bridgers says, cracking everyone up again, because I f suck at Bananagrams., It was Bridgers who originally broached the idea of getting back together to follow up their brief, beloved self-titled 2018 EP. I feel an uncomplicated pride about it., Adds Bridgers: Were obsessed with each other. Then I started writing this song and was like, Oh, this is clearly a boygenius song., That song was Emily Im Sorry, and Bridgers sent the demo to Baker and Dacus, asking, Can we be a band again? We were all nervous to bring it up, Bridgers says. Boygenius like to read, and I do not mean that in a casual sense. "There's nothing avant-garde about it," she says of Punisher, her second solo record and fourth major . All three musicians have been consistently slaying for years, both in their breathtaking solo work and 2018 self-titled EP.Bridgers has found the most mainstream success, but Baker and Dacus have an equally notable ability to craft complex, emotionally . I think she brings a great deal to the group . I have this macho bone in my body that I was like, Im pretty fit. The Record track that best exudes this kind of joy is Not Strong Enough. Its the most communal effort, and the chorus, I dont know why I am/Not strong enough to be your man, builds and explodes in indie euphoria alongside sharp riffs and chaotic drums. Bridgers parents divorced in 2015, when she was 20 years old. With a new record and a press tour around it, boygenius is squarely in the spotlight. I want to normalize talking shit about fans, says Bridgers. She was just very kind and warm. Isnt that crazy? We all get the high of each other being in the front, which is so sick and has been the ethos of this band since day one.. Directly after the albums release, the next big moment will be Coachella. It was, for real, 25 straight-up hits, she says. And dont even think about February. Tudzin worked separately on The Record in Bob Dylans old tour bus in the yard. Theyd work long days, often 10 hours or more, and unwind by watching thrillers like Promising Young Woman, The Handmaiden, and Yellowjackets. We dig deep into the magic of Boygenius Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker and gently correct their facts on Leonard Cohen. Three songs are out now and preview a . The singer-songwriters Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus have all been recipients of such buzz. It was probably at some godforsaken piano recital. It's the Wednesday between Coachella weekends. If I was going on a solo-album campaign right now, I wouldnt. The Tennessee native can count the number of times shes been to a beach on one hand, which is probably a good thing. Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus are marking the return of boygenius by paying homage to their punk-rock forebears. Except for those guys. On her sprawling and self-referential new LP, Del Reys lyrics deliver a staggering blend of the profound and the vernacular. She has such a beautiful, smoky tone to her voice, and it was very comforting for me., But that comfort can often lead to the sad girl stereotype reducing female songwriters to a single emotion, even trying to make sad girl indie a genre which Dacus has often spoken out against. Send us a tip using our anonymous form. Throughout her 2015 debut, Sprained Ankle, and its excellent follow-up, Turn Out The Lights, sparsity was the watchword. @phoebe bridgers. The National Begin Their Next Act Brilliantly With 'First Two Pages Of Frankenstein' Look no further than the Record track Were in Love, which symbolizes the beauty and bond of boygenius. It was not like falling in love. 2023 Rolling Stone, LLC. Phoebe was like, You have to start titling the songs. Baker says, erupting in laughter. There is a part of me that gets very easily intimidated by stuff because I have a country-mouse complex, she says, now sitting in a cozy restaurant nearby. If you rewrite your life, Dacus sings, can I still play a part?. Theres so much in common [with us], experiencing how oppressive the church can feel and growing up in the Bible Belt, says Williams, who was raised Christian in Mississippi. Best friends and band members Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker started boygenius in 2018, and fans have been anticipating the members to spare some time from their solo careers to drop a full album as a band. We were able to commiserate about the less enjoyable aspects of this job, Dacus says. Ron DeSantis F-cked With the Wrong Fandom Theyre playing April 15 and 22, on the festivals Saturday nights ahead of the headliner, Blackpink, the massive K-pop girl group. The band cliche is a cliche for a reason, she said, whereas this was three awesome mates who wanna hang out together. I just want me and my friends to survive, she says. We were sharing a backstage space. We all thought that we were more excited than the other person.. Im obsessed with that format, because when its done poorly, its so shitty, Bridgers explains. Later this month, itll play Coachella. On the breast pocket of her hunter-green jacket is a patch from the Norwegian black-metal band Mayhem, and beneath its sleeves, knuckle tattoos peer out: One hand spells out Hard, the other Work. When a bee sneaks up behind her, she tenderly apologizes: Im sorry we built a house on your house.. Theres a way to [be a fan] without filming me without my permission behind the back of my head, chasing me down the street.. Baker is candid and direct about her sobriety and how its aided her career. Julien Baker. 11. It was on one of those writing trips that Leonard Cohen was born. With her devastating 2017 debut album, Phoebe Bridgers arrived like a bolt of lightning, a premonition of indie's electric future. Its so hard to relate to people. IN ANOTHER LIFE, Dacus might be a journalist. I was vegan, I didn't drink, so it was just the most basic shit ever. That comes, in part, from what theyve each individually shared through their flourishing solo careers. Hair assistance by alex henrichs. Of course, that would have been the first CD I ever bought. Dacus makes sure I get a paper towel and a moment to stanch the bleeding. Meeting [Lucy] in real life, I was like, Oh, God, you have no idea how familiar I feel with you, she says. julian baker, lucy dacus, and phoebe bridgers reunite at the met gala . The way theyve built themselves into this prominence, without doing anything much other than writing really good songs, feels remarkable. Manicure by sreynin peng at opus beauty. She has received four Grammy Award nominations, including Best New Artist . Hardline 2. I was into piano-driven adult contemporary when I was ten. (She also turns bright red when she realizes that she said positive things about me when I left the table and my recorder was still on.) She brews some tea, brings it into her office, lights a candle, and picks a tarot card. Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus are about to release The Record, their debut album as a unit and follow-up their critically-acclaimed EP. Stephen Miller Is Taking Legal Action Against the M&M's Company, Baker unfolds her arms and breaks out into a smile. Theyve expressed annoyance over the need for their gender to be remarkable and their disdain for virtue signaling being treated as symbols instead of artists. At this, Baker shakes her head and folds her arms. Dacus ripped out the back blank page of the book and wrote down her email. Shut the fuck up., AFTER OUR BEACH WALK, I have lunch with boygenius at the Little Beach House in Malibu, where photos are banned. Vintage fashion specialist: alexandra mitchell for arbitrage nyc. She was open about her sobriety while doing press for her debut, Sprained Ankle, and 2017s Turn Out the Lights, but later, she says, I started dismantling every dimension of my belief system and values, she says. Dacus, Bridgers and Baker identify as queer, which has largely led to an outpouring of good vibes. Being like, Im not strong enough to show up for you. Boygenius already landed the cover of Rolling Stone. I want to build a whole world when I make anything and I feel like youre very similar. Bridgers nods and says, Definitely. Bridgers, who grew up in Pasadena and went to Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (alumni include Josh Groban and Alana Haim), had an altogether different experience. Theres something a little scary about that. This is what its like to be with all three members of boygenius: Everything is on the table, from mucous membranes to what it would be like if Shakespeare learned the music software Ableton. In their solo careers, Dacus says, fans can get overly fixated on how the biographical informs the music. Shes sitting at the table in a black sweater, explaining over miso soup that shes running on just two hours of sleep from straight hangin with the Boys the night before. Together they are boygenius - beloved indie-rock supergroup. Covid happened, and I didnt feel superproductive, she says. I just am in love with her, Bridgers says of SZA. We get love-watched., And Boygenius loves its fans right back, especially the kids. As if that wasnt enough, she tops off the track with Bridgers favorite Joan Didion quote: Was anyone ever so young?, On an uncharacteristically cloudy morning in Venice, California, I meet Baker at a coffee shop thats blasting Abbey Road on a loop. Some bands, their fanbase hate-watches them. Im unknowable in some deep way! Self-hatred is a god complex sometimes, where you think youre the most fucked-up person whos ever lived. Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. (Representative headline: The Infinite Gay Joy of Boygenius.) But fixation on the personal can also come from an unchecked obsessiveness, especially with Bridgers, whose breakup with actor Paul Mescal generated cringey tabloid headlines and who is famous enough to present awards to Taylor Swift. Phoebe Lucille Bridgers (born August 17, 1994) is an American indie musician from Los Angeles, California. Bridgers did a ton of press for Punisher a lot of magazine covers and late-night-TV appearances and while she may not yet be a household name, she still finds her newfound fame a little jarring, especially for a songwriter who idolized private musicians like Elliott Smith and Tom Waits and named Punisher after overbearing, invasive fans. On their last day at Los Angeles' Sound City Studios this past June, Phoebe Bridgers brought a half-finished song to her new bandmates, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus. Were meeting you in purgatory, says Dacus, 27. But just on a personal level, I dont want to be pigeonholed in that. Dacus, 27, delicately sets a scene too evocative to deny. Very childrens-book vibes. Its so hard to relate to people. Dacus: Were you about to say February can suck a dick? I took piano lessons for maybe a couple of months, less than a year and I had to do a recital. To be noticed makes you feel so loved by Lucy., Dacus and I meet one night at Wabi on Rose, a swanky sushi restaurant with pink velour booths that match its to-go boxes. The late-November sky is the precise shade of a cerulean crayon, and the lighting is almost too perfect. I was listening to a lot of Reliant K and pop-punk bands, so it was sort of like playful school delinquency lyrics, nothing super deep. Phoebe Bridgers was born on August 17th, 1994, in Los Angeles, California. I try to write more nuanced things than that.. 5/5 Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker deliver and then some on their keenly anticipated debut album It took me a minute to realize that. Before The Record, the album had many possible titles, all of which reflect typical boygenius humor: American Idiot, The White Album, Beach Boys, and so on. I want the most joy that I can get, and I want that for everyone that I love. Mariah Schneider, her partner of three years, bakes bread. Both of them are incredible lyricists. Phoebe Bridgers: "Graceland Too" The first time I heard this song, I knew immediately it would become one of my favorites of the year. I met Lucy, at a show in DC. One highlight from The Record, Leonard Cohen, has already sparked some mild social-media backlash from Cohen fans due to one hilariously cheeky verse: Leonard Cohen once said Theres a crack in everything, thats how the light gets in,' Dacus sings. (I think of the novelist Ottessa Moshfegh telling the New Yorker that in a theoretical autocratic society shed be uncomfortably high up.) Baker brims over with youngest-sibling nervous energy. Related But the group knows its going to be supported out there, no matter what. The trio is strolling along the beach with the kind of swagger the Backstreet Boys had in their Anywhere for You video. I am, to my core, an indie person, but some people think Im not famous enough to complain about it, she says. In the episode, we go track-by-track through the album, and look back at the solo discographies of each member as well. Do I want toast with a sea urchin on it? We dig deep into the magic of Boygenius Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker and gently correct their facts on Leonard Cohen, The new Rolling Stone Music Now episode explores the music of Boygenius Boygenius (from left: Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker), The Genius of Boygenius: Inside the Supergroup Saving Rock, You Are Grimes Now: Inside Musics Weird AI Future, Andor Star Diego Luna on Bold Season Two and Why Hes Done With Cassian.
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