Girl In Red
Bedroom pop’s bonafide breakout artist is back
resonate more with the criticism that I broke it like a pussy, not that I broke it.” In a mastered sense of self-awareness, Phoebe Bridgers is flippant and quick-witted with her comebacks. Recalling her most controversial moment yet, the LA-based singer-songwriter admits she has learned to acclimatise to absurdist episodes of virality. Still, despite her online domination, Phoebe remains relatively detached from it all. Now, away from internet clamour, the artist is taking some time for herself.
Dressed down in an oversized hoodie and washedout grey dad cap, the artist seems miles away from last week’s media storm; both literally and figuratively. “I’m doing good. I just got back from New York. We’re in the midst of an increasingly normalised, deadly pandemic. So, there are parts of that that are nice,” she tells me. “The shock of it has worn off. We know that the handrail outside of our apartments isn’t gonna kill us now.” Taking the lead, the singer suddenly asks if I’ve seen the dark comedy film Wristcutters. “I really like Wristcutters. It was based on a book that I liked. But the premise is that when you kill yourself, you just go back into the world, but worse. It’s like a worse version of reality and everything is shitty. It’s not even about the punishment, it’s kind of a funny concept.” Pausing, she adds: “Everything is basically like Las Vegas; it’s just horrible, and that’s what right now feels like. It’s like New York, but ruder. It’s like LA, but bitchier. Everything’s just worse, but it’s better than last year — and this is my dog, Max.”
Perched on her lap sits the small black pug. Mindlessly stroking him, the singer reveals she’s been trying to place a route amidst a post-release press tour. “I haven’t been creating as much as I normally would with so much time off. It’s like a weird time off because everybody knows you’re home,” she jokes. Outside of regular therapy check-ins, the indie musician has been kept busy with internet overflow. Last week, during an appearance as a musical guest on the late-night show Saturday Night Live, Phoebe Bridgers broke the internet after a smashing stage performance. Spurred on by intrigue, we ask her what it’s like to go viral for the second time that week. “I liked it. Okay, I’m pretty good at filtering out stuff I shouldn’t read about myself online. I don’t really read reviews. I definitely don’t read the interviews once they’re out unless I like fucked up or like someone sends me something. I have a pretty healthy relationship with people wishing I was dead,” she laughs. “I’m self-conscious of being a moderate indie rock white singer. My music, to some people, isn’t immediately effective, because it comes from a very folk place, and it is really lyric-driven. I’m not like a big hooks person and most of the time I write ballads and they connect to some people and some people think they’re boring and I just wasn’t sure what I represented. Then pissing off every ancient old fuck online was the best thing that could have happened to me. I was like, ‘Oh, I piss people off still.’ You know that’s good. The worst insult to me is someone is saying ‘Meh, I don’t know if I like that [music],’ so I really liked the ‘fuck yous’.”
While enjoying stoking the fire online, Phoebe confesses she hadn’t expected her actions to turn into turmoil offstage. “I definitely didn’t expect it,” she admits. “Arcade Fire did that shit on SNL and Sufjan Stevens used to break his banjo overnight.” Inspired by Nate Walcott’s past attempt at smashing a trumpet, the singer-songwriter thought it would be good fun to give it a go herself: “It’s just old news and it was super weird. If I had been attacked for something offensive I’d said on Twitter in 2011, I think it would have kept me up at night, but the fact that I did something that people have been doing, I’m totally fine with it. I got attacked and there’s something very satisfying about that. I know you can’t touch this one thing because I know I’m right.”
As something of a firestarter, this wasn’t the first time Phoebe Bridgers’ name has been bound to big news. As Grammy nominations rolled out in late November, the American artist didn’t expect her name to be listed for any categories. In fact, the singer slept in when the headlines broke. In an incredible turn of events, Phoebe scooped up four Grammy nominations, including the infamous Best New Artist award. Not long ago, the indie rock musician made light of her ‘emerging artist’ status, but it’s a brand she’s unashamed to be seen as. “I think I’m new to a lot of people this year. The Best New Artist nomination is when you’ve talked to new people. I don’t actually take offense - it is funny though. I don’t think it’s bullshit,” she reflects. “I think the radio world and the streaming world are all different. You could get famous on TikTok and not make a record for five years, and then you have to do Best New Artist interviews. But I would prefer, in 10 years, to get a Best Old Artist nomination, that’d be sick.”
As Phoebe’s career continues to spiral in an upwards trajectory, the indie rock artist is eagerly ticking off all the major milestones along the way. SNL, Grammy nominations, and an upcoming Artist in Residence show for BBC 6 Music is just the beginning. But I ask the singer if she realised what her “tipping point” was when things started to all come together. “I love this question because I have had hundreds,” she smiles on screen. “I wanted to do music so bad for so long that the first time I sold 100 tickets for my own show, I was like ‘Alright, peace out bitches. It’s been nice knowing you, I’ll wave down from the top.’ I was so happy that anyone gave a shit along the way.” It doesn’t matter whether it’s landing your first big opening slot with Conor Oberst or seeing your name in lights, the singer reveals that each moment is incredibly special. “What’s great about loving your job is that everything feels like a victory,” she reflects. “Getting a sweet text from Fiona Apple still makes my heart flutter. That shit is every day.”
Outside of selling shows and shitposting online, Phoebe’s unapologetic sad girl brand has opened up something more than an affinity with listeners that wear their hearts on their sleeves. Instead, for some, the California singer has become a visible queer icon. “I wish I had found that group of people when I was in high school, but the fact my fans now look the way that I did when I was 16 is so nice,” Phoebe replies. “As an adult, it’s a really delicate balance between talking about my sexuality, which I think is really important, and keeping my private life.” Growing up, the singer admits she had plenty of LGBTQ+ icons, but, at the time, her LA high school felt caught up in preconceptions of sexuality. “My high school was very binary. Non-binary people weren’t being called that yet and it was all very categorical, and I didn’t know where I fit. I think my favourite thing about now is that it doesn’t matter, it’s all a spectrum. There are people like you everywhere and I think that’s the coolest thing about figuring it out. I would go through phases where I was entirely gay and entirely straight and just convinced myself that that was my personality. I was just like ‘Oh, I’m this now, I figured it out’, but then I’d meet somebody else and it’d throw a wrench in the way to think about yourself.”
Speaking of LGBTQ+ icons, I ask Phoebe if there’s been anyone on her current favourite artist list. “I like when people ask what your favourite bands are
because it’s just interesting. Right now, and always and forever, K.D Lang is going to be at the top of that list. K.D Lang was the first person who ever made me feel like, ‘Oh, wait, like, it’s really sexy to be androgynous like really sexy.’ There’s this video of her doing Johnny Get Angry which is fucking iconic. It’s so good. Arlo Parks and Claud too. I love the way that they talk about themselves. They’re not letting themselves be tokenised for sexuality and identity, but it’s still helping people with those same ideas about themselves. Being young is just trying on different kinds of people and the more people there are to try on, the better.”
Elsewhere on Phoebe’s radar, the singer-songwriter has been gearing up for some new projects. Often jokingly labelled a serial collaborator, the artist not long ago released a cover with Maggie Rogers for charity. More recently, she appeared on her fellow Boygenius bandmate’s track. Both Lucy Dacus and Bridgers reunited to feature on Julien Baker’s latest single Favor. A musical reconciliation that feels long overdue, Phoebe admits she was grateful it could happen. “It was amazing. The same day that we did it, we did I Know The End Graceland Too for Punisher,” she reveals. “We have this agreement where our band and our friendship should never feel like work. It’s not a fake friendship that’s advantageous to us. So, there’s this really big sensitivity that even asking ‘When are we going to make another record’ feels scary. I want to be the respite from capitalism to [those] guys. I want you to be able to complain about eight hours of interviews because we all are pretty much living the same life. I want to be the respite from when your managers are asking you to do too much. It feels nice to have that and then the group chat will dissolve into memes for days. When we do get together to play music, it’s so magical and it makes us all so happy. I think we’re all self-conscious of that, but we work really well together. It’s not like any other band dynamic I’ve ever had which is a catch 22 because it’s like the most fulfilling project, but also the most fulfilling friendship. So, you just want to keep friendship at the top of the list.”
If cross collaborations weren’t enough, the 26-yearold artist also launched her very own record label, Saddest Factory Records. In next to no time, the partnership label, with Dead Oceans Records, signed up bedroom pop pioneer Claud Mintz. Just the mention of the artist’s name has Phoebe beaming with pride. “It feels so awesome. Claud is getting things that I didn’t even get on Punisher. I am so proud of it and I was feeling totally out of my depth with a lot of stuff, but this is my whole job and it’s fun,” she tells me. “Also, Claud made all their own album art and has video concepts every fucking day. It was a super rewarding project to watch blossom. It was like ‘Oh, this is your cool art, this is your cool video, and I guess I’ll like to put my name on it and let you do your thing.’ I’m just so proud of them. It’s really intense to put out a record, especially right now it’s exhausting, and they did everything right.” So, when we ask Phoebe what her proudest career moment is, it’s no surprise Claud’s name crops us again. “Seeing Claud on a giant Billboard, we knew that was gonna be cool,” she says. Taking a minute, she mulls over the question. “My proudest moment... I think that I’ve had a lot of proud moments. But it’s that feeling of when it’s over when you’ve done all the hard work, and you realize that you worked really hard - that’s my favourite. After SNL, for example, when you’re in a dressing room, with all your friends who just got tested like 1500 times, it’s very special and we felt very lucky. In such a weird time being very careful, so it was special to cheer backstage like, we were so nervous we almost shit ourselves, and now it’s over. You don’t expect the way it’s gonna emotionally affect you. You’re like ‘Oh my god, we did it, we’re done’, and now the fun part happens.”