The albums that inspired Phoebe Bridgers to write music
Between her moonlit solo work and her collaborations with Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker in the indie supergroup Boygenius, Phoebe Bridgers has become one of the biggest names in modern music. Donning her iconic skeleton costume and a trusty guitar, she channels her honest experiences of loneliness and love into otherworldly soundscapes. Her vulnerability has endeared her to a whole generation of girls, many of whom have been inspired to pick up a guitar themselves.
Bridgers has become a leading figure in the modern sad girl indie craze, but she owes her vulnerable guitar music to the original folk sad girl: Joni Mitchell. During an interview with Records In My Life, the singer-songwriter picked out Mitchell’s 1971 album, Blue, as one of the albums that inspired her to begin making music at the tender age of 11.
It’s not difficult to see how Mitchell’s songwriting has had a lasting impact on Bridgers’ own catalogue. Between her soft, folk-tinged guitar tones and achingly vulnerable lyrics, Mitchell paved the way for the modern wave of women with guitars. Bridgers also picked out Jackson Browne’s acclaimed second album, For Everyman, before sharing her love for Neil Young and Tom Waits.
“I had pretty much every Neil Young album, Tom Waits album. Just kind of what my parents were listening to,” she recalled. In Young’s blending of genre, from folk to country, and his vulnerable, intimate lyrics, it’s easy to see why Bridgers was drawn to him. He also provided a formative moment in her growing love of music, as he was the first artist she saw live.
“My first real concert was Neil Young,” she recalled to Under The Radar, “I can’t remember how old I was. I’d probably been to concerts before, but not having been a fan first. [At home, there was] lots of Neil Young. Lots of Lauren Canyon music. Lots of Van Morrison. I’d seen The Last Waltz about 1,000 times before I was a functioning adult.”
Bridgers’ early influences, like many young music fans, were entirely based on her parents’ taste. It was only when she got to high school that she discovered more popular genres: “It kind of went backwards because then in high school I kind of was like, ‘Oh wait, pop-punk and emo are a thing. That’s crazy.’ I totally like missed out on my age group’s music.”
Though she doesn’t name it as one of her initial influences, Bridgers suggests that Rubber Soul is the ultimate album to introduce kids to music through: “I think that’s a great introduction to everything record, like, if you have no preconceived notions of music, probably that’s a good introduction.”
Between her tender lyrics and guitar-driven soundscapes, it’s easy to see how all of those influences came together to form Bridgers’ indie sound for a modern audience. Find the list of albums that inspired Bridgers to write music below.
The albums that inspired Phoebe Bridgers:
- Blue by Joni Mitchell (1971)
- For Everyman by Jackson Browne (1973)
- Every Neil Young album
- Every Tom Waits album
