The one author Phoebe Bridgers can’t live without
With just 28 years and two albums on her resume, Phoebe Bridgers has climbed the rungs to the pinnacle of the indie rock world with her highly accessible compositions and endlessly smooth and absorbing lyrics. Bridgers has also made a name for herself as a “serial collaborator”, having worked alongside Fiona Apple, Lorde, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The 1975, Taylor Swift and dozens more.
Bridgers’ music builds upon influences past and present, bringing a modern touch to traditional folk and rock styles. In a feature published in The Strategist, Bridgers was asked to discuss some of the things she simply can’t live without. Interestingly, no CDs or records appear within her ten selections, but most pertain to her insatiable thirst for musical and lyrical creation.
With busy touring schedules, dates to keep with fiancé Paul Mescal and creative ideas cropping up and swirling around her mind at inconvenient moments, Bridgers sensibly picked out a notepad and a planner as two of her most important possessions.
Once said ideas are noted down and developed, Bridgers uses an iZotope Spire Studio Portable Recorder to record raw demos of her new material. “Since 2018, I’ve made all of my demos on this thing,” she said of the deceive. “I’m a really bad engineer, so I need simplicity — I’ve always been obsessed with voice memos, and this is just a souped-up version of that. It’s just got one giant button you push to record, and then you engineer yourself on your phone. It has saved my ass, and I recommend it to everybody. It’s also a preamp, so I’ve been plugging different mics into it and not even touching my laptop when recording or doing radio sessions at home.”
Elsewhere, Bridgers revealed that she uses a children’s toy microphone for casual and occasional professional use. “[The Hape Mighty Echo] is a microphone for little kids that makes a cool sound,” she said. “I like it because I’m not a huge gearhead, but I want things to immediately sound good, and this provides an instant little echo even though it’s totally a toy. It doesn’t plug in anywhere, it literally just has a spring inside that makes the sound. It’s fun to run around the house singing into it. I used mine on Jimmy Kimmel, and I’ve seen people using them on Instagram. They look awesome, although they kind of look like a Fleshlight?”
On the topic of adult toys, one of Bridgers’ other selections was the space-saving Sportsheets Unity Vibe Mini Vibrator, which apparently packs quite a punch for its limited, travel-friendly stature.
“I respect the gadgetry of the vibrator world, but I want something super simple,” the singer continued. “This one is small, so you’re not afraid it’s going to, like, explode out of your bag if you travel with it. It’s a nonintimidating choice, whether you’re a beginner or not — I’m not. I’ve tried others that are bigger and more exciting-looking, but then I try to shove one into my bag, and it turns on at weird times.”
While Bridgers didn’t reveal any of her myriad musical influences in her selections, she revealed her favourite author as a guiding light. Margaret Atwood Teaches Creative Writing is an extensive online teaching course helmed by the celebrated author of The Handmaid’s Tale and Surfacing.
“I’d been thinking a lot about Margaret Atwood — her book Oryx and Crake predicted a lot of this pandemic — when I got an ad for her MasterClass (Margaret Atwood Teaches Creative Writing). I was like, Oh shit, this is the best-targeted ad ever. She’s my favourite author. I love listening to her talk, and I didn’t go to college, so it’s been fun to have homework but be able to do it on my own time. I’m secretly hoping I’ll get songs out of it, like I did from reading Oryx and Crake. On the new album, ‘I Know the End’ and ‘Chinese Satellite’ are both inspired by Atwood’s writing.”
Listen to the Margaret Atwood-inspired ‘I Know the End’ below.
