Boygenius open up on their friendship and the “sh***y” parts of fame
Indie supergroup Boygenius have opened up on the “respite” of their friendship and the “shitty” parts of fame. Formed in 2018, the band consists of Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, with the trio releasing their debut studio album, The Record, on March 31st.
“My favourite thing about this band is that it’s fun for me, it’s a respite for me,” Baker said in a new interview with The Guardian. “My real-life friendships with you both are among the dearest relationships in my life,” she told her two bandmates.
Baker expressed that releasing an album is “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. I was super-anxious there wouldn’t be time to cultivate our friendship. I was precious and protective of it.”
However, the band have maintained a closeness through sharing common experiences in the face of fame’s difficulties. “I feel like what we talk about the most is the shitty parts of this amazing thing that we get to do, we get to not feel isolated,” Bridgers explained. “Or ungrateful,” Dacus added.
Phoebe Bridgers then revealed that she is currently the “most grateful” she’s ever been in life and that her anger at the configuration of fame has made her grateful to be able to express her thoughts. She said: “I’m the most grateful I’ve ever been in my life. And my anger at the ways that fame is set up has only made me more grateful to be able to articulate those things – the ‘Beatles getting out of a car trope’ [footage of the band surrounded by screaming fans]. Personal space. Surveillance.”
All three Boygenius members have previously discussed invasions and privacy. “I think the imperative thing is [people liking us] with distance and respect,” Bridgers continued. “There are sinister manifestations of it that we don’t need to get into, because we have before, but loving something that somebody made is cool and I feel grateful that people care. Shit that lights a fire in you is the stuff of life.”
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