The crucial advice Conor Oberst gave Phoebe Bridgers
California-born singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers has become one of the most important names in indie over the last decade. After touring with Julien Baker and Conor Oberst, she rose to acclaim with the release of her debut album Stranger in the Alps, a collection of emotionally vulnerable lyrics soundtracked by soft indie guitar and named after a line from The Big Lebowski.
Between Stranger in the Alps and its follow-up album Punisher, Bridgers formed an indie folk supergroup with Baker and Lucy Dacus called Boygenius. Their self-titled first EP became a soft girl staple, which they followed up with The Record earlier this year. She also formed a collaboration with Bright Eyes founder Conor Oberst. The project, named Better Oblivion Community Center, saw the duo release a self-titled album characterised by vocal harmonies and folky guitar.
But before they became musical collaborators, Oberst gave Bridgers a piece of advice she would go on to think about “every day”. In an interview with GQ, the musician names Oberst’s words as the first advice she took seriously. She recalls: “I think this was the piece of advice that, in the moment, I believed in the quickest”.
Bridgers sets the scene – she was opening for Oberst in 2017 on his European tour, and the two were standing out in the rain in Germany: “He was smoking a cigarette. And he was like, ‘Do you want to start a band?’ and I thought he was fucking with me. It would be months before I realised he was serious”.
She continues: “He was like, ‘I would never say this to people who could misconstrue it, but the honest to god truth about making the right decision with your music is if you think it’s cool. You have to really know it’s good, and know it’s cool,’ and by that time, I had put shit out where someone else told me it was cool… I was listening to a lot of other people’s advice and going by whatever other people wanted.”
But Oberst assured her: “If you think it’s cool, then people who don’t like it will just bounce off of you because you’ll inherently disagree with them. If you disagree with shitty reviews, it means you don’t like what you made. And when you read something good about it, you’ll be like, ‘Oh, I agree with this person.’ And it’s a great feeling, and it’s the route of making decisions.”
Bridgers states that she “totally believes that” and reflects on liking Punisher much more than Stranger in the Alps accordingly. Her sophomore album saw her expand upon her debut, moving into darker, harsher places with tracks like ‘I Know The End’, which features her screamed vocals. The LP gained widespread acclaim, including three Grammy nominations.
This philosophy seems to have dominated Bridgers’ philosophy and her success for the last few years. From smashing her guitar on SNL to her distinctive skeleton outfit, she has taken control of what’s cool.
