The song that transformed Phoebe Bridgers: ‘Poison Oak’
I might put out a missing person’s search party for Phoebe Bridgers at this point. Who releases a defining indie pop album of the ages and, apart from a quick stint in a supergroup, then completely vanishes?
It’s quite frankly a crime against humanity, if you ask me. But putting my personal grievances aside for just a second, there’s no denying that for what she has produced, Bridgers has become one of the most blazing forces in all of indie. Yet, just like any artist of her calibre, there are always the heroes who have guided her along the way.
Many people will consider their teenage years the most pivotal era for their musical tastes to align, and Bridgers is no different in this respect. But in her case, it took a fair amount of resistance and pushing back before she finally gave in to the indulgence of the band who eventually became her brightest guiding light. It was all simply because she wanted to move against the grain.
But nevertheless, the singer did finally concede that the song ‘Poison Oak’ by the defining Nebraska band Bright Eyes was the one elixir which truly transported her to another world, and thus showed her the limitless possibilities that her future could hold. In a young person’s classic way, however, she didn’t want to admit that at first.
Later, she confessed in a 2018 interview how pivotal ‘Poison Oak’ had been to her during her formative years, as she said: “This wasn’t the first Bright Eyes song I heard, but it was the first one I discovered that wasn’t being shoved down my throat by all of my very close friends. I’d loved the music, but this was a real self-discovery, and it totally crushed me. I immediately learned it on guitar and memorised the lyrics.”
So, what changed to make Bright Eyes suddenly climb from zero to heroes? In essence, it was the fact that they cultivated something so rare and unique in their songwriting, only previously to be found in Bridgers’ favourite classic artists like Neil Young and Jackson Browne, compared to the “total shit” her friends typically listened to.
“Then I heard this band Bright Eyes that everybody was obsessed with and I was like ‘Oh my God, these lyrics remind me of all the stuff I love, all my favourite songwriters’,” Bridgers said, and suddenly, a new passion was born. No longer was current music so dreary, or mechanical, or monotonous – it could be truly exciting and inventive, as ‘Poison Oak’ became the poster child in her sights.
Although the likes of Young and Browne could most obviously have their rubber-stamped place, it was a 2005 indie folk tune that really got the cogs of Bridgers’ mind turning, expanding her sonic horizons with the realisation that new music represented something far more than mere drudgery.
In this sense, without the mystical words of Bright Eyes, we may never have had the singer to take our own inspiration from in today’s landscape. But, Bright Eyes, if you’re reading this, can I ask a favour – would you be able to work your magic once more to get Bridgers back in the studio again?
