Why PHOEBE BRIDGERS Became An Indie Darling

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  1. The argument for her ubiquity is the guest list: two solo records, an all-female supergroup, production for other artists, and features alongside Lorde, Hiro, Fiona Apple, The National, Kid Cudi, Bright Eyes, The 1975 and Hayley Williams.
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  2. She learned a few chords from her father and made money busking for hours at the farmers market, coffee shops and street corners as a child.
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  3. She studied vocal jazz in high school and paid rent in Los Angeles with commercial gigs for Apple, Taco Bell and HomeGoods while working on her own music.
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  4. Her first momentum came through Ryan Adams, who called her the next Bob Dylan and produced her EP, and the short relationship that followed became the basis for Motion Sickness.
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  5. She opened for Julien Baker and then Conor Oberst, signed to Dead Oceans in 2017, and released Stranger in the Alps that year.
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  6. That debut was written after a period of depression, and John Mayer's reaction to hearing Funeral was to tweet that a giant had arrived.
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  7. boygenius came together in 2018 simply because she, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus wanted to write together, and the EP worked as a therapy group for the three of them.
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  8. Better Oblivion Community Center with Conor Oberst, features on The National and Fiona Apple tracks, four appearances on a 1975 album and producing her bandmate's debut all happened while the second album was being made.
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  9. The description of her sound is precise: country-tinged indie folk rock with electronic undertones, instrumentals that sound like they are decaying or barely holding together, with the writing rather than the music carrying the weight.
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  10. Where the debut sat in trauma, Punisher documents working through it, covering dissociation, family, nostalgia, lucid dreaming, space and death while staying coherent because all of it is hers.
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