With that album alone, she was currently greeted as one of the most interesting, guaranteed young songwriters freshly on the scene. In just a handful of years, she’s released a number of albums, already developing up a varied and complicated body of work.
That makes Punisher a funny proposal: It concurrently doesn’t feel like a sophomore album at all offered Bridgers’ output and how well we’ve familiarized her songwriting, however likewise like a sophomore album that gets here with even more pressure and attention than the normal highly-anticipated second outing. The bright side is that Punisher provides in all the ways one may hope. It follows a few of the same structures and methods as Stranger In The Alps, but refines and broadens and deepens them.
While there is a subtle intricacy to Punisher musically– sporadic or meditative compositions gently decorated by orchestration, unusual outliers like the catchy “Kyoto” or the climactic “I Know The End” widening the album’s scope– Bridgers is more of a lyrics-first artist. Throughout Punisher, her words are biting, funny, open-hearted, healing, turning from unflinching sincerity one moment to a sardonic punchline the next.
There are ways you can hear broad, generational conditions in her writing. A sense of drift, being young today and looking for to understand when you’ll actually feel present in your own life. But Bridgers’ albums are quite rooted in her own personal experience. A few years after Stranger In The Alps, Bridgers’ life has altered a great deal, and a lot of Punisher faces how you set about accepting that when the usual demons still follow you.
We recently caught up with Bridgers, who was calling from house in LA during quarantine. She walked us through each tune on Punisher, from inspiration to songwriting choices to the host of guests that accompanied her. Now that you can hear Punisher for yourself, checked out along below to get the stories behind the album.
1. “DVD Menu” And 2. “Garden Song”
STEREOGUM: Punisher starts with an important track, and after that “Garden Song” is the correct opener and the lead single. Why did that a person seem like the intro to the album in both circumstances?
PHOEBE BRIDGERS: I believe it seemed like a bridge from my last record to this record, and likewise my lead single to the first record was “Smoke Signals,” which is truly comparable in form and topic. This one is sort of the follow up to that. It simply felt not too strange, not too different from the music I make, and I was proud of it– it stood out to me. It has the least stuff on it however it’s still extremely produced. The instruments and the voices, we were very particular about those things. We wanted it to be sparse. I’m never going to release a fucking pop tune that goes on the radio so I was like, “Let’s welcome it and release whatever we desire initially.”
STEREOGUM: Right, I remember it being referred to as a spiritual cousin to “Smoke Signals.” When you say “follow up,” do you believe it literally responds to back to that tune?
BRIDGERS: I believe it’s simply another love tune. “Smoke Signals” is a love tune about getting up to your reality, in a manner, finding somebody who shares the same interests as you. This song is more about how– at the threat of being corny– manifesting things the more you think about stuff. The more your actions might push towards the things you want occurring. It’s a love tune, for sure, but it’s also about myself– my own development.
STEREOGUM: I checked out something just recently about how you work on your albums in order. Does that mean you composed this at an early stage, and you couldn’t write the others until this was finished or more like, you envision the album in a particular series and need to complete each one because order?
I think it’s also due to the fact that I compose the exact same song over and over and over. I would have a new tune, and Tony [Berg] and Ethan [Gruska], my producers, would be like, “Perhaps we need an uptempo tune next” and we would turn whatever song I had into that. I started it before any other tune and I completed it after the whole album was done.
STEREOGUM: I know you’re drawing on your own life frequently. Are you the sort of individual where, you enter into the album thinking like “This tune is where the story starts, this song is where the story ends?”
Tunes like “Moon Song” and “Savior Complex,” when I wrote them, they felt like different versions of each other. I think about styles when I think about order, but like, I’ve never ever written a principle album.
STEREOGUM: So the very first album catalogued an earlier, more youthful passage of your life, and this one handle the last a number of years of touring and being around the globe. You’ve likewise stated the styles of the album are “crying” and “feeling numb.” Does that describe the things that still follows you as your life modifications, or were you reckoning with brand-new trials?
BRIDGERS: Kind of the opposite. That’s what this record feels like, someone who started to go to therapy and work out some of the things you can’t change about yourself no matter your circumstances.
3. “Kyoto”.
STEREOGUM: Sort of connected to that, you have actually described “Kyoto” as “living outdoors your body when cool shit is happening.” Which is, regrettably, a sensation I can very much relate to. I was questioning how much that concept goes through the remainder of the album.
BRIDGERS: I think it goes through pretty much every tune except for maybe “Moon Tune” or “Graceland Too.” It’s a theme I keep coming back to. The tune I composed for boygenius, “Ketchum, ID,” where it’s like, “I am never anywhere I go.” It’s completely that feeling, and I know a great deal of individuals feel it. Yeah, having a huge to-do list of things to do in Japan. I had a master list and I spent a great deal of time simply gazing at the ceiling. And likewise, each time I left the hotel, I felt fantastic. I was so glad that I did, however it was difficult to develop the motivation to do anything. If I have too many alternatives, often I get stuck. I need people around me who are strong leaders.
STEREOGUM: There’s a scene in Japan and a scene back home in California. Why was it Japan specifically?
BRIDGERS: Due to the fact that it was the most stark example. Just kinda taken in by other bullshit. You come home and you’re like, “Well, where do I desire to be, because I do not want to be here either.”.
STEREOGUM: I know you stated some tunes kind of musically establish according to what’s required. It’s likewise this particular set of styles and images positioned into the big uptempo indie tune on Punisher.
BRIDGERS: Both. It advised me lyrically of Replacements tunes, which I’ve always liked. I’ve constantly loved that category, and I constantly want to lean into it more because I feel like I can compose a lot of dirges.
4. “Punisher”.
STEREOGUM: The title track comes from the idea of a “punisher” in trip life, this archetype of a fan who’s a little too enthusiastic, remains at the merch table too long, that kinda thing. You were putting yourself in that character here.
BRIDGERS: I believe everybody believes what they have to say is the most interesting. I have an opposite reaction to it now, but I absolutely, for many of my life, was a punisher. She waved to me in a group of individuals and I ran away due to the fact that I was so scared that I would be simply another individual telling her how inspiring she is, whatever.
STEREOGUM: There’s also this Elliott Smith thread, picturing remaining in that position with him. Why was it this song that seemed like the title track?
BRIDGERS: It kinda does not. It simply summarizes me, or– it sums up a lot about my personality. I resembled, “Should this album be self-titled?” and was like, “Nah. I’ll use a descriptor word rather.” When I wrote the tune I thought, “Damn that’s type of a metal album title.” And it’s sort of a hot word.
5. “Halloween”.
STEREOGUM: You’ve got a lot of buddies on this album, however Conor Oberst sings at the end of this one. I was thinking about the interaction of your songwriting being rather insular, solo, and after that on this one you generated these various good friends you have actually accrued for many years, like Conor, and Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus. Is that sort of typical happenstance, or does it serve any sort of function in regards to summarizing these last couple years leading up to the album?
BRIDGERS: It’s simply strange to be surrounded by people who have the precise very same task as me, where it does not strike Conor as odd to be singing dark shit like that. The song was birthed from, basically, the very first time I ever hung out with Christian Lee Hutson, who’s now one of my finest buddies.
A year and a half later on, I was dissatisfied with some of the lyrics and I was still attempting to work out why. It was a simple unfortunate love tune or something. Conor was like, “Well you constantly discuss the murders at Dodgers Stadium.” Fans eliminating each other. It’s always been this fixation of mine– well, I guess, murders in basic are such a dark obsession but that a person specifically. It’s so dark, that most people just want to have a hotdog and view a game however individuals are so worked up that they can kill someone who does not concur with them. About a fucking sport. So he was like, “You must put that in the tune,” and I resembled, “No way, that’s way too dark. Come on.” Weirdly, all my buddies, from the first day, were in on the individual nature of the entire record, but particularly this song.
STEREOGUM: In terms of the years leading up to this album, and all the partnerships you have actually had, several of them were like the one with Conor, where you formed a new band. But then you likewise sang on a bunch of tunes on the new 1975 album, where it ‘d seem more like you were delving into someone else’s world for a little while. Conor’s certainly an impact of yours, however the 1975 are peers who do something rather different. Have you discovered yourself bringing anything unexpected back into your own world from that type of experience?
BRIDGERS: The Conor one was unusual. I always feel like the fifth drafts are the finest. On the flipside, that was a terrific workout and now I do feel comfy doing that, due to the fact that everyone’s first draft is a little cringe.
The 1975, they will inform each other jokes and then be like, “That’s a terrific lyric.” Rather of then being like, “I’ll attempt to write that,” Matty writes in the studio, like a rapper. There is no thought between “That’s crazy” and “Let’s do it,” it’s like, “Oh my god, we need to do that since I had the obsession.” It’s an incredibly relaxing environment to be around. I want to get utilized to do doing more shit like that.
6. “Chinese Satellite”.
STEREOGUM: We currently talked about the idea of being outside yourself in “Kyoto” and how that runs through the album. I kind of heard the line in “Chinese Satellite” as something of a– it feels a little weird to say “mission statement” in this context however you know what I suggest.
BRIDGERS: [Laughs] Yeah it is the overarching concept. I feel like I say it so lots of times in various words throughout the album. I’m continuously attempting to shake awake, you know?
STEREOGUM: Is that something you feel improved for you over time, in the years these tunes happened, or in the process of composing and taping these? Or perhaps now you do not feel as if you have actually arrived.
BRIDGERS: I don’t feel like you ever actually show up. I feel like I have actually deserted years and years of treatment and getting better. Yeah, I feel like I’m gradually getting better but I’m not out.
STEREOGUM: It brings me back to “Kyoto” again, like you got the important things you were trying to get–.
BRIDGERS: And now what.
STEREOGUM: Exactly.
7. “Moon Tune”.
STEREOGUM: This has the unforgettable “Tears In Paradise”/ John Lennon lyric. I was in fact considering this when “I See You” came out: At the very same time I seem like people value the humor in your music, it’s still often pointed out in this almost reductive method like, “The albums are sad and moving however her Twitter’s amusing.” The same way individuals state that about like, Jason Isbell or somebody.
However this line in “Moon Song,” it’s a technique, this blend of poignant and sad and mundane and funny. Like you said, if your fifth draft is the best, how much of this belongs to the modifying procedure, making certain there’s these more cutting lines or a little sardonic stuff to blend it all up?
BRIDGERS: I really seem like sometimes those are the ones that come first. It’s practically thinking of a tweet but you’re like, “Wait this is not a tweet.” I really tweeted “pretending to be myself” and deleted it, I believed it was quite sick. If it’s a tweet that sounds lyrical, I’ll put it in my notes and select it up later. Often writing songs is just informing myself jokes.
If you listen to my voice stating something I believe is funny it’s not going to be– you know what I mean? I don’t blame people for not truly getting it, because it’s in this bed of unusual heartbreaking orchestration– specifically on this tune. And then it’s like, I truly do hate Eric Clapton and I simply desired to dig at him.
8. “Savior Complex”.
STEREOGUM: You wrote this one in a dream.
BRIDGERS: [Laughs] Yeah, I composed the melody in a dream, and it sounds so romantic but in reality the voice memo is like[makes ghostly wheezing sound] Like the most disturbing deep-sleep-rollover-turn-on-your-phone voice. It’s so creepy.
STEREOGUM: Does that occur to you a lot?
BRIDGERS: No, it
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