Boygenius may be on hiatus, but its three members — Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker — are each pursuing solo work that reveals just how much creative range exists within the supergroup. In separate conversations, each artist reflects on what comes after the collective experience and how it has changed their individual approaches.
Phoebe Bridgers: “I Needed to Be Uncomfortable Again”
“Boygenius was the safest creative space I have ever been in,” Bridgers says from her home in Los Angeles. “Which sounds like a contradiction, because we pushed each other hard. But there was a net underneath. Lucy and Julien would catch me if I fell. Going back to solo work means removing that net, and honestly, I needed that. I needed to be uncomfortable again.”
Her upcoming solo album, her third, is reportedly a departure from the indie-folk sound that defined “Punisher.” “I have been listening to a lot of electronic music,” she reveals. “Autechre, Aphex Twin, early Bjork. I am not making an electronic album, but those textures are finding their way in. The songs are still sad — I am still me — but the way they sound is different.”
Lucy Dacus: “Writing From a Place of Stability”
Dacus, speaking by phone from her home in Philadelphia, describes her post-Boygenius creative period as unexpectedly productive. “I wrote 40 songs in the six months after we decided to take a break. It was like a dam breaking. Some of them are good. Many of them are terrible. But the act of writing that much taught me things about my process that I did not know.”
She characterizes the new material as warmer and more outward-looking than her previous work. “My first three solo records were very interior. They were about processing my own experiences. The new songs are more interested in other people — their stories, their contradictions, the ways they surprise me. I think Boygenius taught me how to be a better listener, and that is showing up in the writing.”
Julien Baker: “The Heaviness Is Still There”
Baker, reached during a tour stop in Nashville, is characteristically direct about her creative direction. “People keep asking if the next record will be heavier or lighter, and I do not think in those terms. The heaviness is not a choice I make — it is what the songs demand. If a song needs distortion and screaming, it gets distortion and screaming. If it needs a piano and silence, it gets that.”
She credits the Boygenius experience with teaching her the value of restraint. “When you are in a band with two other people who are incredible songwriters, you learn when to step back. You learn that not every moment needs your guitar or your voice. That discipline has carried over into the solo work. I am leaving more space in the arrangements, trusting the songs to breathe.”
Will Boygenius Return?
All three artists are deliberately vague about a timeline for reconvening. “It is not over,” Bridgers says simply. “But it has to happen organically. If we force it, it will not be Boygenius anymore.” Dacus and Baker echo the sentiment, with Baker adding, “The best thing about this band is that nobody needs it. We all have fulfilling solo careers. We come together because we want to, not because we have to. That is the whole point.”
