Page 41 - FLIPMAG.NET
P. 41
PHOEBE BRIDGERS
Given that Bridgers’ 2015 debut EP Killer
features just her voice and an acoustic guitar, it’s
striking to note how little acoustic there is on
Punisher, with its only prominent appearance
occurring on penultimate track Graceland Too.
Has she fallen out of love with flat-tops?
“Hilariously, I actually feel the opposite,” she
says, with a laugh. “I’m always like, ‘Damn, I should
just play acoustic’. Graceland Too was one of the
last songs I recorded, and it was me being like,
‘Goddammit, I just love acoustic guitar so much’.
I get so excited in the studio. But towards the end
of the record, I just wanted some regular fucking
acoustic guitar! Then we were halfway through the
song and we were like, ‘What if we plugged it into
the iPad?!’ I can’t just keep things simple.
“I always want to be able to make something
different and to feel challenged. I’m trying and failing
to learn piano right now, and anytime I even learn a
new chord, it’ll spawn five songs in me. I’m just trying
to do more shit like that. Maybe the next record will
be all acoustic, and maybe the record after that will
have no acoustic. I love experimenting, which is weird
because I’m terrified of change!”
PRESSING ONWARDS
At the moment, the music press feels like an endless
parade of cancelled tours and deferred albums, and
it’s having an impact on artists just as much as fans.
Bridgers should be gearing up for her huge US arena
tour with The 1975 but, like the rest of us, she’s
instead trying to make the best of the little she’s
GOING DARKER been left with.
It’s not much of a stretch to say that, from the “I had so many plans that are just gone,” she says,
moment Bridgers’ strapped on a Danelectro baritone forlornly. “What’s so terrifying and exciting right
during the Strangers In The Alps sessions and quickly now is that anything could change. If you told me
fell in love with it, she has single-handedly made that, a year from now, I’ll start a completely different
baritone guitars cool again, particularly in the band and play underground punk shows to people
alternative sphere. in hazmat suits, I’d believe you. If you told me that
Given that the distinctive instrument has become music festivals will exist again and I’ll be playing
such a sonic hallmark of her various projects since, them, I would also be stoked. I feel pretty open.”
it’s no surprise that the Dano has replaced a battered One thing she can be sure about, however, is
old nylon-string as Phoebe’s first-choice writing Punisher’s release date. At a time when so many
implement. “I have it plugged in at home,” she says. artists are putting new releases on hold until they
“I don’t even use a pedalboard with it, because are able to tour them, Phoebe’s take on the issue
it’s kind of hard on pedals. I just plug it into my amp is honest and affirming.
and write. There’s something about the key of it, it “I was going back and forth about it,” she says.
just manages to make everything sound darker and “I feel like I should just press on because that was
less Americana. I can write folk songs on it that sound the plan. I just want to keep myself sane, keep making
nothing like folk songs. If I’m covering a song and shit. Because, you know, if for some reason touring
want it to sound like my version, all I have to do is it isn’t realistic, what will my life turn into? I’ll still
plug in a baritone. want to make records. I’m just trying to keep a level
“For want of a better term, it just feels more like head. I want to be the artist that I want to see in the
tape to me. It feels like you’re listening to something world – and I want to put the album out because I
that’s been run off a tape rather than an output at a want people to still get their music out there.”
studio. It feels raw, almost to the point that it’s wrong.
But I just love how dark it sounds. Punisher is out 19 June on Dead Oceans
GUITAR MAGAZINE 41
