Phoebe Bridgers: Listen to Our Revealing, Hilarious Podcast Interview

Singer/songwriter Phoebe Bridgers, who made one of the best albums of the year with June’s Punisher, talks about her songwriting process, her influences, her many collaborations, her future, and much more in a deep and funny conversation with host Brian Hiatt on the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now.

To hear the entire interview, press play below, or download and subscribe on iTunes or Spotify.

Bridgers, who named her new record label Saddest Factory and has written some of the most sublime sad songs of recent years, touched on her self-aware relationship with sadness. “I think sadness is very funny,” she says. “Depression is funny to me because it’s the least singular thing on earth. It’s the human experience, unless you’re an idiot. And I think most people aren’t idiots and experience some form of sadness or depression. But when you are really depressed, you’re like, ‘Ah, God, why did you forsake me?’ It’s like, it’s everybody! So taking it a little bit less seriously has always been funny to me. I like comedians and musicians who do that, which is funny because Elliott [Smith] didn’t take it really seriously. He seems like a goofball in real life, which I appreciate.”

She also explained why she relates to Billie Eilish’s recently expressed pride in getting even “one whole song” written during the pandemic. “I probably wrote two whole songs,” Bridgers says. “And it’s been three times as much time [as usual].  I was talking shit about myself about how slow I am with writing. And then one of my friends was like, ‘No, you’re just deliberate.’ And I actually agree with that.”

Download and subscribe to our weekly podcast, Rolling Stone Music Now, hosted by Brian Hiatt, on iTunes or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts), and check out three years’ worth of episodes in the archive, including in-depth, career-spanning interviews with Bruce Springsteen, Halsey, Neil Young, the National, Questlove, Julian Casablancas, Sheryl Crow, Johnny Marr, Scott Weiland, Alice Cooper, Fleetwood Mac, Elvis Costello, Donald Fagen, Phil Collins, Alicia Keys, Stephen Malkmus, Sebastian Bach, Tom Petty, Kelly Clarkson, Pete Townshend, Bob Seger, the Zombies, Gary Clark Jr., and many more — plus dozens of episodes featuring genre-spanning discussions, debates, and explainers with Rolling Stone’s critics and reporters. Tune in every Friday at 1 p.m. ET to hear Rolling Stone Music Now broadcast on SiriusXM’s Volume, channel 106.