boygenius (Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus) join Zane Lowe in-studio on Apple Music 1 for a conversation about their debut studio album, 'the record'. The group reflects on bands that influenced their life and shaped the sounds they produce today. The band also explains how their dynamic is set up to allow each member the space to be creative, make mistakes, and come together to produce an authentic body of work that reflects them as individuals.
boygenius on Manifesting Their Dreams...
Lucy Dacus: I would just watch bands with rage being like, one day. One day it'll be me. One day it'll be me.
Julien Baker: Yeah. Me at the skate park wondering if the guitarist from my favorite band would get struck by lightning and they would need to fill in at that moment.
boygenius Share Their Most Formative Early Live Shows…
Lucy Dacus: I saw Broken Social Scene in 2011, changed everything.
Phoebe Bridgers: I think honestly, it was Alison Mosshart. Watching The Kills and Dead Weather and just being like… What a time. Just also her stage present and Alice Glass. Alice Glass I saw with a broken leg at Coachella still moshing in the Crystal Castle's mosh pit. I was just...completely floored.
Julien Baker on How boygenius is Rooted in Friendship…
Julien Baker: Our friendship coalesced at the same time as our band, which is what makes it feel like, and y'all both have intimated this, but practicing music with your friends after school. The reason why I know my best friend, Matt, of over a decade who plays with me in my live band is because we were hanging out and I found out he played drums and I played guitar. So why wouldn't we just hang out? And then we hung out every single day and now I can't imagine my life without him. But no, yeah, the reason why we hung out was because we both had emotional needs fulfilled and needed to communicate a part of ourselves fulfilled by the vehicle of music that we were both passionate about. And I feel the same way about these guys.
boygenius Tell Apple Music About The Importance of Consensus and the Band’s Dynamic…
Lucy Dacus: We had an overt rule that we wouldn't do things if two out of three were into it. It had to be three out of three. So, consensus. Well, sometimes there's two who really see the vision... And to the third, you're just like, “Please?
Julien Baker: I am very inspired by these guys. They make me want to be excellent at my craft.
Lucy Dacus: I've definitely been a part of things that I felt less precious about, and this was just impossible to fumble, I think.
Phoebe Bridgers: I always like when y'all tell me, "You can beat it.” "That's good, but there's probably something better." And I'll be like, "All right, bet. Let's find it.”
boygenius Tell Apple Music About Recording in Los Angeles…
Julien Baker: We did yoga every morning at Shangri-La in Malibu, like the most magical, most LA s**t ever.
Lucy Dacus: It's like a sensory deprivation tank, all white and just the ocean, and we're doing yoga every morning.
boygenius on How They Approach Live Shows...
Lucy Dacus: My take is that not only is perfection meaningless, it's also uninteresting. And I think you should never shoot for a 100% good show. People don't even want it. You should shoot for a 90%. Not shoot for anything, just a 90% good show. There's all that room for reality and personality. And I don't know, sometimes when I've forgotten my own lyrics and the crowd comes and saves me and sings for me... There's just an engagement. And also act, to keep people's expectations low, safe.
Phoebe Bridgers: The shows are the best part to us right now. I just can't wait to get on stage again. We've done so much prep and so much work and it's so revitalizing to hear people sing this record. I put out my last record in the middle of the pandemic, and there was such a latent thing with actually seeing kids respond to it. It was almost like going on a reunion tour for something because it had been so long so to put something out and immediately have everybody memorize it is so special and I literally can't wait so I don't know. I think we're all individually good at, I think we're good at tour all three of us.
Lucy Dacus: If we stop having fun, it's over, yeah. We've tried to make all of our decisions around protecting the enjoyment of it so we're touring a lot less than any of us have ever toured something, even though it's the biggest shows that any of us have ever played.
