‘Sex, friends, rock ’n’ roll’: boygenius Rewrites the Rules of Rock Stardom

BY ERIN OSMON

Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker grimaced as they thought about their time together ending. “I hate that,” Dacus, 28, declared. “That’s so dumb.”

On Oct. 31 at the Hollywood Bowl, the trio, who perform as Boygenius, will play the final show of a tour that began in April. For most, it would be a triumphant end to months of highs, but these three women would prefer lower stakes for their last hurrah. “If we were ending in Nowheresville, it could be more loose and we could emotionally connect with the last shows,” Bridgers, 29, explained. “But we’re going to black out from playing MSG [Madison Square Garden] and the Bowl for the first time.”

They’re gathered in the control room of Studio B at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, a historic setting where Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks recorded their “Buckingham Nicks” album in 1973 and joined Fleetwood Mac in the process.

Boygenius is also here to record music, presumably, but the band won’t confirm it. “It’s fair to say that we do inhabit the studio a lot,” Baker offered, a polite obfuscation. Dressed in varying combinations of black and white, with Bridgers’ Black pug, Maxine, snorting gently in her lap, the trio thought back on some of the major events of 2023.

The threesome’s debut album, “The Record,” released on March 31, reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200. Like its 2018 self-titled debut EP, the album garnered near-unanimous praise; Taylor Swift called it “genuinely a masterpiece” in an Instagram Story. On Friday, Boygenius will release a new EP, “The Rest,” described as an “expansion” of that full-length debut.

Hozier joined Boygenius onstage in Boston on Sept. 25 to sing the trio’s “Salt in the Wound,” a feelings-forward rock ballad that explodes in a cacophony of noise. In London, Billie Eilish brought Boygenius onstage to sing with her during an intimate gig in August. “There were fireworks!” Dacus said, gleefully, of the group’s own debut headlining show there, where 25,000 people, mostly women, gathered in a park in West London.

The three singer-songwriters, who all identify as queer, joined together in 2018 and quickly became best friends. Their band name is an inside joke about toxic male ego but also an implicit challenge to gender norms, patriarchy and what a rock band historically affords. Along with Swift and acts like Big Thief, Boygenius advocates the power of friendship with a verve that cues safe spaces for fans, an antidote to drunken bro aggression at concerts.

“I just want 16-year-olds from Memphis to see me and do the thing where they think I’m interchangeable with them, because I am,” Baker, 27, said, citing her hometown. “I want them to know they can be happy … They don’t have to be hardened or jaded or broken or tied up in addiction.”

During performances, the members of Boygenius make out with one another — kissing, hugging and otherwise canoodling — as if to normalize the singular intimacy of female bonding. Big sapphic energy reverberates from the stage to the crowd and back again in an infinite loop. “Sex, friends, rock ’n’ roll,” Bridgers said of their mission, prompting a fit of laughter among the trio.

The members of Boygenius use their platform for activism, but not because they think it’s an artist’s duty. “It’s every person’s job to recognize the resources that they have, and to be a channel through which good can pass,” Dacus explained. Bridgers often speaks out against anti-choice laws in America, using her medication abortion in 2021 as a fulcrum. The trio dressed in drag during a July concert in Nashville as Tennessee’s Gov. Bill Lee attempted to ban public drag shows through legislation that a U.S. district judge eventually struck down. They performed at Philip Glass’ annual Tibet House benefit concert and have helped raise money for causes in their hometowns, including the Downtown Women’s Center of Los Angeles, OUTMemphis and Mutual Aid Distribution Richmond.

In July, former President Barack Obama shared his 2023 summer playlist on Twitter, which included Boygenius’ “Not Strong Enough.” “War criminal,” Dacus tweeted in response.

Bridgers, Dacus and Baker come from DIY origins. Each posted her early music in near anonymity online, and played house shows and tiny club gigs before eventually signing with bigger indie labels Dead Oceans (Bridgers) and Matador (Dacus and Baker).

For Boygenius, they wanted to honor those roots and the skills they’ve honed along the way — confessional lyrics sung in a tight-knit cadence, diaphanous vocals, textural guitar work — but remove the gatekeep-y coolness factor of indie-rock. “We made every effort to make this a f— rock band, but to sub out all of those superficial countercultural things,” Baker said. “It’s Guitar Center-core,” Dacus added.

Also antithetical to the rock-star archetype is that the trio prefers to live quiet, healthy lives. On this day, each sips on a drink from Erewhon. “We’re all eating adaptogens,” Baker said with a laugh. “Sex, longevity, rock ’n’ roll,” Bridgers added without skipping a beat.

When it comes to their feelings about the Grammys, they immediately point to MusiCares, the nonprofit arm of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences that provides emergency financial assistance, medical care and other services for any musician regardless of status. “I had therapy for years paid by MusiCares,” Bridgers said. “Them being connected is already a thumbs up because that’s a legitimately good charity,” Dacus added.

Bridgers was nominated for four Grammy Awards for “Punisher,” her 2020 breakout album: best new artist, alternative music album, rock performance and rock song. She says her part of the ceremony took place over Zoom that year, amid the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. “It sucked to not be [able to commiserate] with the other people who lost,” she explained. “I was just in a room with my managers.”

This time around, if nominated, Boygenius say they’ll walk the red carpet. Dacus is “kind of a bitch for spectacle,” she says. “It’s not the goal. But it seems like a fun glitzy way … to celebrate what we’re already proud of.”

Bridgers joked that it would be “kind of based for us to not get any. They didn’t give Bob Dylan one until 1998, I think.” (In fact, Dylan won the first Grammy for his solo work in 1979.) “I do wonder how the emperor’s clothes are made,” Baker said.

The women of Boygenius say they’d be glad to earn a nomination and win a Grammy on the strength of their artistry. The band cites female musicians they admire who, in their view, won in a similar way, like Fiona Apple and Brittany Howard.

And if they’re nominated and don’t win?

“If we lose,” Dacus said, “we’ll go on Instagram Live and pretend that we won.”