Boygenius is like Taylor Swift for those navigating the challenges of coming of age, and with good reason: Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus craft confessional lyrics with deep ties to their personal experiences, and people have been sitting up and listening. They’re relatable for anyone who’s ever experienced—at the least—anxiety, a bad breakup, or the trauma of a religious upbringing.
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Prior to scoring six nominations for the 2024 Grammy Awards—including Record of the Year and Album of the Year—the Boys, as their fans affectionately call them, spoke to British GQ while on tour and opened up about how they got the band back in business and what it means to them that they all get to write, play, and tour together.
According to the band members, once they all officially met—Baker and Dacus got together in 2016, and Baker introduced her to Bridgers—they started a group chat. They were friends at first, and then their labels put them together for a triple headlining tour in 2018. They worked on music together, which became their debut album the record, and went on tour. After, they went back to their solo careers, and Bridgers released Punisher in 2020. After the runaway success of the album, Bridgers hit up the group chat again that summer, asking to get the band back together.
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“I was stoked,” said Baker of getting that text. “I just like being in a band. I think I became a solo musician because I put out a record that I recorded by myself that my band didn’t want.” She said she sent over song ideas immediately.
Dacus shared that she had a physical reaction to getting the text from Bridgers—her stomach churned in a good way, she said. “It felt like, if this is real, my life is gonna change,” she continued. “I felt so hopeless at that time. So to have this idea of making something with them, and seeing them in the future, was a tether to joy.”
The band is something special for Bridgers, Baker, and Dacus. “I feel towards Phoebe and Julien the way a lot of people feel towards their families,” Dacus shared. “Like, whenever I have downtime, my mind goes to them.” It’s not only the friendship that has meaning for them, it’s what the band represents for gay people in general, but mostly for the teens out there.
“That is what makes [the job] meaningful to me,” said Baker. “To be away from my family when they need me to be there, to be doing things that I find inane or self-serving. I’m like, ‘Dang, look at all those kids.’Like, actually, there’s 25,000 little gay kids out there who’ve heard us talk about things like: Be inside of your life. Pay attention to your friends. It’s worth it to live.”
Judging by the new Grammy nominations, it’s clear the mainstream music industry has started paying real attention to boygenius. Next year, the band will up for Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Best Rock Performance, Best Rock Song, Best Alternative Music Performance, and Best Alternative Music Album.
Photo by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for Coachella
