Phoebe Bridgers just announced her forthcoming sophomore LP Punisher. While the singer’s upcoming solo effort is highly-anticipated by fans, Bridgers is also known for her frequent collaborations. The singer has been apart of her Conor Oberst collaborative project Better Oblivion Community Center and worked with singer/songwriters Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus for Boygenius. As Bridgers prepares herself for a new era of music, the singer reflected on her dream collaborations and said she would love to work will Billie Eilish.
In an interview with Hanuman Welch on Apple Music’s Beats 1, Bridgers detailed her upcoming album and some of her frequent collaborators. Bridgers offered some names of musicians she would like to collaborate with, namely some musicians who intimidate her. And Billie Eilish was at the top of the list.
“I guess just people I’m really scared of, like [I] would be intimidated by, which includes Nick Cave, Tom Waits, Billie Eilish,” she said. Elaborating her admiration of Eilish, Bridgers says she thinks the pop singer is motivated by her own creativity:
“You just can tell that definitely a giant record label is helping it, but she’s the boss. I think it probably wasn’t easy along the way to just be like, ‘Fuck you. This is my idea.’ And it’s so cool that she got proven right. I like that she just did what she wanted and tell that it really, really paid off. No matter what you feel about her music, I think Taylor Swift was kind of a similar thing, where it was like Taylor Swift had this giant infrastructure behind her. But if she wasn’t talented, it wouldn’t be so giant. And Billie is kind of like the coolest possible version of that, where it’s like they monetize her ideas. She just has crazy ideas.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Bridgers explained her album’s title, Punisher. According to Bridgers, a “punisher” is a person you don’t want to encounter at a party:
“I’m constantly afraid I’m doing it to people, and people definitely do it to me. [Its] where you run into someone at a party and they’re very nice. Or, like, your friend starts dating someone. And you end up cornered with your friend’s new boyfriend and they’re talking to you about whether AT&T or Verizon is better or worse. And they’re sweet, but it’s been 45 minutes… It’s not a mean person, but it’s someone who just doesn’t know they’re punishing you.”
Listen to Bridgers’ full interview on Apple Music’s Beats 1 here.
Punisher is out 6/19 via Dead Oceans.