boygenius – Boygenius (EP, Love Record Stores 2020 Exclusive, Limited Edition, Translucent Red Vinyl)

boygenius (stylized in all lowercase) is an indie rock supergroup formed in 2018 by American musicians Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus. Their self-titled debut EP boygenius was written and recorded at Sound City Studios in Los Angeles.

Bridgers has called the formation of the group “kind of an accident,” wherein each of the members were simply fans of each other’s work and then became friends.[7] Both Dacus and Bridgers had opened for Baker on separate tours in 2016, and they all ran in similar circles as young up-and-coming performers navigating the indie scene.

The three became close, and they shared frustration at constantly being compared to each other as “women in rock” despite their considerably different musical styles. Dacus has commented that the idea of women in music “should not be remarkable whatsoever,” with Bridgers adding, “it’s not a genre.” Each has spoken on the tendency of the music industry to pit women against each other, and the group was formed in part to reject this idea. “I hope people see the three of us and know there isn’t competition,” Dacus says. “You don’t have to compete with your contemporaries. You can make something good with people you admire.”

Baker had joked to Dacus years before about a “pipe dream” that they could one day all form a band. The three decided to book a co-headlining tour in early 2018 and originally planned on recording a single or a cover so that they could perform something together on stage. Upon meeting up that summer, however, they found themselves overwhelmed with ideas, and they ended up forming the band, writing, recording, and self-producing the boygenius EP in four days, with the process involving almost exclusively women.

Each brought one full song and one incomplete idea with them to the group. They sought to create an environment free of the competitiveness and “bravado” they had often encountered in previous experiences, and they’ve remarked that the absence of adult men in the process allowed them to relate to each other openly without constantly having to explain themselves.