Earlier this year, the three members of Boygenius – Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus – signed up for a run of group therapy sessions. The year ahead was freighted with the band’s debut album release and extensive touring, and it seemed wise to guard against the dangers that had undone so many other bands before them. “Prophylactic therapy,” as Baker calls it.
As solo artists, Baker (27), Bridgers (28) and Dacus (27) inspire a level of devotion that borders on zealotry – drawing frenzied audiences, spawning memes and tabloid gossip. They are queer-identifying, vocal about issues from abortion to trans rights to colonialism, while their songwriting, which tends to be smart, introspective and somewhat melancholic, has handed each of them the peculiar charge of articulating the feelings of a generation.
