Boygenius is an American indie rock supergroup formed in 2018 by Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus. Their self-titled debut EP 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. 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 has said. “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 they originally planned to record 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 have remarked that the absence of adult men in the process proved significant, allowing them to relate to each other openly without constantly having to explain themselves. The record was met with universal acclaim from critics and audiences alike; it was named the 12th best album of 2018 by NPR Music, despite being only an EP.
In July 2020, the trio released a handful of demos from their Boygenius recording sessions on Bandcamp to raise money for charitable organizations in their respective hometowns, raising over $23,000 for the Downtown Women’s Center of Los Angeles, OUTMemphis, and Mutual Aid Distribution Richmond. After reuniting on stage for occasional surprise appearances at one another’s solo tours throughout fall 2021, the group performed their first full show together since 2018 as the headliner of Bread and Roses Presents’ annual benefit concert in San Francisco in November. In January 2023, the band announced via social media the upcoming release of a full-length LP entitled The Record with a release date of March 2023. The album artwork and three singles from the album, “$20”, “Emily I’m Sorry” and “True Blue” were released alongside the album’s initial announcement.
