boygenius are back in a big, big way: we’re talking major label record deals and headline shows for tens-of-thousands of people. But inside there’s still a sense of comeliness and minor scale that you’d associate with the three-strong line-up, consisting of friends Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus. Such is true of their new music video for the single “Not Strong Enough”, a song about the internal battle between self-hatred and thinking you’re capable of everything.
Now that the band are part of Interscope Records, you might expect an all-guns-blazing music video to accompany their releases, replete with special effects and large-scale sets. But alas, the group have gone in the other direction, creating a sweet, self-shot portrait of their friendship, edited by Jackson Bridgers, Phoebe’s brother. “We were like, how could it be not a bummer to make this?” Phoebe told us of the video over email. “And we’re like, what if we hung out all day and shot it on our phones?” Lucy concurred: “That way we didn’t have to rely on anybody to understand the vision.”
In lieu of “manufactured candour”, as Julien called it, it was like “when you make lame little videos on iMovie with your friends at sleepovers and stuff”. Shot in LA, Phoebe’s home city, it was her job to, she said, “sommelier our experience as friends in Los Angeles” in the video. Together they go from rollercoasters to beaches, monster truck shows to bookstores. “Phoebe wanted the monster trucks bad,” Lucy recalled. “I wanted to go to the Santa Monica Pier pretty bad because I just had never been.”
“That was a really great day,” Phoebe said.
The full length boygenius album, aptly titled The Record, is due for release on 31 March. You can watch the video for “Not Strong Enough” below, and see some exclusive behind-the-scenes photos from the shoot.
