Phoebe Bridgers turns to Paul Mescal for songwriting advice.
The 27-year-old singer/songwriter - who is reportedly engaged to 'Normal People' actor Paul, 26 - admitted she is trying to write more upbeat tunes, like her recent track 'Sidelines', and she often gets Paul involved in the process.
She told Variety: "I’m striving to do more stuff like that. I think it’s more challenging to sound smart and write well about happiness than it is about sadness. In the interest of not seeming trite, I lean toward darker subject matter, just out of comfort. And I think a challenge to myself, now, is being articulate about things that are good.
"My partner Paul and I were like going through the lyrics, and I was constantly punishing him with: 'What about this? And what about this? And what about this? What about this?' And then just one random day, Marshall [Vore Bridgers' drummer] and I were sitting at the piano and something flooded open, and I wrote some of my favourite lyrics right at the last minute. But it was cool to embark on that. My favourite thing is already loving an idea and not wanting to ruin it, so everything you put into it has to be great — instead of when an idea is still a baby, and there’s not that much compelling about it yet, so you can put anything into it. That’s a challenging way for me to write, because I can’t tell what’s good or not. Whereas if what’s there is already so good, then I don’t want to f*** it up. It just makes the whole thing way better."
'Sidelines' features on the soundtrack of the TV adaptation of Sally Rooney's 'Conversations With Friends' and Phoebe admitted Rooney's work is extremely important to her.
She said: "I read ['Conversations'] while I was making 'Punisher,' so 2019. I think Sally’s writing is so beautiful and perfect, and 'Normal People' affected me deeply, too, in totally different ways."
