Lots of artists refuse to explain the meaning of their work, preferring to let audiences interpret them on their own. Phoebe Bridgers, a brilliant musician and lyricist who could spend a career cultivating an air of mystery around her writing, is not one of them. Starting last night, she’s been more than happy to shed light on any of her lyrics people ask about on Twitter.
In a response to a memed up tweet about not understanding what her work mean, Bridgers said people could just “comment a lyric and I’ll tell you exactly what it means.”
She’s kept her word, tirelessly responding to a torrent of questions with completely to-the-point explanations. Some of Bridgers’ responses are beautifully frank:
Plenty of the other lines people have sent to Bridgers have more elaborate explanations, though, referencing jokes, her love of Elliot Smith, or just personal experiences.
There’s a lot more where these came from in the thread. We have no idea if Bridgers will continue to add to the already pretty exhaustive list of responses from last night, but we sure hope so. Given that she’s promised to cover the Goo Goo Dolls and has undoubtedly been spending sleepless nights wrestling with the lyrics of “Iris,” we need to, at long last, see how she interprets the song’s immortal, heart-rending refrain, “When everything’s made to be broken, I just want you to know who I am.”
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