When Conor Oberst and Phoebe Bridgers joined forces as Better Oblivion Community Center, they didn’t just create a band—they forged a musical exchange. “Conor’s a compelling live performer,” says Bridgers. “I hope to take that with me into my future projects.” Oberst, in turn, credits Bridgers with making him a better singer. “She’d write the harmonies and teach them to me. Having to keep up with her vocally every night has made me try harder.”
Their partnership began when Oberst contributed to Bridgers’ Would You Rather from Stranger in the Alps, but their full-length debut came together without overthinking. “We just made a thing and put it out,” says Bridgers. “There wasn’t a big concept—just writing songs and seeing what happened.”
That seamless collaboration even led to lyrical amnesia. “There are lines where I don’t even remember who wrote what,” Oberst admits. “Which is cool—it means we were really in sync.”
One particularly eerie moment came with the line “That ghost is just a kid in a sheet”—which unintentionally mirrors the cover of Stranger in the Alps. “I think we thought about that later,” Bridgers laughs. “Maybe it was subliminal.”
While the album leans intimate, the live show is anything but. “We tried to make a rock album and failed,” jokes Bridgers. “So when we took it on the road, we had to beef it up.” They also leaned into covers—including an unexpected, tongue-in-cheek take on Shallow from A Star Is Born.
“Everything starts as a joke,” Oberst admits. “I didn’t even know that song. Then we learned it, played it once, and it got stuck in my head for days.” Bridgers, however, had one critique: “Conor couldn’t not sing it in a fake Bradley Cooper voice. I was like, ‘Dude, us doing it is already the joke!’”
With two generations of fans colliding, the crowd at a BOCC show is diverse. “There are 60-year-old NPR couples next to 20-year-old indie rock kids,” says Oberst. Bridgers adds, “I see a girl with cursive tattoos and perfect eyeliner, and I’m like—wait, are you here for me or him?”
As for whether BOCC is a one-off or something more? “I hope we make another record,” says Oberst. “We didn’t sit around masterminding this—we just made a thing. So hopefully we keep doing that.”
Bridgers agrees: “We put things out immediately. We even dropped a single for no reason. I’d love to do more of that.”
And hey, it only takes three albums to make a greatest hits.
Listen to the interview and then check out a few older interviews below!
