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It's clear when you listen to Phoebe Bridgers' music that she's been strongly influenced by the work of Elliott Smith – their styles of wistful but wry storytelling are similar. So, in particular for fans of both artists, it's very cool indeed to hear her talk about his effect on her music. She des as much on a recent episode of the podcast My Favourite Elliott Smith Song.The series is hosted by Rob Comba, and sees guests like Louis Theroux (!) join to wax lyrical about Smith and his meaning to them. Phoebe Bridgers phoned up for a chat recently, and named "Whatever (Folk Song in C)" as her current favourite of Smith's tracks, acknowledging that it was "kind of a weird choice," though "it totally encapsulates everything that I love about him and his songwriting."The chat is an interesting one, throwing light on how listening habits have changed (Phoebe talks about spending her iTunes gift cards on Elliott Smith downloads), and on exactly how listening to Smith shaped her musical discovery:
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She also discusses being compared with Smith ("it's a lot to live up to, and he's kind of just my favourite hands down"), and gives her thoughts on whether he'd be on Twitter. It's really great, to be honest, and you can listen to the conversation below, and hear the other episodes here:Follow Noisey on Twitter.One of the first things I ever got was a covers album. I think it was called 'To Elliott, From Portland.' And that's another way I discovered a lot of bands that other people were listening to that I hadn't listened to yet, like The Decemberists, and it kind of opened up a whole universe of folk music that I didn't know existed. I was listening to a lot of what my parents were listening to, like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, and I didn't know that there was this whole other 90s/early 2000s music scene happening.