What Busy Philipps Is Listening to Right Now
Before Busy Philipps was an actress, author, podcaster, director, talk show host, and Instagram personality, she was a teenage girl walking alone through her Scottsdale, Arizona neighborhood, listening to Paula Abdul and Debbie Gibson tapes on her Walkman. Later on, she bought a Discman, blasted Ani DiFranco and Liz Phair, and took the city bus to the record store. Not long after landing her big break on Freaks and Geeks in 1999, a barely-20-year-old Philipps fan-girled on an unenthused Courtney Love at a Hollywood premiere, gushing about how much Hole’s music meant to her.
“Music—especially music by female and queer artists—has always offered me a much-needed escape,” Philipps tells me now. “I know people think I’m an extrovert because of my public persona, but there’s a lot that goes on inside my head before it comes out.”
The bubbly, candid personality Philipps is referring to can be seen in full swing on her social media accounts. (Her Instagram Stories are especially pure; I lost an entire day this summer following her minute-by-minute reports about the opossum giving birth in her yard.) Her frequent videos of workouts, dance parties, and coffee runs are typically soundtracked by a variety of thoughtful indie artists, from Waxahatchee to Shearwater. She’s not above posting a screenshot from SiriusXMU, but you’ll never catch her sharing her favorites on Spotify. “It’s not good for artists!” she says. “Everybody always tells me to use Spotify playlists and I’m like, ‘I’m going to keep posting music on my Instagram and you guys can just go buy it.’”
She recently launched a podcast called “Busy Philipps Is Doing Her Best” where she and her co-hosts and guests share their thoughts on (among many other things) moving forward in this uncertain time. When we talk in early September, Philipps similarly focuses on the songs that have powered her through the summer—all of which hint at the classic combo of happy music/sad lyrics. “We’re living in a moment that’s filled with duality, so to have these songs that are bops, that allow you to forget about the world for two seconds and dance around, is a welcome release,” she says. “But then when you really sit and think about what is being said, you get a wholly different experience.”
Shamir: “On My Own”
Busy Philipps: I had known Shamir’s first EP and singles, but we met through Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste. I’ve had the opportunity to see him play a few times—he’s a really compelling performer and he makes bops! I just find Shamir to be a true artist that I admire greatly. He’s not afraid to try whatever the fuck he feels like, and that’s really inspiring. He released “On My Own” in June, and as soon as I heard it I was like, “This is exactly what we need in this moment.” It’s been on heavy rotation in my house and on my phone ever since.
Sylvan Esso: “Ferris Wheel”
This year has been such a heavy time, and I’ve been gravitating towards music that gives me some relief. I don’t want to listen to sad-ass music, I want to listen to “Ferris Wheel.” I think it’s the Song of the Summer.
I remember seeing Sylvan Esso at the first Coachella they played [in 2015]—they had a daytime slot in one of the tents, and we made it a mission to check them out. I’ve gone to Coachella legitimately since the very first one because I’m a million years old, but also because I went to Loyola Marymount University here in L.A., and all my friends worked for the radio station KXLU. Every year at Coachella there’s always a few sets that everybody talks about for the rest of the year, and that year it was Sylvan Esso. I tried to stalk them backstage afterward, because I was just such a fan, but that didn’t really work out for me.
Tomberlin: “Wasted”
I had posted Tomberlin’s At Weddings and “Seventeen,” which is my favorite song on that album, on my Instagram. Sarah Beth [Tomberlin] DMed me to thank me, and it turned out that we knew people in common because that’s just how everything works, right? I basically grew up in the entertainment industry, and the music industry can be predatory in the same ways. When we met, I just felt an immediate connection with her and wanted to be a safe space in Los Angeles for her. She had been wanting to move to L.A. to work on her next album, and my family invited her to stay in our guest house. People online think that S.B. is our nanny, and that’s not far from the truth at some points, because my children are truly obsessed with her. But she really has become a part of our family.
She ended up coming to South Carolina to quarantine with us. We had been listening to her EP [the forthcoming Projections], and we decided to film a video for “Wasted” while we were there because it is such a beautiful place. We kept it super intimate and shot it on our iPhones. It includes my daughter and her friend, who was staying with us. The concept was sort of inspired by the dress Sarah Beth wears in the video. A friend of mine in Charleston owns a boutique and she brought over some clothes for us to try on for fun. When S.B. put on that green dress, it was immediately so striking, she looked like a ghost or an angel. It’s a really personal video for my family, and watching it feels very magical for me. Part of that is because my older daughter is at that age where this may be the last summer of her childhood. But also just thinking globally, there’s no way to just exist in a carefree way anymore, nor should there be.
Originally Appeared on Pitchfork
