90s altrock queen Liz Phair on her Soberish album comeback: ‘I know how to give the mainstream the middle finger’

American altrock pioneer Liz Phair stormed the 90s with her sexually-charged songs about one-night stands. Now she tackles divorce and life in your 50s.

Any female artist writing songs about empowerment and telling it like it is for women owes a debt of gratitude to Liz Phair.

The indie rock heroine kicked down the door of the rock ‘n’ roll men’s club and its inherent sexist snobbery with her 1993 debut album Exile In Guyville, landing at No. 1 on all good end-of-year lists.

Phair and producer Brad Wood’s prescient fusion of alt-rock and pop with her blunt, sexually explicit lyrics not only proved a commercial and critical success but its influence resonates almost three decades later in the songs of Phoebe Bridgers, Courtney Barnett and Soccer Mommy.

American musician Liz Phair returns with new record Soberish. Picture: Supplied

After a 10-year hiatus in which she did everything from compose for television shows to writing her memoir Horror Stories, Phair has reunited with Wood for her comeback record Soberish.

The woman who wrote about one-night stands in the ‘90s is now tackling the realities of fifty-something life, from divorce to ageing.

“It’s weird being this age and trying to interface with the music industry. It is at times really unsettling or disturbing, feeling like you’ve aged out in a sense, like ‘You gotta be big on TikTok, that’s the only thing that matters!’” she says.

“The feeling that all the things that I’ve honed over a career are of so much less value than just being an attention-getting social media star, that’s hard to reckon with.

“But I mean, in another sense, there’s a freedom because they don’t give a f--k. So we’re kind of back at the beginning where the mainstream doesn’t care about us and I know how to do that. I know how to give the mainstream the middle finger.”

One of the album’s lead singles Spanish Doors was inspired by a friend who was going through a divorce. But Phair claims the actions of the song’s protagonist are her own.

“I relate to hiding out in the bathroom when everyone around you is having a good time but your life just fell apart. You look at yourself in the mirror and wonder who you are now, shadows of doubt creeping into your eyes,” she says.

“Just a few moments ago you were a whole, confident person and now you wonder how you’ll ever get the magic back.”

Of course if you hang around long enough in the music industry, the cycle will turn back to you, as it has with Phair and Soberish.

Phair rails against the ageist music industry. Picture: Supplied

It sounds both like it could have been made as a companion to Guyville in the ‘90s and also exactly what you would hear on Triple J right now because a new generation is, if not copying, certainly channelling her influence in the sound of now.

Phair says the idea to recapture that sound with the producer who helped her create it 30 years ago was inspired both by preparing the 25th anniversary edition of Guyville a few years ago and that horrid year of 2016 when we lost so many icons from, David Bowie to Prince.

“Working the record, being confronted with the way the industry favours the young and the speed at which it moves,” she says.

“Terrifyingly enough, I think of it as those things in cafeterias where they’re toasting bagels and it’s like a conveyor belt. And in 2016, we watched some of the bagels that we thought would always be there, drop off and drop down into the trash at the bottom end. And realised that we’re about to hit that thing.

“And now there’s both an urgency of I have more to say, I want to fulfil my potential at any age.

“By doing this, in some small way, I’m actually making room for other young women to continue to age in the business. So that’s kind of fulfilling.”

We joke that the excellent album title should be adopted by the legion of people who sign up to FebFast or Dry July, dedicating their abstinence from alcohol to a charitable cause but buying “golden ticket” exemptions to enjoy a drink or two.

The title is illustrated as a street sign on the album artwork, with Phair explaining it represents a crossroads where you encounter “your ‘ish’ self again after a period of sobriety”.

“There’s a deep recognition and emotional relief that floods you, reminding you that there is more to life, more to reality and to your own soul than you are consciously aware of. But if you reach for too much of a good thing, or starve yourself with too little, you’ll lose that critical balance.”

Soberish is released on June 4.

Originally published as 90s altrock queen Liz Phair on her Soberish album comeback: ‘I know how to give the mainstream the middle finger’