Ella Yelich-O’Connor, better known as Lorde, the New Zealand-born teenage pop star, and Conor Oberst, the solo artist and frontman for Bright Eyes, are separated by 17 years and several continents. But in many ways they cover the same ground as confessional singer-songwriters. Mr. Oberst, now 34, started young, too, releasing an album on tape at 13 in his native Omaha, and earning accolades as a musical prodigy before he graduated from high school. His latest solo record, “Upside Down Mountain,” was released on Tuesday. For a time, Lorde had a quotation from him in her Twitter bio: “No, I am not singing for you.” “It’s my mantra in life,” she said.

On Sunday Lorde won two Billboard Music Awards and gave an acceptance speech about maturing to the age of 17 and a half; she is in the midst of a sold-out world tour. Though he’s a fan, too, Mr. Oberst has seen her only in videos. On Monday, when both happened to be in New York, they spoke together for the first time, in a phone conversation. They discussed their writing styles, navigating the industry and being wowed by each other. These are excerpts from the conversation.

Q. You guys can talk, and I’ll just eavesdrop, as if I were a government agency. Ella, how did you first discover Conor’s music?

LORDE I knew about Bright Eyes because everyone at my school was obsessed with Bright Eyes. But I didn’t really have a supergood understanding of who you were. Then my current boyfriend introduced me to you — he’s an O.G., hard-core fan, like he had a forum in 2005 for you guys.