Liz, do you have any advice for Lindsey as far as dealing with public scrutiny with the release of her first album?

Phair: You’re stuck in this zone where everyone’s talking about you like you’re a thing, so it’s hard to go back into a space where you’re just yourself and write from that place. You can feel like Ambassador Lindsey because you have to play these songs live on stage.

Jordan: It’s really hard to separate that person on stage from the person who’s alone in my room writing sad-ass breakup songs. I’m trying to keep my ego in check, but it fluctuates. There are times when I couldn’t be any harder on myself, and then there are times when I’m like, “Make room, you guys, I’m coming through.”

Phair: As far as doing press, I’m convinced that talking about myself gives away a little piece of my soul. It makes me self-conscious in a way that I don’t generally like.

Jordan: We started doing some fashion press, and I got a little false sense of importance. I was eating salads and I started to go on stage every night with full hair and makeup. I was like, “I better look good.” But then I realized that I missed muffins, and I started wearing sweatpants on stage because I realized being obsessed with the outfit or the hair or my weight was taking so much away from everything else for me.

Phair: When I’m on stage, the better I look, the less I’m moving and the less I’m really getting into it. Some days I feel like I need to be beautiful, and some days I just want to be barefoot on the stage dancing around. Feeling like you look hot can actually be an enjoyable part of being a musician, but a lot of what you do as an artist started in your own bedroom just doing your own thing and then suddenly you have to be good at all these things that are extra jobs. You didn’t know you ran for public office, but you did.

Jordan: At first I was so psyched to be meaningful to other people, and then I was like, “I didn’t sign up for that!” I don’t have anything unique to say.

Phair: But you’ve gotta say it, or else someone else is gonna take up that space.

Jordan: I hate being a “woman rocker,” to be honest. It’s sick to fill that slot, but I hate talking about it. As far as being a musician, I was never like, “Oh, I wanna be one of the boys.” But I was also never like, “I wanna be a woman rocker.” Is that fucked?

Phair: Why would you want to be that? It’s just more responsibility.