Sue Me, I Love Audrey Hobert

Whether you realize it or not, you’re probably already an Audrey Hobert fan. The 26-year-old – who’s been best friends with Gracie Abrams since the two met at their 5th grade graduation – co-wrote some of the biggest songs on Abrams’ last album The Secret of Us, including “Risk,” “That’s So True,” and “I Love You, I’m Sorry.” Now, Hobert is going out on her own. Last month, she released Who’s the Clown?, her debut album full of intimate, conversational songs that feel like a voice note from your funniest friend.

As a former TV writer (she studied screenwriting at NYU and worked as a staff writer on the Nickelodeon show The Really Loud House), it probably makes sense Hobert knows how to write a scene. The album finds her in a number of moments worthy of an episode of Girls, one of Hobert’s favorite shows. Throughout the album, she wrestles with her insecurities – particularly about her own appearance and romantic worthiness, but also whether worrying so much about that is only serving to make her dumber and duller. In “Thirst Trap,” she laments feeling like she’s atrophying into a flatter, more boring version of herself when her thoughts become consumed with whether or not a crush likes her back.

We spoke to Hobert about where she gets her inspiration from.

Is there someone or something that has served as a muse for your work? Who are they, and how have they inspired you?

Lena Dunham. Greta Gerwig. I always really admired Taylor Swift’s music. I thought Alexa Chung was the coolest. Also, Nathan Fielder.

I remember watching the movie New York Minute with the Olsen twins when I was 5 or 6, and it just sparked something in me that never left, which was, I can’t wait to be a teenager – I just wanted independence. I was just always waiting to be an adult. I also grew up, I would say, a respectful fangirl – yes, I loved One Direction, but I never found out what hotel they were staying at and went there.

What’s the last photo you saved for inspiration on your camera roll?

Oh, this picture of Eve Babitz. Around Christmas last year, I was walking around my parents’ neighborhood on the phone with Ricky Gourmet, who made the album with me, and I was saying how I needed a new book, and he said, I really, really think you should read Black Swans by Eve Babitz. So I read Black Swans, and then I read everything she’s ever written. She’s just the funniest, driest, zaniest, coolest writer ever, and she writes so much about LA, but it was all in the ‘70s, ‘80s. Obviously it was a very different time, but my takeaway from reading about LA in that time period is actually nothing’s changed. I read a lot of her stuff towards the end of making the album, and she just has the best voice.

I need to try again with Joan Didion. I think when I first read her, I was probably too young to understand, but I’ve talked to Ricky about being frustrated by not immediately connecting with Joan Didion. And he was like, Well, I think you’re more of an Eve anyway. I know that there’s like an “Are you an Eve or a Joan?” thing, which I don’t know if I should be supporting.

What was on your Spotify Wrapped last year?

Last year was the year I actually listened to the least music in my life. It wasn’t even an intentional thing – I just kind of stopped listening to music as I was making my own. But honestly, my top song from 2024 was “Risk” by Gracie Abrams.

There was also “Slugs” by Slow Pulp, and “Do Me” by Kim Petras. And “Padam Padam” by Kylie Minogue and “Candy” by Mk.gee were up there.

Whose music have you found particularly inspiring for you as a songwriter?

MJ Lenderman put out an album last fall that I am still pretty obsessed with. He’s the kind of songwriter that evokes the greatest feeling in me – I listen to his music and I don’t think I want to go write a song like MJ Lenderman – I think, Oh my gosh, he makes me feel like I could write any song that I want. I just really appreciate how concise and funny and dry his lyricism is, and I also think he’s writing pop hooks.

Do you have any stories about a moment that inspired one of your songs?

With “Phoebe,” the feeling of feeling ugly was something that I did kind of hope that I would get to write about for the album. Then while I was on this business trip, I started watching Friends because it was on the TV at the hotel, and I was thinking about why Phoebe never dates one of the three main guys, and how I just felt so connected to her.

When I was younger, because I never felt super physically worthy, I would often walk into rooms and feel, at least a little bit, like I needed to prove how smart or funny I was. And I remember my mom once said to me, Audrey, any room that you walk into just sitting there silently, you deserve to be there as much as you do when you’re speaking. I live by that now, because you never want to be around anyone who’s like, hey, aren’t I funny? Aren’t I smart? Like, that’s an annoying person. It’s a lifelong journey, that thing.

Have you had any surprising sources of inspiration recently?

I guess it’s always surprising, just because when inspiration strikes, it just strikes. With my music video for “Thirst Trap,” I didn’t have a fully formed idea of what that video should be, and I ended up watching this movie House, which is a Japanese movie from the ‘70s. I didn’t put it on thinking Maybe this will inspire my music video, but I ended up watching it twice and videotaping certain parts and being like, This is what I want my music video to look like.

When you’re feeling stuck creatively, what do you do?

There are two things I’ve been swearing by lately, which are: always be watching movies and reading. Just movies and reading, movies and reading, movies and reading.

The other thing is not worrying about whether or not you’re going to make something good again. The second you drop that feeling is the second when you are more free to be in the world and to be inspired to make something. So if I ever have that intrusive thought – which I totally do all the time – I just whisk her away.

Were there any particular movies you watched or things you read that helped shape the album?

I saw the Fellini movie 8½ in theaters while I was making the album, and it just blew my mind. I also read this play called Dance Nation by Claire Barron. Plays are what I’m often reading – I prefer to crack open a play than a novel, usually.

I was also reading a lot of Annie Baker’s plays, like Circle Mirror Transformation, and John, and The Flick, and Body Awareness – I read everything. But those four specifically, just the way she writes, it’s similar to the MJ Lenderman thing of just like, I don’t want to write like her, but I feel like I can just write however I want because of her work.

Is there anywhere you go when you need to feel creatively inspired?

I haven’t experienced a particular place. I do the bulk of my writing in my apartment, so maybe it’s my desk and I don’t even really know it. I get a lot of my ideas at the drop of a hat, randomly wherever I am, but I’m not someone who goes to the seaside because it’s going to bring on a song or anything. Maybe I will become that person, it sounds sort of nice.

On the last song on your album, “Silver Jubilee,” you sing about how you “wanna make it, but it’s fun to be a normal girl.” It’s an interesting tension for someone so suddenly in the public eye – what’s that like?

“Silver Jubilee” was the last song I wrote for the album, and it’s about my cousin Savannah’s 25th birthday party. I was out at a bar in Philly, and I’ve only ever been anonymous, and I really enjoy that. But also in the same moment where I’m at the bar feeling anonymous and dancing, whatever song is playing, I wish it were my song.