Joan & The Giants On Phoebe Bridgers’ ‘Stranger In The Alps’

Music Feeds’ Love Letter To A Record series asks artists to reflect on their relationship with the music they love and share stories about how it has influenced their lives. Here, Grace Newton-Wordsworth – the lead singer of Perth pop band Joan & The Giants – has reflected on the impact of Stranger In The Alps, the 2017 debut album by American singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers.

The letter arrives fresh from the band releasing their second EP, The Five Stages Of Grief. In a press statement, Newtown-Wordsworth described the six-track effort as “an embodiment of grief, love and survival“. “For a long time I felt like a butterfly trapped in a cocoon, not being able to see the light —but that is changing, and I’m starting to spread my wings and find peace, joy and freedom,” she said. This EP is a painful chapter transformed into music and now healing.”

Stream The Five Stages Of Grief below, then Newtown-Wordsworth’s letter after that and all of Joan & The Giants’ upcoming tour dates at the bottom.

Joan & The Giants – The Five Stages Of Grief

I’m going to be honest, I struggled for a while to write this love letter. I found it difficult to find one album that influenced the whole sound of our EP, as there’s many different influences and artists we adore and gravitate toward. But, overall, Stranger In The Alps stands out to me as I reminisce on the last two years creating our EP The Five Stages of Grief. To me, this is a perfect record. It isn’t afraid to just be sad and play on deep emotion. It feels like Phoebe isn’t trying to prove anything; she simply writes songs that mean something to her, and the production goes hand-in-hand with her lyricism – a perfect symmetry.

I was nervous about releasing such a sad and raw EP, because people always say things to me like “when will you write something happy?” For me, music has always felt like therapy. It gets me through the hard times, so I decided this EP has to be honest – and, if I’m being honest, the last two years I really haven’t been OK. It’s been a heartbreaking time coping with this very internal, nuanced breakdown of a nine-year relationship with someone who was also our guitarist and co-writer – even after we parted ways romantically. Throughout writing these heartbreaking, deeply personal songs together, we listened to a lot of Phoebe’s music and she influenced us heavily as songwriters, lyricists and producers.

Phoebe Bridgers – ‘Motion Sickness’

Stranger In The Alps is such a special album, and will always be in my top five of all-time favourites. Songs that really hit hard for me are ‘Motion Sickness’, ‘Funeral’, ‘Scott Street’, ‘Georgia’, Y’ou Missed My Heart’ and ‘Smoke Signals’. Phoebe is such a brilliant writer; I love her ability to use metaphors and be so blatantly honest at the same time. For example, the lyrics on ‘Funeral’ really tell the exact story of exactly what she’s going through, whereas with a song like ‘Motion Sickness’ you have to read into it a little more to find the meaning, which gives space to give it your own as well.

I love the production on this album; it really inspired songs from our EP like ‘When You Were Mine’ and ‘All I Know’ – especially with its guitar sounds and soundscaping. I love that Phoebe allows so much space in her music, which creates this gentle softness but also builds tension and power behind the bigger moments. I also like that you can listen to this album over and over again and always hear something new – there’s a lot of layers and sounds, and it always surprises me on every listen.

If I was to write Phoebe a letter personally , I would simply say: Thank you. Thank you for changing the way I approach music. As a female artist, you’ve helped me to go deeper and fall in love with production and lyricism. You’ve changed my little musical life for the better, and made me unafraid to share all of my big feelings.

Joan & The Giants 2025 Tour Dates

Saturday, September 18th – Hotel Esplanade, Melbourne VIC
Thursday, September 25th – Lulies Tavern, Melbourne VIC
Saturday, September 27th – Vic On The Park, Sydney NSW
Sunday, September 28th – The Triffid Beer Garden, Brisbane QLD
Wednesday, December 3rd – Metro City, Perth WA*
Friday, December 5th – Eaton Hills Hotel, Brisbane QLD*
Saturday, December 6th and Wednesday, December 10th – Enmore Theatre, Sydney NSW*
Sunday, December 7th and Tuesday, December 9th – Forum Theatre, Melbourne VIC*

* – supporting The Fray.

For more information and all ticketing links, visit JoanAndTheGiants.com.