Phoebe Bridgers and Rob Moose Comment on Age and Beauty in ‘Wasted’ Video

A sallow, elderly woman gets a Phoebe Bridgers makeover in the video for “Wasted,” a track off composer Rob Moose’s upcoming Inflorescence solo EP that features the singer-songwriter. Tattooed hands apply makeup, a “wasted” colorful necklace, and even a grill to the woman’s teeth as Bridgers sings, “Now I’m wasted, wastin’ all of my breath/Wasted again” over Moose’s sparkling, expanding strings.

“Rob is my son,” Bridgers said in a statement. “That’s an inside joke, but there is a deeper connection we share musically, which resembles being blood related.”

“‘Wasted’ came my way in 2019,” Moose said. “I first started to tinker with it on a retreat to Orcas Island, with snow out the window and no helpful instruments nearby. Progress came slowly, but I managed to arrange and record what felt like a rough demo of the first verse and chorus before flying home. When I opened up the song again in New York, I felt like the song was ready for a major shift. I kept working on it in bursts and stepping away, a process that was new for me. Hundreds of hours and several hiatuses later, Phoebe re-sang the vocal, and “Wasted” began its new life.”

Peter Cerrito, who manages Moose and bassist Pino Palladino, directed the clip, finding inspiration after living in Silverlake (namechecked in “Wasted) with one of Bridgers’ bandmates. “Once she left for tour, I moved into a new house and met my roommate, Caden, who is a video editor and his best friend, Sam, a cinematographer,” he said. “Within a day of our initial meeting I had pitched the idea of putting tooth gems on an 82-year-old woman and rearranging our living room into a production studio. Seventy-two hours later, the video was shot. My directorial debut: no budget, makeup wipes, and stickers.”

Moose, who plays violin in yMusic and has worked in various capacities with Miley Cyrus, Maren Morris, Taylor Swift, and others, previously worked with Bridgers on her Copycat Killer EP. Inflorescence also features collaborations with Bon Iver, Sara Bareilles, and Emily King. Last month, he released the moving “I Bend but Never Break,” which features Brittany Howard.