Phoebe Bridgers‘ Saddest Factory Records has retired its name following a trademark dispute.
The imprint is being rolled back into its parent label, Dead Oceans, as was announced via a brief statement shared to Instagram on Sunday (June 14).
“Due to a trademark dispute around the label’s name, moving forward all SFR releases will come out via Dead Oceans, with our logo sitting alongside the Dead Oceans logo to signify our involvement,” the post read.
No information is provided in the statement as to the origins of the dispute, though there is a duo called Saddest Factory based in Michigan, who describe themselves as “the culmination of two intensely imaginative men and their need for self expression”, as per Pitchfork.
Bridgers announced Saddest Factory Records in October 2020, with Claud becoming the first signing later that month. Perhaps the best-known act is indie-pop trio MUNA, who signed to the label in May 2021.
In November 2022, MUNA told NME about the creative freedom they get on the label. Guitarist Naomi McPherson said that, at an independent label, “You’re more likely to find people who you align with in terms of taste. You’re maybe less likely to find those people in a more, like, large corporate structure. That’s not to say those [major label] people don’t care about art, but they just might not have the same taste.”
They shared that they were dropped by their previous label, RCA, for “not making enough money,” and that it’s “easier in certain ways” to work with independent labels, which give them a “lot of creative freedom”.
In 2024, the imprint announced singer-songwriter jasmine.4.t as its first UK signee.
In other Bridgers news, the singer, songwriter and Boygenius member recently announced plans to hit the road, confirming her first solo tour dates since 2023. She’s since added even more dates.
She made the announcement on Instagram after playing a handful of acoustic shows lately, and the news also came as she has been dropping hints about what may be her first new solo album in six years.
Bridgers’ last record as a solo artist was 2020’s ‘Punisher’, and things have been quiet on the Boygenius front over the past couple of years too, with her and bandmates Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker announcing a hiatus after releasing critically acclaimed album ‘The Record’.
Bridgers’ last solo album ‘Punisher’, was named by NME as the fifth best album of 2020, and her last album with Boygenius, ‘The Record’, was named as NME’s album of 2023.
Last month, the singer played her first live solo show in three years in Roswell, New Mexico, where she debuted three new songs and strongly suggested that a new album is on its way.
Nothing has yet been officially announced about a new album at the time of writing.
At her recent show at Madison Square Garden, Bridgers implemented the ‘No-phones’ rule, and used the gig to call out ICE and raise funding for immigrants. All proceeds from ticket sales went to Community Justice Exchange’s Immigration Bond Freedom Fund, which provides aid and bail to those in ICE detention centres.