BILLIE EILIKE
17-year-old Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell is the Gen Z musician on everyone's lips. Relatively unknown a few years ago, the California native's debut album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? released on 29 March 2019 by Darkroom and written and produced alongside her brother Finneas in his bedroom, landed at the top of the Billboard 200 chart in America, reached number one in the UK, Australia and Canada, amassed 14 Top 100 singles and more than 2 billion streams. The former dancer has also achieved two Guinness World Records, 3 MTV Video Music Awards, 46.6m Instagram followers and covers on Vogue Australia, Elle US, V Magazine and Rolling Stone...
The artist's musical style is a mixture of pop, hip hop and electro, but is difficult to define. She herself told Billboard in 2017: 'I hate the idea of genres.' In Billie Eilish - The Official Story - Told By Her she says: 'I'm not trying to be defined by one song or one sound.' Rolling Stone refers to her music as 'genre-omnivorous' and uDiscover Music writes that it is 'post-genre.' In March 2019, the rising star told The New York Times reporter Joe Coscarelli: 'I don’t want to be in the pop world.' This dismissal has led the media to label her work 'anti-pop' and 'ushering in a new era.' In regards to Eilish's vocals, airs of Lorde and Lana Del Rey shine through with the singer telling the Los Angeles Times: 'I don’t want to hear that Billie Eilish is the new Lana Del Rey. Do not disrespect Lana like that! That woman has made her brand so perfect for her whole career and shouldn’t have to hear that.' Noisey's Avery Stone describes her voice as 'ethereal' and music critic Maura Johnston writes that it is 'whispery.' Switched on Pop's Charlie Harding says that 'she often sings in a muted whisper' and 'at other times' 'filled with melancholy.'
The next track is Xanny, a slang word for a pharmaceutical that relieves anxiety and panic disorders, leaving it open to whether this is a mental health issue she has experienced herself. In an interview with Rolling Stone, the musician recounts from a notebook past depression caused by a dance injury: 'And this page...oof. This is just me depressed,' 'This is when I was...not good.' The tune shows a disdain for drugs and that what is rebellious is to feel: What is it about them? / I must be missing something / They just keep doing nothing / Too intoxicated to be scared.' You Should See Me In A Crown is another bass-strong song with a powerful female character made more so with the sound of knives being sharpened at the start: You should see me in a crown / I'm gonna run this nothing town / Watch me make 'em bow / One by one by, one / One by one by.' The lyrics: 'Tell me which one is worse / Living or dying first / Sleeping inside a hearse' introduces the theme of death and 'everything sucks' mantra behind teen angst.
The topic of dying continues with All The Good Girls Go To Hell with Eilish saying in an interview: 'a lot of it is about global warming.' The lyrics: 'Hills burn in California' and 'There's nothing left to save now' alludes to the current climate emergency. Bury A Friend takes from Bellyache the idea of 'killing your friends' and features the title of the album as the star sings from the perspective of a monster under her bed: 'What do you want from me? / Why don't you run from me? / What are you wondering? / What do you know? / Why aren't you scared of me? / Why do you care for me? / When we all fall asleep, where do we go?' In a Beats 1 interview, the talent says the track is about 'sleep paralysis and nightmares,' and 'I'm my own monster under my own bed,' 'my own worst enemy.' The lyric: 'Step on the glass, staple your tongue (ahh)' introduces an air of gruesomeness and 'I wanna end me' the theme of adolescence angst. Despite going against the grain, the platinum-selling artist has shown to be aware of what is going on around her. The youth of today are pessimistic about the future, particularly in regards to safety and the environment. Her lyrics bring up these dark and depressing problems alongside a portion of playfulness and humour typical for a teenager.
The self-confessed vegan writes and produces everything alongside her older sibling, lead singer and songwriter of The Slightlys, in his childhood bedroom, a surprise shift from the mechanics of a pop star. In an interview with Vanity Fair in 2018, the then 16-year old said: 'What the hell would the point be if I just created something somebody else wanted me to create that I had no say in?' In regards to working with professionals, the COPYCAT vocalist told the BBC: 'We've had sessions with artists and writers and producers and not that those sessions were bad, but when we write, just us together, it's so much more raw, I guess. And straight from the heart'. This unique partnership proves the pair's hard work and genuine love for music and songwriting. Their break on somewhat underground platform SoundCloud also sets them apart from the manufactured star.
The pair have also done promo with The Ellen DeGeneres Show where the teen talked candidly about her Tourette syndrome, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon which saw the singer rock up with a sprained ankle from Milano Rocks and Saturday Night Live with the artist performing Bad Guy with a leg brace off the walls. The famous face also spoke to Radio SRF 3 to tell them that her 🎵Strange Addiction🎶 is 'burritos' and Pitchfork clad head-to-toe in an orange ensemble.
Of the millennial's fashion style, urban and streetwear play influences with Eminem-esque baggy pants, oversized t-shirts, puffer jackets and trainers adorned with luxury logos from Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Burberry and Balenciaga. Punk also plays a part with spiked chokers, silver chains and skull rings. The breakthrough artist has a penchant for emerald telling Vanity Fair in 2017: 'I like bright green a lot' and the teenager's tomboyish look is perfect for the current climate of gender fluidity. Much like her music, her style is a mismatch of influences from hip hop to early 2000s skater. On 'what I like about dressing like I'm 800 sizes bigger than I am' she tells Vogue Australia 'it kind of gives nobody the opportunity to judge what your body look likes.' In an ad campaign for Calvin Klein's I Speak My Truth In #MYCALVINS the singing sensation said: 'I never want the world to know everything about me. I mean, that's why I wear big baggy clothes. Nobody can have an opinion because they haven't seen what's underneath, you know. Nobody can be like 'she's slim thick,' 'she's not slim thick,' 'she's got a flat ass,' 'she's got a fat ass.' Nobody can say any of that because they don't know.'
The teen's meteoric rise began in 2015 with a track called Ocean Eyes written and produced by her 21-year-old brother and former Glee star Finneas O'Connell. The song was uploaded to music streaming site SoundCloud with the intention of being seen by the singer's dance teacher but ended up going viral. When asked what happened next she told Mark Savage of the BBC: 'lots of meetings'. Those meetings led to the youngster being signed to Interscope Records and releasing her first EP Don't Smile At Me which in January 2019 reached 1 billion streams on Spotify, the youngest ever to do so. Track Bellyache casualises 'killing someone' with the lyrics: 'Sittin' all alone / Mouth full of gum / In the driveway / My friends aren't far / In the back of my car / Lay their bodies.' Of her macabre words that 'might keep it off the radio,' Eilish told Savage: 'I don't need many people to care.' 'Even if other people don't like it, I like it.'
The 🎵 Young Star's 🎶 latest offering has received widespread critical acclaim for its uniqueness, songwriting, subject matter and sound. Salon's Kenneth Womack calls it 'like no place you’ve been before' and Sound On Sound's Paul Tingen says 'she sounds unlike anyone else'. Vox's Charlie Harding labels it 'surprising, yet cohesive' and The Guardian's Hannah Ewens 'new', 'accomplished' and 'an album of firsts.' Vulture's Craig Jenkins describes it as 'a quiet revolution, both intricate and also delicate, sweet but sometimes prickly' and Pitchfork's Stacey Anderson defines it as 'gothic, bass-heavy, at turns daring and quite beautiful.'
When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? centres on death, depression, teenage angst and toxic masculinity with Billie Eilish telling Zane Lowe: 'The album is basically what happens when you fall asleep.' The star spoke candidly to the radio DJ of her sleep paralysis, night terrors and lucid dreams. On the subject of lyrics, she told the BBC: 'you can put yourself in a character or a situation you would not normally be in. You don't have to be in love to write a love song. You don't have to kill somebody to write a song about killing somebody. It's like jumping into another world.' The album kicks off with a 14-second intro of the singer slurping and saying: 'I have taken out my Invisalign, and this is the album,' before bursting into Bad Guy, a bass-heavy hit which displaced Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road off the top of the Billboard 100. The song sees her mocking the stereotypical male with the lyrics: 'So you're a tough guy / Like it really rough guy / Just can't get enough guy / Chest always so puffed guy,' before asserting her role as the actual alpha: 'I'm that bad type / Make your mama sad type / Make your girlfriend mad tight / Might seduce your dad type / I'm the bad guy, duh.'
The next track is Xanny, a slang word for a pharmaceutical that relieves anxiety and panic disorders, leaving it open to whether this is a mental health issue she has experienced herself. In an interview with Rolling Stone, the musician recounts from a notebook past depression caused by a dance injury: 'And this page...oof. This is just me depressed,' 'This is when I was...not good.' The tune shows a disdain for drugs and that what is rebellious is to feel: What is it about them? / I must be missing something / They just keep doing nothing / Too intoxicated to be scared.' You Should See Me In A Crown is another bass-strong song with a powerful female character made more so with the sound of knives being sharpened at the start: You should see me in a crown / I'm gonna run this nothing town / Watch me make 'em bow / One by one by, one / One by one by.' The lyrics: 'Tell me which one is worse / Living or dying first / Sleeping inside a hearse' introduces the theme of death and 'everything sucks' mantra behind teen angst.
The topic of dying continues with All The Good Girls Go To Hell with Eilish saying in an interview: 'a lot of it is about global warming.' The lyrics: 'Hills burn in California' and 'There's nothing left to save now' alludes to the current climate emergency. Bury A Friend takes from Bellyache the idea of 'killing your friends' and features the title of the album as the star sings from the perspective of a monster under her bed: 'What do you want from me? / Why don't you run from me? / What are you wondering? / What do you know? / Why aren't you scared of me? / Why do you care for me? / When we all fall asleep, where do we go?' In a Beats 1 interview, the talent says the track is about 'sleep paralysis and nightmares,' and 'I'm my own monster under my own bed,' 'my own worst enemy.' The lyric: 'Step on the glass, staple your tongue (ahh)' introduces an air of gruesomeness and 'I wanna end me' the theme of adolescence angst. Despite going against the grain, the platinum-selling artist has shown to be aware of what is going on around her. The youth of today are pessimistic about the future, particularly in regards to safety and the environment. Her lyrics bring up these dark and depressing problems alongside a portion of playfulness and humour typical for a teenager.
The self-confessed vegan writes and produces everything alongside her older sibling, lead singer and songwriter of The Slightlys, in his childhood bedroom, a surprise shift from the mechanics of a pop star. In an interview with Vanity Fair in 2018, the then 16-year old said: 'What the hell would the point be if I just created something somebody else wanted me to create that I had no say in?' In regards to working with professionals, the COPYCAT vocalist told the BBC: 'We've had sessions with artists and writers and producers and not that those sessions were bad, but when we write, just us together, it's so much more raw, I guess. And straight from the heart'. This unique partnership proves the pair's hard work and genuine love for music and songwriting. Their break on somewhat underground platform SoundCloud also sets them apart from the manufactured star.
Billie's music videos are as spooky as the songs themselves and incorporate impressive visuals, acting and film to bring alive the album's weird and nightmarish theme. Bury A Friend is the singer's most frightening with Eilish telling PopBuzz: 'that one was really influenced by a lot of horror movies.' The video sees the whites of her eyes blacked out as she hides under a bed and wanders the hallway of what resembles a haunted house. The Shining springs to mind as does One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest with its white walls and surgical hands. The scene where the teen is plunged in the back with syringes brings to life the entertainer's love of psychological horror. In an interview with PopCrush, the youngster says: 'I really like The Babadook' and 'Oh my God, The Human Centipede is really hilarious.'
You Should See Me In A Crown sees the silver-haired youth rocking a spider-infested headpiece before a tarantula crawls out of her mouth. The singer-songwriter later told PopBuzz: 'I like to do my own stunts.' The Blohsh creator also collaborated with Japanese artist Takashi Murakami on an anime version which shows her transformed into a Godzilla-esque arachnid to 'run this nothing town.' When The Party's Over is perhaps the performer's most challenging as she drinks from a glass of what looks like black ink before crying the liquid from her eyes, giving it a smear as it rolls down her face and clothes. 'I had the tubes in my eyes squirting black stuff into my eyes' she revealed to PopBuzz. Xanny takes on a similar setting as a hand stubs cigarettes out on her face, and for Bad Guy, the subject of masculinity comes to life with Eilish perched on a male as he does push-ups.
The American has been touring with Finneas on the When We All Fall Asleep World Tour which kicked off at Coachella in April and will conclude in November in Mexico City. Of her festival appearance, Variety's Chris Wilman had this to say: 'Rock isn’t dead at Coachella, a vast amount of evidence to the contrary notwithstanding. It was alive and well in a performance by Billie Eilish that pushed every rock ‘n’ roll button except the one that demands there be an electric guitar on stage.' Elle US went further by calling the gigs 'more like a hardcore show than a pop spectacle.' The siblings also pitched up at Glastonbury with NME defining the debut as 'once-in-a-generation' and Reading and Leeds with the former pulling in the 'biggest crowd of the afternoon by bloody miles.' 16-year-old Alice Moffat of Shout Out UK described the set as 'standout', 'energetic' and 'almost extraterrestrial' with the SoundCloud star mobilising mosh pits for her hit Bad Guy.
The pair have also done promo with The Ellen DeGeneres Show where the teen talked candidly about her Tourette syndrome, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon which saw the singer rock up with a sprained ankle from Milano Rocks and Saturday Night Live with the artist performing Bad Guy with a leg brace off the walls. The famous face also spoke to Radio SRF 3 to tell them that her 🎵Strange Addiction🎶 is 'burritos' and Pitchfork clad head-to-toe in an orange ensemble.
The 'Wish You Were Gay' hitmaker has racked up an impressive celebrity following including Foo Fighters Dave Grohl who told Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino at Pollstar Live! in February: 'I went to go see Billie Eilish not too long ago. Oh my god man. Unbelievable. My daughters are obsessed with Billie Eilish . . . the connection that she has with her audience is the same thing that was happening with Nirvana in 1991.' His 12-year-old daughter Violet covered idontwannabeyouanymore at the Autism Speaks Into The Blue Gala. Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong is also a fan having taken his wife Adrienne and son Jakob to see her 'excellent show' in San Francisco. Another pop punk supporter is Avril Lavigne who appeared on the Zach Sang Show in August to talk about the teen's 'love' of the Sk8er Boi rocker: 'she's dope,' 'super sweet,' 'a girl just doing her thing,' 'being herself.' Eilish earlier shared a picture of the two alongside the caption: 'THANK YOU FOR MAKING ME WHAT I AM.' Justin Bieber has also shown his approval with a remix of Bad Guy which Billie announced with a throwback photo in her childhood bedroom. In an interview with Ellen, the youngster went coy about the Baby hitmaker and to Hannah Ewens of The Guardian she said: 'I can’t even explain it to sound normal – I was in love with him.'
The 'Lovely' singer has also been snapped up by other well-known labels including luxury leather goods brand MCM Worldwide. The fashion enthusiast appeared in the German company's AW19 campaign rocking a logo print bucket hat, matching belt bag, pink crossbody, black and white backpack and pink beanie. The icon also collaborated with Los Angeles custom shop Freak City on a graffiti-inspired collection of hoodie and shorts combo, boxy t-shirts, tube top and skirt. On 20 July, the in-demand star performed at the launch of Chanel's J12 Yacht Club on Shelter Island clad in a lime green t-shirt with interlocking C, crystal-encrusted CHANEL necklace and matching earrings. Most recently, the hero hooked up with Bershka on a capsule range of oversized hoodies, jumpers, tracksuit bottoms and t-shirts described by the retailer as 'combining black and white with acid brights, and darkness with disruption.' Pieces include a dark green jumper with the singer's face across the front, a '90s tribal-esque hoodie and tracksuit co-ord, a fiery tie-dye hoodie and shorts set and a white t-shirt with Billie Eilish in green, yellow and orange graffiti. The millennial also has her own merch called Blohsh which she started in 2018 and features the ☆'s signature lopsided stick figure on sterling silver necklaces, hoodies and pop sockets.
The future looks neon for this Highland Park native who lives at home with her actor parents Maggie and Patrick O'Connell. On what it holds the Sagittarius says in Billie Eilish - The Official Story - Told By Her: 'I don't have a goal. I don't want a goal. There are way too many things I wanna do. I'm not trying to achieve just this one thing. I wanna design a car. I wanna make a movie. I wanna have a clothing brand. The only thing that doesn't change about me is the fact that I'm gonna change, over and over again.'