Billie Eilish sat down with Rolling Stone to reflect on several landmark moments in her career. From first discovering how well she works with her brother Finneas, to discovering the likes of Childish Gambino and Tyler, the Creator, the “Bad Guy” singer takes things back to the start.
Watch: Billie Eilish chats to Rolling Stone
As Eilish recalls, the first time she realised her brother Finneas was “the perfect writing partner was when the duo wrote 2017 track “Hostage.” Earlier that year they had only written their first song, “Bellyache”, but quickly realised how well they work as a team. “There was kind of a feeling there that we were just like, ‘This is what we’re going to do,’ ‘cause this works,” Eilish explains. “Obviously, it still works.”
The eighteen-year-old singer’s attention then turns to two artists who have made an enormous impact these past few years. First, Tyler, the Creator, whom Eilish first head when she was working as a horse camp counsellor. “We listened to ‘Tamale’ with a bunch of five-year-olds riding horses all around us. It was great.”
Billie Eilish also recalls becoming a huge fan of Childish Gambino as soon as her iPod played “Heartbeat” on shuffle one day. “Immediately, I just stopped what I was doing,” she remembers. “I felt like I was introduced to a new world…where have I been? This has been out there, and I’ve just been sitting here.”
Watch the rest of the interview to hear about how Eilish felt and where she was when her 2016 breakout hit “Ocean Eyes” took off, her undying love for The Office – “I just started watching it the 13th time all around” – and an hilarious recount of the first time she (technically) drove her car alone, the day before she actually got her license. Although she knows it was illegal, “I just drove it around the block,” she reasons. “So don’t worry about it!”
