People are like, “You’re a role model.
How could you?
How could you say that if you’re somebody
that’s …People are looking up to you,
Billie.
How could you possibly say something like
that?”
Like you know why they’re looking up to
me?
Because I say shit like that.
I say what the fuck I want to say because
if I don’t say it what is the point?
What's up, Geniuses?
Welcome back to ‘For the Record’ and I'm
your host, Rob Markman.
Today's guest hails from Los Angeles, California
and is one of the most new, fresh and exciting
voices in music with songs like “Ocean Eyes”
and “Copycat,” "Bellyache."
This 16-year-old singer-songwriter
has proven that she has a soul beyond her
years.
Billie Eilish.
What's up?
Welcome to ‘For the Record.’
Thank you for doing this.
No, of course.
How ya doin'?
I'm cold.
You Gucci'd out right now.
I'm, whoa, ice too.
I'm cold, yeah.
No, I'm good. I'm great.
How are you?
I'm doing great.
Can we talk about first of all, I'm just loving
the outfit.
I love your sense of style.
What goes through your head in the morning?
What puts this together?
This is the flyest thing I've seen in a long
time.
I mean, this is actually made by this dude
Imran Potato on Instagram.
He's just the most G he could possibly be.
Whoa, that rhymed.
Oh my God.
Look at that, we're writing songs already.
That was crazy!
Nah, he actually put this whole thing together
and the socks too, even.
Which is just... he makes stuff like this
all the time, but...
I don't know.
He's just incredible.
But I just like wearing weird shit.
I'm just trying to make people look at me.
Everybody's definitely looking.
You dropped ‘Don't Smile At Me’ last year
and everybody's talking about this album.
I just want to know, what's the biggest change
for you since dropping the project?
Like you kinda went from being in your bedroom
and now the world has it.
Right.
I mean, well what's funny about that is we
wrote all of the songs in my brother's bedroom
and you know that, that's kinda how it is.
But...
And the world sort of knows it now and people
around the world know it.
It's just insane and insanely surreal but
what's cool is I'm still making music in his
bedroom.
We're still doing that.
I just think so many people think that you
need to rent a studio and you need to have
all these producers there and all these co-writers
and all these people.
It's like, bro, if you want to make art, fucking
make art.
What are you doing?
Do it wherever you can.
Make it in a fucking closet.
Right.
I think that's a generational thing.
I think we've been taught that we need all
of this stuff to make great music or great
music videos or just great art in general
and your generation and you're a leader of
that pack is really on some just do it yourself
and the rest of the world will follow.
Exactly.
That's crazy.
I feel like your style, even more so than
your approach to how you make music, right?
Your style doesn't feel like the average 16-year-old,
when I'm talking musically.
The stuff that I hear you write about, sing
about, you have a unique soul.
It feels like my mother would always say,
"Oh, that person's been here before.
You lived another life, or something like
that."
That's crazy.
What?
Where did that come from?
What are the influences that you have that
kinda give you this kinda unique style that
you have?
I don't even know.
I just, I don't know.
I don't know.
I've always listened to just so much music
since I was little.
I was always listening to 8,000 different
things at once.
I've never been able to survive without listening
to music all the time.
Once I lost my earbuds and I just had a heart
attack for like a week and it was crazy.
But even since I was little in the car my
dad would make a bunch of mixtapes of like
tons of The Beatles and Avril Lavigne and
Linkin Park and Green Day and My Chemical
Romance and Sarah McLachlan and Peggy Lee.
Tons of different artists and different kinds
of genres and without their stereotypes if
that makes sense?
'Cause I know that a lot of the artists I
just named, especially... some artists are
sort of known to be that's kind of like a
joke artists.
Like certain bands and I'm like, "If you take
your pride out of yourself and listen to the
art that they're creating.
There's so much in there and it's so real"
and the fact that everybody's so, "Yeah, but
they're like a joke."
It's like, "Shut up."
It's their art because they made it because
they wanted to.
And that's what I look for in music and always
have, really.
And I think especially lyrics are the number
one thing.
Especially The Beatles.
Whoa.
Even though they were on acid the whole time
when they were writing.
I mean, what they came out with was pretty
fly, so... maybe I should go on acid.
See?
I was trying to stop you because I saw that's
where you were going with it.
I knew it.
I was like, "She's gonna say it.
She's gonna say it."
Give me an example, the way you talk about
kinda like a joke.
Is The Beatles an example of that, in terms
of some-
No, no, no, I mean, I don't think that at
all.
I just think, let's say, My Chemical Romance
or Green Day?
It's such a certain kind of music that I really
fuck with and I've fucked with for all of
my life and same with Twenty One Pilots, even,
that's one that I think they've put out some
incredible projects and just said some of
the most real things that I think I've ever
heard and also been so original and so themselves.
I think that's why there's so much hate towards
that or so much meme-able, whatever you want
to call it.
The only reason that you're uncomfortable
with it is because it's not what you're used
to.
And I think the world is so caught up with
just liking things just because everyone else
likes them.
Like the wave.
What is the point?
I don't understand.
Let's go back, speaking of song-writing and
great lyrics.
I want to go back to your brother's bedroom,
you and Finneas, and when you guys decided
to start creating your first song together.
What I believe is your first song, “Bellyache”
right?
Was the first one?
Yeah.
Can we go back to that day?
What was going on that day?
Was it the plan, was it like Michael Jackson
and Jackson Five had Joe Jackson, as the father,
and he said, "You guys are gonna be the Jackson
Five and you're gonna be a group, and you're
gonna practice every day after school."
It wasn't like that in your house?
No.
There was no... not at all.
Honestly.
I mean, we started working together, I think
I'd say a year before we actually wrote that
song together.
'Cause I guess that was sort of the first
full song we wrote equally, I'd say.
And before that I had written a bunch of songs
on my own and he had written a bunch of songs
on his own.
And then, I don't know, we just made stuff
because we could.
There was no intention whatsoever.
No intention.
No "I'm gonna be a star."
Fuck that.
I don't want to be a star.
That sounds like hell.
But...
She's a star.
Shut up.
Oh my God.
But what I'm saying is I made it...
I'm not saying I made it, I'm saying I made
music because I wanted to.
He made music because he wanted to.
He's my best friend so we're friends and we
just make shit.
“Bellyache” we were just sitting in my
garage and we were just riffing on random
stuff and coming up with random melodies and
I don't even know what we were doing.
I don't think we knew what we were doing at
the time and we were just making some random
stuff up.
And we started just ad-libbing a bunch of
weird, I don't even know what's and I was
like, "Sitting all alone, mouth full of gum
in the driveway."
And we were like, "What the fuck does that
even mean?
What the fuck?"
And then he was like...
I've explained this so many times, but I'm
going to anyway because it's kinda fly.
He was like, "My friends aren't far in the
back of my car are their bodies."
You're in a car with your friends like "Cruisin'
down the street in my '64.
Jockin' them bitches.
Clockin' the hoes."
Oh my God.
We could go.
We could go.
Let's go.
I'm sorry.
It just came into my brain and I said it.
Yeah, Genius.
If you can't do this at Genius, where else
can you do it?
But you changed the lyric, he had the lyric.
I changed the lyric, yeah.
So he was like, "in the back of my car are
their bodies."
I was like, "No.
Lay their bodies.
We just killed all these hoes.
And they just lay there."
And then that was sort of.
We were like, "Oh."
And then it was like, "Woo!"
And then we wrote whatever that song was.
That's when our minds sort of realized that
you can literally write about whatever you
want and nobody does that I feel like.
Perfect segue to my next question.
You didn't kill all your friends?
Your friends are all alive?
No I didn't.
My friends are good.
They're all okay.
Look, we're guilty of it over here at Genius.
A lot of times we expect when we listen to
music, a lot of times you take it literally.
And you have this approach to songwriting
and you spoke about this before and I thought
it was so just brilliant that you don't necessarily
have to go through the things that you write
about.
You create a fantasy world within your music
too and just let it go.
Talk about that approach to creativity, your
creative approach with that.
Well I mean, it's exactly what you just said.
I don't know.
So much music is...
I mean, I've even talked to people that...
Okay, there's so many things I could say.
I have so many things in my brain bubbling
around in there.
But you don't have to go through anything
to write about it.
Or you could go through everything and write
about something else.
It's literally telling a story.
It's not something... you can write about
something you've done.
You can write about something your friend's
done or you wanna do or you used to do or
your mom did.
That sounded like an insult.
Like a your mom insult.
It wasn't but it sounded like it was.
Your mom's in the back.
You need to chill.
You need to have some respect.
Yeah, but... 'cause I've even talked to people
that are like, "Billie, you're the reason
that I learned a lot from that."
Because people are like, "I had no idea that
you could write about anything.
I thought you had to go through exactly what
you write about because you're not"
Keepin' it real.
You're not keepin' it real, exactly.
And it's like art, as I said, it's a story,
it's... you could write about fiction.
I haven't killed my friends, thank you.
It's a character.
It's like when people really want to act.
When I was little me and all my friends whenever
we played games we always wanted to die in
the games.
You always wanted to die another big death.
And if we made little fake movies, one of
us would die and it was like, "Oh my God,
we died."
And it was crazy.
And I don't know why that was but it's fun.
You can become a character that you would
never ever be and almost change your mind
and sort of become someone else which you
can never do.
Ever.
You can never be someone else.
I just was talking about that, but that's
what songwriting is.
So in a song like “Ocean Eyes” it sounds
to me like the deepest love affair, the deepest
relationship ever in life and you wrote that
at 14.
You made that... were you just like, in love
and so enamored at 14 that you wrote this
song or was it just something that you made
up?
Okay, to set this straight, I've never been
in love.
Gross.
My brother actually wrote the song himself.
Which, in a way, I'm like, "Thank God."
Because I don't want to fuckin' write about
falling in love because gross.
But the thing was that even though my brother
had written it, it was still mine.
It was still exactly coming from me.
I took it as mine and the thing is it wasn't
at all artificial.
It wasn't like, "Finneas, write a song for
me so that I can do it and I can get credit
for it."
That wasn't it at all.
It was like I wrote songs already and he had
written this song that was sort of, it was
about what he was going through but at the
time he was... it was sort of what we were
both going through in a way and he just wanted
to hear me sing it and I wanted to.
I just loved it a lot and it was my... it
was mine.
Of course, 'cause you have to believe it or
feel it in some type of way to be able to
deliver a performance that's believable.
If you're the, "Okay, this is just some song
I'm going to sing that just sounds like any
other song that you're singing."
Oh my God.
But you have to connect with it.
I can, yo, but this is what I talk about all
the time, is that so many people right now
are getting famous because of someone else.
Like, "There's an artist and we want to make
this artist a star, we want to make her blah."
And it's like, "Okay, the way you're going
to do that is have someone else write the
song.
Someone else style her to look like somebody
else that she's not.
Put a ton of make-up on her that she doesn't
freakin' look like herself in."
All these artificial things that involve so
many people that are not the person that's
getting to where everyone else wants them
to be.
And if you're just getting somewhere because
everyone else wants you to be there or you're
getting there because you're being everyone
else.
You just get to a place where it's like, "What
is the point of that?"
What if everyone died right now?
Right now, if everyone died and my whole life
I had been doing fuckin' what like tons of
other people wanted to do and try to please
people and then everyone died, I would be
left with this fuckin' thing I didn't want
in the first place.
What's the point of that?
So answer me this.
That's amazing, 'cause I was thinking of this
when I was thinking about the things that
we were gonna talk about last night before
this interview.
You're a big deal and I'm gonna tell you why.
And you shouldn't be but today to have a young
woman.
We have an industry, entertainment, music,
where young people, their creative vision
isn't respected and trusted as it should.
Women specifically aren't being heard like
they should and their vision comes through
and we hear these horror stories all the time.
And here comes Billie, like, "Yo, this is
me.
I'm young, I'm 16.
15 at the time when you came through, right?
I'm a woman.
This is me and you're gonna love it 'cause
you don't have a choice."
Do you realize the magnitude of just the young
people and young women in general that you're
going to inspire just by being able to say,
"Fuck it.
Don't style me.
I don't want to be who you want me to be.
This is who I am, and you're gonna love it."
I'm gonna cry.
Wow, thank you for that.
I just, I don't know.
I mean on that note.
People are like, "You're a role model.
How can you say that?
If you're somebody, people are looking up
to you, Billie.
How could you possibly say something like
that?"
I'm like, "You know why they're looking up
to me?
Because I say shit like that."
I say what the fuck I want to say because
if I don't say it...
I don't know, what is the point of freakin'
not doing what you want to do?
I just don't know.
And I mean, obviously, there's the fact that
women can't really and that's sort of the
rule subconsciously it's everyone's rule.
That universally women with personalities
are hated.
That's a universal fact.
And I know that, and I've always known that.
And it's so ugly to me.
It's just like, "Fuck off, dude."
That's why this moment is beautiful, though.
I really feel like the way the fans have embraced
you the way music has embraced you has been
so organic.
That it doesn't feel like, Billie Eilish doesn't
feel like something that was packaged or made
up or from a label like, "Oh it would be a
great idea if we got this young girl."
Yo, I'd rather die.
I would rather die than be artificial.
I just can't stand it, I just cannot stand
it.
And I'm so not saying I'm a perfect role model
and I'm everything that an artist should be.
I don't think that at all.
I hate myself in a lot of ways.
I just explained that upstairs.
But no matter what...
I fuckin' don't even know what I'm saying
anymore but I guess I agree.
I don't know.
Yeah, but we love you.
One thing I wanted to get into.
Two more things before we get outta here.
There's a lyric of yours that I absolutely
love and I just wanted to know the moment
when you came up with it.
On “My Boy” when you say, "My boy loves
his friends like I love my split ends and
by that I mean he cuts them off."
Yo that's such a clever...
That's pretty crazy right?
Yeah.
Did you just come up with... was that something
you were thinking about, like, yo...
It was me and my brother, dude.
We were just like zoned in.
Oh my God.
Yo dude, the moment that that happened I think
we both stood up and jumped and high-fived
I'm pretty sure.
When we came up with that line it was a moment.
We were like, "Fuck.
We are God."
And we're not but you should feel like that
sometimes.
You have your moment.
Your God moment.
We had our moment and we were...
I remember, I mean, the beginning of that
song, the first verse of that whole song,
which is, I mean every part of that verse
is sorta like that which is like, "My boy's
being suss, he was shady enough but now he's
just a shadow."
So it's shady.
If it's shady in the park, it's a bunch of
shadows of trees.
But it's kind of all of the shadows in one
so it's like shade, so it's almost a shadow.
He was shady, now he's just flat-out a fuckin'
shadow.
Shady ass motherfucker.
And then it's like...
That sounds real.
Then it's like "My boy loves his friends like
I love my split ends, by that I mean he cuts
them off."
Fun fact: I don't even cut my split ends off,
ever.
It's really gross.
You look at the ends of my hair and it just
looks like a bunch of legs like this.
Each hair.
But, nah.
It was such a moment.
We were sitting on my brother's bed and we
had just come up with that first half and
then he goes, "Oh my God, Billie.
My boy loves his friends like I love..."
And he couldn't find the rhyme, he was like,
"What's something like you cut?"
And I was like, "Split ends."
My boy loves his friends like I love my split
ends and by that I mean he cuts them off.
That's dope.
Yo, it was insane.
That's dope.
That's exactly how I pictured it, like you
guys had a celebration.
It feels like you could do an end-zone dance
after that one.
Honestly.
Plug walk.
Definitely, you could do the plug walk after
that.
Shout out to my man, Rich the Kid.
One last thing before we get out of here because
I know you gotta go.
These are rapid fire questions, I wanna do
this little segment that we do, it's called
‘Record Break.’
So it's all questions about different records.
First thing that comes to your mind, alright?
Okay, I got you.
What's the first record you ever bought?
“Sail” by AWOLNATION.
What's your favorite record 
of all time?
“Catch Me Outside”, Ski Mask the Slump
God.
That's a good record.
Of all time, though?
I just remembered you were 16 and I'm sorry.
Shout out to Ski.
It's like that one...
I don't know. There's a lot like “The Motto.”
I mean "Something" by The Beatles is actually
incredible.
You ain't gotta change it.
Shout out Ski Mask.
I'm just saying.
He came to dance.
Shout out Slump God.
He actually played that for me and came on
before he even put it out.
It was crazy.
What's a record that you love but people wouldn't
expect?
Wow, a lot actually.
I feel like I always name stuff and people
are like, "What in the fuck are you?"
I'd say “Na Na Na” by My Chemical Romance.
That song is crazy.
The record that you play when you wanna get
in your feelings.
Sheesh, I'd say right now it's “Gone Away”
by H.E.R.
Okay.
Aw, man, H.E.R. is amazing.
I know.
Your favorite karaoke record.
Ooh, I don't know about that.
You don't do karaoke?
Have you ever did karaoke?
Nah, I did it at a birthday party once when
I was eight.
And it was that one where she burns a CD and
then she calls him gay or something.
What song is that?
I don't know that song.
I'll tell all your friends that you're gay.
What the hell song is that?
Like, "Burned your CD and then I'm not gonna
write you a..."
No, wait.
Jay-Z didn't sing it, I don't know it.
I don't know what it was.
I don't know, jeez, karaoke?
“The Motto” by Drake.
YOLO.
And then finally your favorite record that
you've written so far.
“Copycat.”
Okay, that's the end.
That's a good record.
I know a thing or two about copycats.
I feel like they're trying to copy our style,
Geniuses, but it's all good.
Everyone's trying to be Genius.
Yeah, everybody's trying to be Billie Eilish.
Nobody could be a Genius but everyone tries
to be.
And nobody could be Billie Eilish.
But yo, I'd like to thank you for stopping
by.
Of course.
And kicking it with us.
You spent a lot of time here today.
We got a lot of things coming with Genius
and Billie Eilish and look forward to doing
this again.
Cool.
I'm so hype.
Thank you for having me.
Woo!
