12 November 2020
Newsdesk
Billie Eilish joins Zane Lowe on Apple Music to discuss her new single “Therefore I Am”, released today.
She tells Apple Music about the origin of the song and accompanying music video and why she “can’t f**king wait" for people to hear her forthcoming album she’s been working on during quarantine. She also shares her thoughts on the outcome of the U.S. presidential election, how quarantine led to the creation of her upcoming album, why you should love what you make, getting over the hurdle of feeling like a parody of herself, and getting back to fun after a serious year.
Audio and key quotes below — feel free to use with coverage of the song/video credited to Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1.
Billie Eilish Tells Apple Music About Her New Song “Therefore I Am”…
You know this song is very, very up for interpretation. I'm very curious to see what people get from it and also what they feel when they hear it. I don't know. But yeah, it's a little mean. I love it.
It was very fun to complete. It was fun to record, especially because it's like ... I feel like you can hear it. I feel that I sound very much like ... I'm just f-king around. I'm just joking and ... You know that? Like, stop. What the hell are you talking about? It's like, come on. It's so real. I feel like a natural, and don't take me seriously, you know? I love it.
It feels like me. I feel like the rest of them also feel like me, but I think this one is more like ... If I think about it from an outside perspective, this one I'd be satisfied if I was a fan.
It's such a weird thing that I think a lot of people ... Like people have weird sh-t about artists listening to their own music. Since I first started making music, even my friends, they'd be like, "You listen to your own ... What?" Yeah. Why would I want to make music that I don't love? And especially the album that we're making right now, including "Therefore I Am," I love it. It's all I want to listen to. When I'm in the car, it's the first thing, I'm like, "Oh, I want to listen to this." And it happens to be my own music, but it's not like ... I just genuinely love it. Like whether or not it's me, I just love it. So yeah, it's a good thing. You should love what you make.
Billie Eilish Tells Apple Music She “Can’t F**king Wait” For People To Hear Her Forthcoming Album…
I feel good. I'm very, very happy with where I'm at in making music. I love "Therefore I Am," I love "My Future." I can't f-king wait for people to hear this album that we're working on. It's like, oh my God.
Billie Eilish Tells Apple Music About The Music Video For “Therefore I Am”…
The video is just the way that the song feels to me of just kind of like careless and not really trying. I don't know. The video, we, number one, shot on an iPhone, which we didn't even mean to do. It's basically me running through the empty Glendale Galleria eating a doughnut and a pretzel. That's literally it. But like random, chaotic, don't care sh-t. And it was so fun. We shot it overnight, shot it on an iPhone. We had barely any crew. It was crazy. It was so crazy.
Billie Eilish Shares Her Thoughts on The Outcome of the U.S. Presidential Election…
Oh my God. Like the fact that now I can actually think about, wow, we maybe have a chance to get sh-t back on track. It's a good, good feeling. It has been a good a-- week. Trump is out!
Billie Eilish Tells Apple Music How Quarantine Led To The Creation of Her Forthcoming Album…
That's what we've been talking about for months about how this year has sucked for a lot of people, and as much as I wished that I had been able to have the year I was planning on having and tour and blah, blah, blah, we would never have made this album. I mean, we would have made something, but it would have been completely different. It's not like we're making songs about quarantine, we're just in a different mindset than we would be otherwise. And that's just how everything is. It's the butterfly effect. It's like if you hadn't done this three years ago, maybe you wouldn't be doing this three years later. It's just the way that it is. At the same time, this is the most time off I've ever had in my life, first of all. And especially since this all started like five years ago.
So it's been a blessing, huge blessing and a curse, but I'm really, really happy that we've been able to make the things that we're making. And I can't wait for you to hear this sh-t. I can't wait to have the world hear. I'm very excited and hopeful for the future.
Billie Eilish Reflects on Her Debut Album ‘When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?’…
I love When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, but at the same time I am so young. I like hear it and all I hear is just like a baby voice. I don't know. It's weird. I just feel like the new stuff that we're making is so ... It's just weird how much you grow in two years. God, it's so weird. So I kind of have to just like ... I don't know. I don't know. But I love it. I love it.
Billie Eilish Tells Apple Music About Getting Over The Hurdle of Feeling Like A Parody of Herself…
For most of this year, like the first half of this year, I felt very trapped in my own facade weirdly. I was having a real problem of ... Because I kept feeling like a parody of myself, which was crazy and very weird and hard to manoeuvre And I don't really know how I got out of it, but it was very ... I mean, it happens occasionally still, but there was a couple of months in there where I was like, everything I wore, I was like, "Oh, I look like Billie Eilish." Everything I said, everything I did. And then we would make music and I would be like, this feels ... I kept feeling like ... What's the word? Inauthentic. Yeah, inauthentic version of myself, because I felt like I was being myself too much.
I go home and I watch myself on TV and hear myself in the store and it's like, it's great. It's just like, I got really in my head because I forgot ... Because it was always natural. And so suddenly when it was like a thing that everybody knew about, then I was like, now I feel like I'm trying to be ... It was crazy. So yes, I definitely had to kind of get over that hurdle of feeling like a Billie Eilish parody.
Billie Eilish Tells Apple Music About Getting Back To Fun After A Serious Year And Reflects on Her Online Persona…
It was really fun. And also, it was so nice to get back into a not so serious me because I feel that I've been very ... I've really pulled myself away from the way that I used to be, which is very open and wild on the internet. I really went away from that just because I was tired of it and COVID. It's been nice to get back into having a connection with the fans for real, actually having a presence and not being so f-king serious. Oh my God.
And obviously this year has been insane and been horrible for a lot of people and been eye opening. And of course, for so many parts of this year, I was not about to make it about myself and be like, "Oh, I ..." No, it wasn't my time to have a huge internet presence and be like, "Hey guys, look at me." It wasn't my time. It was time to focus on things that really needed to be talked about and not make anything about myself and anything about promoting anything about me. So that was totally fine. And I'm always going to do that whenever I feel that it's appropriate, but it is nice to just kind of come back and just wake up and have fun again.
