Billie Eilish
is the hands down the breakout pop star that has taken the world by storm.
Her heartbreaking song, Ocean Eyes has brought fame and wealth to young age. She recently signed a 2.6 million dollar advance with Universal Music Corp. in return for five songs. She will see 1.5 million dollars worth of that money as soon as she signs the contract – this, all at the age of sixteen.
Ocean Eyes, was released to SoundCloud November 18, 2016, at the time she was just 13 years old. Although It’s Billies voice you hear, it’s her older brothers wisdom that you listen to. She proudly admits that her brother, Finneas, did indeed write the song that has catapulted the two into stardom and relishes in the ability to work alongside him. What’s becomes immediately clear is that Billie Elish the performer is, a family affair.
Fast-forward a couple years and now she has a song on the major Netflix television drama 13 reasons why. She is touring with indie-rock band, Florence and the Machine, and what’s most inspiring is that she is reportedly collaborating with Danielle Bregoli. (picturing Gucci flip-flops and ocean eyes.)
Billie came to the table with a hit song and kept working. She seeks to do what so many other artists want to do: spread work. The source of all that hard work comes from her “home studio” in her brother’s room. She mentions that the home studio is where she feels most comfortable recording and that her brother is whom she is most comfortable recording with.
She believes that if you surround yourself with unfamiliar faces, telling you unfamiliar things for “improvement,” you will have a disingenuous project that is artificial and not true to self.
It’s hard for Billie to be rude to people and say, “no, your idea sucks” but those words are often so crucial and necessary in the recording process. She believes that the close relationship she has with her brother allows for quicker debate and easier discarding of ideas.
And now that Billie has attained moderately long-lasting success, every publication worth a damn is seeking an interview, all the interviews boil down to the same thing.
Fame: what it entails.
Billie states repeatedly that fame sucks and people who want to be famous just to be famous can suck all the more. She believes that people don’t know what the cost of fame really is. She says that, “yes, the bright lights and the cameras and the money and the clothes are all great and so fun, but at what cost?” She sees that she has no more friends. She is always being dragged here or there. She is always in the studio. She is always doing interviews. Always gone and always on the move. Therefore, it’s been hard for her to make time for the ones past –music is her goal and operation.
“I would rather die than be artificial,” is a powerful and captivating quote that Billie has. It speaks to the exact nature of how she works, and who she is. She always was the one to dress different, she recalls. She never wanted to be the one with the painted face.
At such a young age, Billie has realized what the music industry looks to do to people. She wants to break that bond. Fans and members of the music industry love it. The wool has been pulled from the public’s eye about the music industry and Billie wishes to exploit it. Performers these days will not be a mold of what you want your record label to represent. They will be themselves and we are seeing this more and more. If there were a big “f-you” to the industry, it would be Billie. A 16-year-old kid doing what she wants – how she wants. She has the music and the talent and oh dare you to try to take that away from her.
