C'est l’unique interview que Billie Eilish accorde à la presse française pour la sortie de son nouvel album : "Hit Me Hard and Soft”. Cette femme n’a que 23 ans et elle est déjà associée à tous les records, mais au final ce qui compte ce sont les voies qu’elle a ouvertes avec ses disques.
Une interview en anglais, sous-titrée en français.
Retrouvez l'interview ici : https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/podcasts/totemic-l-echappee/totemic-l-echappee-du-vendredi-17-mai-2024-4654730
Une interview en anglais, sous-titrée en français.
Retrouvez l'interview ici : https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/podcasts/totemic-l-echappee/totemic-l-echappee-du-vendredi-17-mai-2024-4654730
Category
🎵
MusiqueTranscription
00:00 Hi Billie, you recommend listening to your new album from start to finish in its entirety. Why?
00:09 For what reason? Well, this album was, we put a lot of effort into making it feel like one
00:19 kind of experience and although the songs are not all one song that plays, you know, into 44 minutes,
00:28 you know, they all, they all, it feels nice to have context. I think that the songs can absolutely
00:35 live on their own but when you first listen to it, I like to have people listen from front to
00:40 back because that was the way that we created it. So before, before writing the songs, did you
00:48 imagine a complete story, like for a film script, like a trip? Honestly, no, we kind of went into it
01:00 trying to do that. We were almost planning on making like a concept album and it ended up being
01:09 so autobiographical and, but in a way it was still kind of concept-y because it was this whole
01:19 kind of world that we're writing within that I think all makes sense together. But the songs
01:26 all were written at different times and stuff was finished before other stuff and it was very,
01:32 we put a lot into each song. It wasn't, we weren't making like the entire thing all in one moment,
01:37 it was kind of like, you know, we took turns on everything but, you know, there's motifs throughout
01:43 the album and there's melodies that repeat and themes and lyrics that repeat and it's just like
01:50 a very, you know, it's not a bunch of songs put together and then called an album, which is also
01:55 totally fine but it's something else. It's, you know, an album. It's like really supposed to be
02:01 taken in as an album. You are used to recording at home or in your brother's home studio.
02:08 Do these homemade conditions have a concrete influence on your music? I think so. I think that
02:17 having your kind of everyday things in place, when at least for me, making music is really nice. I
02:30 think like being in a place that feels familiar and like home and I know where things are and
02:35 there's, you know, my dog is there and there's a pool outside and we can leave the studio and go
02:41 eat together or go, you know, play a game of something or go inside and just hang out. Like,
02:46 it just feels, it doesn't, I don't know, there's no pressure. It doesn't feel scary. I think the
02:53 comfort of where you live can be really nice and I think that what's really nice is that,
02:59 you know, when we first started making music, it was in my brother's room in our parents' house
03:05 and that was great but it was also hard because there was no real studio. It was just a room. So,
03:10 it was hard to differentiate when we were like on like working mode versus like being at home mode
03:15 and now we work in Phineas' studio which is part of his house but it kind of is like if we're in
03:20 there, we're working. If we're not in there, we're not and that's nice. I like us to talk about your
03:25 voice because once again, you have a different way of singing on this record. Sonorous, richer,
03:36 more lyrical, right? Sure. And is it for you more difficult to sing, to sing, singing loudly
03:48 or at a low volume like in "What Was I Made For" for example? Good question. You know, it's so
03:57 funny because for so long, I could only do one thing and that was kind of the softer tone and
04:06 I really wasn't able to go beyond that and if anything, I was afraid and not trained and...
04:11 You were afraid of singing louder? Yeah, I wasn't confident in it and I didn't really
04:19 that's just not where I thrived and not where I had ever thrived and you know, what people don't
04:26 really realize is that singing softly and with control is extremely challenging and the older
04:33 I've gotten, you know, the better I've gotten but the more challenging it is because I do more and
04:39 I have more to play with and it's really fun to play with but now that I can sing kind of a lot
04:44 of different types of ways, it's amazing. It's like so cool and I'm finding that singing those
04:54 higher, louder parts are so daunting to me. They're so not the kind of way of singing that I
05:01 grew up doing and come from and I'm capable of it and I'm doing it now but it's scary. I think
05:07 that for me is scarier but I'm really enjoying it. And you sing sonorous and more lyrical with
05:15 chords with an orchestra. It's new for you too. It's more theatrical? I guess so. I'd say it's
05:25 more... I think about the song "The Greatest" for example. Yeah, I think it just feels very
05:34 musical. I think it's nice that there's like a surrounding of music. Like you listen and it feels
05:46 like you're surrounded by it, I think. And we've always wanted to incorporate orchestral, you know,
05:55 anything like that. We've been trying to do for years and we just never have and on this one,
06:00 we were very adamant that we were like, "We need to have strings. We need to have some sort of
06:05 orchestra, some sort of orchestration going on." And we did it and it was so amazing to do. We also
06:11 had my drummer Andrew play on all the songs and a lot of the songs and we'd never done that before.
06:19 We've never used like band members. It's only been me and Phineas. So that was a new thing for us and
06:24 that was really satisfying and I think it makes the music feel more full. And it sounds like a
06:31 soundtrack of a film. Yeah, thank you for saying that. By the way, what part do images play in your
06:42 inspiration for writing songs? A good question too. You know, so much plays into inspiration.
06:51 I feel like you don't even realize what's inspiring you. I think there was like a couple
06:56 times in this one that film was very inspirational, lyrically and I guess sonically. And I mean,
07:06 visually, I'm so inspired all the time. I feel like everything you see is a fucking visual
07:15 masterpiece. It's like everywhere you look is something beautiful that you aren't necessarily
07:21 even noticing. And I think that if we like look a little harder or honestly look a little less hard
07:28 at things around us, we can see the beauty in things. And I think that alone is inspirational.
07:34 And I think that honestly the most inspiring thing during the album process was like my brother and
07:44 I and us and our relationship and working through difficult periods of it. And yeah.
07:51 Do you visualize the song before writing it like a personal film?
08:00 I don't think I do. I think it happens simultaneously. I think it happens at the
08:06 same time. I think when I'm writing something, you know, and I'm singing it and I'm playing it,
08:13 I'm not really visualizing as much as I'm feeling. I think I'm so in my body and I'm so
08:21 almost as if I'm seeing myself from outside of my body. And I'm like, I don't know, I was talking
08:30 to someone the other day, we were singing and when we were done singing, they said that there
08:37 was a moment in the middle of this like beautiful experience we had singing. And they said there
08:42 was a moment where they realized that they were singing. And that is how I feel. I think a lot of
08:48 the time making music is you like, it's almost like not even you. It's like this like other
08:52 being that like comes in and brings the magic to it, I guess.
08:58 Let's talk about the greatest. I wonder if the experience with the orchestra of Hans Zimmer
09:09 for James Bond was really important for you and give you inspiration for this album.
09:17 I think absolutely. I mean, Hans is like one of one of our greatest. And, you know, getting to
09:24 work with him years ago was so splendid and really, really interesting. And, you know, I feel like I
09:34 learned so much and Phineas learned so much. And Phineas didn't know a lot about scoring until
09:41 recently. And I think that working alongside Hans and being a part of No Time to Die and,
09:47 you know, stuff like that, I think was a big like, you know, turning point. I don't speak for him,
09:53 but I think it was a meant a lot. And honestly, in the last couple of years, Phineas has started
10:00 doing a lot more movie scoring and using a lot more strings. And he would absolutely never we've
10:06 never we would have never been able to structure the strings the way that we did in this album,
10:11 had he not had the practice of of working on score and working with orchestra orchestras.
10:18 And so I think we're very grateful for, like, all the people we've gotten to work with who are,
10:24 you know, film score-ers and their inspiration on us.
10:28 How did you learn to sing, Billie?
10:31 How did I learn to sing?
10:35 Why are you laughing?
10:38 It's a sweet thing to say. Honestly, I always have been singing. I really, I've been singing
10:47 since I was a little child. It's the thing that I've loved to do them out of more than anything
10:52 in the world. I love to sing so, so much. And I always have. And I grew up in a very musical
11:00 household. And my mom was a singer. And my brother was obviously as a singer. And my dad can sing.
11:05 And we were always playing music and always listening to music and always learning music.
11:10 And there was never I thought that every family was doing that. I didn't know that we were
11:14 kind of not everyone was like doing that.
11:19 Oh, yeah, really?
11:20 Yeah, I thought everybody was singing all the time and making music all the time. And then
11:24 I joined a choir when I was about like, I don't know, eight or something. And I started doing
11:36 some like vocal lessons in that and like learning choral pieces. And that was really
11:41 amazing and informative. And then, yeah, and then I just kept singing.
11:46 So a chord, a chord. Does this mean that we should imagine Billie Eilish wearing a uniform?
11:53 Yes, I was wearing a uniform. And it's funny because I, I grew up homeschooled, so I never
12:01 had to wear a school uniform. And I always wanted to. And I remember my mom taking me to this like
12:08 uniform store. And for no reason, like she just took me because I wanted to go and I picked out
12:14 like a random school uniform and I would wear it all the time just for fun. And I remember people
12:19 looking at me like in the middle of the day being like, why? Why are you not in school? And I was
12:23 like, no, no, this is just my cute dress that I love. And then in choir, we got to wear uniforms
12:30 and I was very excited. Of course, all my friends like, oh, I hate this. And I was like, well, I
12:34 like it.
12:35 How do you take care of your voice before a show?
12:41 Because in your book of photos, I can see you playing cards a lot, for example,
12:47 to avoid speaking.
12:50 Yeah, that's been a big part of my routine for many years.
12:53 Playing cards?
12:54 Yeah, it takes it takes a mixture of things. It's a lot of making sure that you're taking
13:01 care of your voice. And, you know, this is hard for me, but like sleep is important.
13:06 I never prioritize it, but it is really important. And especially for your voice and drinking lots
13:13 of water. And I do a vocal warm up before every show. And that's really, really a necessity.
13:21 And then, you know, if it's a big show or a special performance or a song that's really
13:29 hard to sing or something, I try to be on vocal rest, which is absolutely impossible for me.
13:34 I am incapable of it, but I do try. But the less you talk, you know, the better it is
13:41 on your voice. So, yeah.
13:43 And how do you play with silence in a song?
13:47 Good question.
13:49 Silence is, ironically, because I just said that I can't be quiet, silence is so, so important
13:59 to us as people and as as feeling creatures. I think that people underestimate the power of
14:07 silence. And I learned that a couple of years ago, and I feel like I'm still learning it. But
14:14 whenever I try to, you know, let silence do its thing, I'm always rewarded, like internally,
14:25 which is really interesting to me. And I think musically, it's something that Phineas and I have
14:29 been playing with since we started making music, you know, that not everything needs something to
14:33 be happening. It doesn't you don't need to have, you know, something going on all the time. And
14:41 I think that there's this like totally valid fear of like, oh, I can't, you know, I can't
14:47 let the listener be bored and I can't, you know, slow it down. And I don't want, you know,
14:53 this to happen. But silence is vulnerable, you know, and it's, it means you're, you're,
14:59 you're not jumping into whatever it is that you're not saying, you know, and I think that that's,
15:04 that's powerful. And it's important in in life and in music.
15:09 And the way you sing, What was I made for, for example, you, it's slow. And it's like,
15:16 you sing and you breathe, it's something very specific, you invent something with this song.
15:25 Could you explain it? Could you? Can you hear it? Can we can we hear it? Please?
15:37 That's so sweet. Thank you. Um, that one. Yeah, vocally. It's so it's such a
15:48 it's not a game, but it's a challenge. You know, I think, like, I didn't realize that you could
15:56 have so much versatility on in your voice. I really used to be like, well, I can do this
16:01 one thing. And that's what I can do. And I was born with this talent, and I can't get it to be
16:06 any better. And I can't work on it to make it better. I really believe that I didn't realize
16:12 you could work on it and make it better and stronger. And with What was I made for,
16:18 when we wrote that song, I immediately was singing it in this in that exact way. I just,
16:27 my my natural, like instinct was to sing it in this very kind of, I don't know, covered, like,
16:39 almost like achy tone that was very soft and very held back and very delicate and not
16:50 overpowering in any any way at all. And if anything, like so soft that there's moments
16:54 that it sounds like a whisper. And it's a challenge. It's really a challenge. And
17:00 recording that song was a big challenge. It's like very hard to, you know, do like,
17:09 you know, the control is a big challenge. And I worked on that song. I worked on recording that
17:16 song for like many weeks and tried lots of different ways of doing it. And the way that
17:22 meant the way that that felt the best was the original way that I had been singing it, which
17:26 was that held back really soft, achy, you know, quiet sound. And I also I've always found it
17:34 really found it really important for me to leave all my breaths in the music because it's realer.
17:42 It feels real. I feel like I'm it's like it imitates life. It's like I don't I don't want
17:48 my breaths to be cut out. I don't want to not hear the moments in between the emotion, you know,
17:55 it's important. What do you think about music classification into different styles with a rap
18:02 category, a pop category, R&B category? What do you think of these labels?
18:09 Well, you know, if you'd asked me like in like twenty eighteen, what I thought of the labels of
18:17 genre, you know, I had a whole view on it and I kind of had this whole.
18:22 Which I still agree with, which is, you know, I was like I used to be like I hate genres. I hate
18:28 that everything is put into a box and made into a genre. And I think over time I've stopped to
18:34 care so much about it because there's nothing I can do about it. I do think, however, that it does
18:40 box you in just a little bit. And I don't think it always does. I don't think it needs to. But
18:46 I think that there is like. You know, a level to being in a genre that makes you feel like,
18:53 oh, well, I'm doing this genre, so I can't do this and I'm doing this, so I can't do this.
18:57 And I I never have thought about genre one time making music. And I think I think some people
19:04 might. I can't even imagine doing it like I can't imagine playing something or writing something and
19:09 thinking. Oh, I'm writing a I'm writing a pop song or writing a rock song or I'm writing an
19:15 alternative song or an indie song. It's just music to me and I don't ever think about genre.
19:20 Like when I'm listening to me, I was listening to something the other day and somebody was like
19:24 said it was like in the rock genre. And I was like, what? That's so weird to say. Like,
19:30 I would never think of it like that. Like it's like a song that I love. Like I'm not.
19:33 I don't know. I think that the genres can be weird, but also like I get it. You got to put
19:40 stuff in boxes so it makes more sense to everyone, I guess. You were 13 when you recorded Ocean Eyes,
19:46 your first song with your brother. Looking back, what would you like to say to the 13 year old you
19:55 were? I don't even know. I would probably say a couple of things. I think I start out by being
20:07 like, you sure? You sure of what? You sure you want to do all that? That's what I would say.
20:15 And she'd probably say, yeah. And I'd be like, I don't know if you are. And she'd be like, yeah,
20:21 I am. And it would have happened exactly how it happened anyway, because I wouldn't have listened
20:26 to anyone. But I think if I were to give her like a little piece of advice, I guess I would have
20:32 just said like, breathe. I would have just been like, here, it's going to be it'll figure itself
20:41 out. Even at the worst times. It will be okay. Like it will. Like, I don't know. I think that
20:50 it also won't. There's like moments of there's always going to be tragedy in our lives. But
20:54 you know, there will be sunlight at some point, you know, I don't know. It's hard. I don't know
21:03 what I would say. What was the happiest moment of your career so far? Whoa. Happiest moment of my
21:13 career? Um, the first song or? Um, I think honestly, there's nothing like the first time
21:28 in terms of like emotion, I think. And I think that the way that I felt when Ocean Eyes first
21:38 got a lot of plays was I was just so excited. And then, you know, I don't know. I think all
21:48 the first moments, those were like the big it like those were not those are when I felt the most
21:52 power most in my chest of like, wow, this is so incredible. All those first memories. Thank you
21:59 Thank you very much, Billie.
22:01 Thank you.
22:02 Thank you very much.
22:03 Bye.