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Time is kind of an amazing thing because you can do so much with it. I think people underestimate time... I don't want to just sit on my phone for hours.
β Billie Eilish
singer-songwriter, singer, composer, dancer
π Read on Wikipedia2001
Time is kind of an amazing thing because you can do so much with it. I think people underestimate time... I don't want to just sit on my phone for hours.
When I do have free time, I spend it with friends, or I spend it at home writing or making something.
I don't even call them fans. I don't like that. They're literally just a part of my life; they're a part of my family. I don't think of them as on a lower level than me. I don't think I'm anything but equal to all of them. So yeah, they're basically all of my siblings.
I have never done drugs, Iβve never got high, Iβve never smoked anything in my life. I donβt give a fuck, I never have. Itβs just not interesting to me. I have other shit to do. β¦ I know people around you doing that shit makes you want to, but you donβt have to β¦ [her song "xanny" is] less "donβt do drugs"; itβs more "be safe" β¦. I donβt want my friends to die any more.
Bing? Who the fuck uses Bing?
Wake up and smell the coffee Is your cup half full or empty?
You'll never know until you try it Come out and play
When I was older Than it should ever be
I had a dream To anyone who might care
I had a dream "They don't deserve you"
Don't be cautious, don't be kind You got your finger on the trigger, but your trigger finger's mine
If teardrops could be bottled I don't wanna be you anymore
So you're a tough guy I'm the bad guy
I must be missing something Don't give me a Xanny now or ever
I don't even call them fans. I don't like that. They're literally just a part of my life; they're a part of my family. I don't think of them as on a lower level than me. I don't think I'm anything but equal to all of them. So yeah, they're basically all of my siblings.
I've always done whatever I want and always been exactly who I am.
Words are more powerful than some noises. Noises won't last long. Lyrics are so important, and people don't realise that.
In real life, I'm a really smiley person. I smile when I talk and I laugh.
It's rare for anyone to value the opinions of a teenage girl.
If it's good music, it's good music.
In the public eye, girls and women with strong perspectives are hated. If you're a girl with an opinion, people just hate you. There are still people who are afraid of successful women, and that's so lame.
If I make music and people hate it, you know, whatever. I'll die someday, and one day, they will too.
I'm gonna make what I want to make, and other people are gonna like what they're gonna like. It doesn't really matter.
I really love Linkin Park, and I loved Chester Bennington, and it is horrible what happened to him. I grew up listening to him because my dad would make these mixtapes with a lot of different artists - Linkin Park, Avril Lavigne, The Beatles, Sarah McLachlan, I just really loved Linkin Park, and their production is really sick.
Sometimes it's flattering when people copy you, but sometimes it gets to a breaking point.
People are terrified of me, and I want them to be.
I'm trying to show everybody that I'm a girl, and I'm five foot four, and you can do anything you want, no matter your gender. It's your world, too!
Nothing really scares me, to be honest.
I hate the idea of genres.
I listen to music all day every day. I can't not listen to music. It's kind of scary how much I listen to music, but it's what I love, and it's all I care about, so I'm good with it.
I don't really get nervous that much, or if I do, only I know. It's all inside me. I am good at hiding everything.
I grew up on the Beatles; I love Linkin Park and Green Day. I heard hip-hop for the first time at 11 and realized what I was missing.
I listen to music all day every day. I can't not listen to music. It's kind of scary how much I listen to music, but it's what I love, and it's all I care about, so I'm good with it.
I'm a really particular person. I want it my way.
I wrote my first song at 12 and remember someone asking, 'What were you going through at 12 that you could write about?' I get what you're saying, but 11, 12, 13 were the hardest years of my life. You learn everything. You learn how horrible things feel.
I don't see myself as a pop artist. Like, when you hear 'pop,' you're like, 'Oh, bubblegum, jumpy little girly stuff,' and I feel like, 'Uh-uh. That's not me.'
Getting recognized is insane. It just blows my mind. Like, someone who you don't know at all can just be like, 'Oh my God - are you Billie?'
I love movement. I love moshing.
Pirate was going to be my middle name, but then my uncle had a problem with it because pirates are bad.
I really wanted to be a model when I was little. I loved photography, and I loved being on camera. But I was short and chubby, so I couldn't. Anyway, being an artist is way more interesting than just being a model because it's about you and what you want to be. You're not being treated like a clothes hanger.
All of the Vines that were acted & setup & had nice cameras, those weren't the good Vines. The good Vines were, like, a random little kid in the middle of a forest, like, yelling.
I used to make little movies when I was younger. I'd make my friends be in them and then edit them.
Clothing & fashion are kind of my security blanket, almost.
I used to write random little stupid things when I was five, but then the first song I really wrote was one called 'Fingers Crossed,' which is on SoundCloud.
If I'm in a bad mood, or if I'm uncomfortable, it's probably what I'm wearing that's making me feel that way.
I don't even call them fans. I don't like that. They're literally just a part of my life; they're a part of my family. I don't think of them as on a lower level than me. I don't think I'm anything but equal to all of them. So yeah, they're basically all of my siblings.
Time is kind of an amazing thing because you can do so much with it. I think people underestimate time... I don't want to just sit on my phone for hours.
I don't know how to function without music. When I'm not making it, I'm listening to it. It gives me courage and takes care of my mind.
I hate smiling. It makes me feel weak and powerless and small. I've always been like that; I don't smile in any pictures.
Sexism is everywhere, bro. I don't know if it's ever not somewhere.
Lyrics are so important, but they're really underrated.
There are alway going to be bad things. But you can write it down and make a song out of it.
I go through a lot of depression, and I know other people do, too, but I have an outlet that so many people don't. If you have that inside of you and can't get it out, what do you do?
When I do have free time, I spend it with friends, or I spend it at home writing or making something.
I like to be in control of how I look and how I feel and how I act.
I always wear the kind of stuff that makes you overheat and die.
I always wanted to be a Vine star. I wasn't, thank God.
When I was four, I wrote a song about falling into a black hole.
I think everybody deserves an equal amount of appreciation whether how old they are, but I mean, I'm cool with the praise. I'm good.
I felt like, for so many years - and I still even feel it - as a girl, you can't really expect to go on stage and dress like a boy and jump around and scream with the audience and mosh and stuff, and every time that happens, I feel really proud.
My brother had written 'Ocean Eyes,' and we recorded it, basing all of the production around contemporary and lyrical dance. I think of most songs that way - if you can't dance to a song, it's not a song.
I feel like I write so that people can think of it as theirs. If my song is exactly about your life right now, then it is - I don't even want to say that it's mine, because it's yours.
I'm not going to say I'm cool, because I don't really feel that. I just don't care at all, and I guess that's what people think is cool.
Being an artist doesn't just mean you have a song. That doesn't make you an artist. The word 'artist' means so many different things, and I feel like to be a real one, you really have to do it all. The people that I think of as artists - Tyler the Creator, Childish Gambino, Kanye West - are doing the most.
People think you have to go through something to write about it, and you absolutely do not. You can write about, like, a shoe. It's a story.
Writing music is just like writing a book.
It's really fun to be on stage in front of people.
I think it's really cool when artists have song titles or album names that are a really conversational sentence.
I play piano and ukulele, and I taught myself those things just because I wanted to play them.
Smiling makes me feel weak and not in control and not powerful and small.
Pretty much my whole life, I've been a performer and have loved singing and writing songs in my room for my own ears.
I don't think a song should be put in a category.
If you write in the same way over and over again, like, in the same place with the same techniques and with the same people, you're sort of writing the same song over and over again.
Time is kind of an amazing thing because you can do so much with it. I think people underestimate time... I don't want to just sit on my phone for hours.
People have so much going on in their heads. I'm like, If you could write a song, you'd feel so much better!
I always want to create and do things, or draw.
We uploaded 'Ocean Eyes' to SoundCloud, and it started getting a lot of plays pretty much immediately.
I never thought a career as a musician was possible.
What inspires me about rap is that it's written in an almost poetic way. I just think it's so cool.
I don't want people at my shows to come out and say, 'I just saw a cool show.' I want them to say, 'I had fun at the show.' I want it to be a collaborative thing and be part of the audience and have them be part of me. I try to interact with everyone there and have them be equal to me because they are.
It's really fun to put yourself into a character - into shoes you wouldn't normally be in.
I work with my brother Finneas, and he produces all of my music in his little bedroom in our house. We actually tried renting out a studio for a month when we were producing 'Don't Smile at Me,' but it was really hard there, and we ended up just doing it at home anyway.
When I write, I try to become different characters.
I love people talking about me; I love anybody just looking at me.
Aside from singing, I'm also a dancer. I've been dancing since I was 8.
I just really want to get music out and tour and go places I've never been, and just do more videos. I love photography and videography, and so I really want to direct videos when I can.
'Bellyache' is totally fictional. I like writing about things that aren't real. The song is about not trusting anyone and then putting trust in yourself and realizing that you don't know what you are doing, either. Or realizing that things you do with a group of people that you think are cool in the moment are ultimately all on you.
I've been in the Los Angeles Children's Chorus since I was 8.
You can write a song about being in love with someone, but you don't have to be in love with anyone.
What makes a song last is real content from a mind that is thinking a little bit harder about certain things. A lot of artists don't really think that hard.
If I'm inspired to make a certain kind of song, I'm going to make that kind of song, no matter if it's what they know me as or think I am.
I really like hip-hop and rap; that's my main influence. I really wanna be more of a hip-hop artist.
Me and my brother get along super well. We're, like, best friends. So we'll stay up until, like, five just talking because we get along and, you know, it's cool. And he respects my opinions, and I respect his, even if we don't have the same opinions, but a lot of the time we do.
I love to watch videos, and I've always liked to film and take pictures. I have an eye for really weird things that nobody thinks about. I used to make little movies about myself and then edit them on iMovie.
Some artists just ruin their voices because they don't know any better.
I really love Linkin Park, and I loved Chester Bennington, and it is horrible what happened to him. I grew up listening to him because my dad would make these mixtapes with a lot of different artists - Linkin Park, Avril Lavigne, The Beatles, Sarah McLachlan, I just really loved Linkin Park, and their production is really sick.
Writing a song is so personal. You have to have trust in someone you're working with; otherwise, you're not gonna come out with something that's really you.
I've always liked being busy. If I have nothing to do for a week, it just makes me mad.
I'm pretty sure I don't have any songs that are about how much I love someone. They're all either about, like, 'I hate you,' or 'You make me hate me.'
I've always been a singer. I never really decided I was gonna be a singer. It just kind of - I just sung a lot.
I find a lot of inspiration through visuals. When I was 12, I saw Aurora's 'Runaway' music video. Something inside me clicked, like, 'That is what I want to do, no matter whether it goes anywhere or not.'
I had a period in my life where I decided that I would never be bored again and that, if I had any free time at all, I would make plans, and I would always be doing things. It actually was great for a year or so, but then I lost all of my friends.
I'm a really artistic person, and so, with the live stuff, there's a lot that I think is really cool. Beyonce and Rihanna have all these dancers. So with the live costumes and video costumes, I'd really like to have my vision. The way that I want people to dress is very specific. I love fashion.
I'm super self-critical, which I think is good, because then I get exactly what I want. I'm critical of other people, too - I try not to be, though.
I have so many designs and video ideas and lyrics in my head, so I always try to be productive.
My whole life, I've sung and listened to music, and since the beginning, I've had iTunes and used Apple Music for streaming.
I feel like I might be a designer or stylist - or a director because I have always been super interested in cameras and editing.
