Billie Eilish Talks Her Debut Track "Ocean Eyes," Her Forthcoming Tour, and More
The breakout pop star is headed to the top.
The breakout pop star is headed to the top.
Photography: Robin Harper
Text: Ian David Monroe
Singer Billie Eilish fell into music after, quite literally, falling out of dance. A series of injuries (a strained groin, growth plate, and ankle) took her out of her first competition just days before she was to hit the stage. “My body is not a friend of dance, which is unfortunate. But it gave me a lot of time to do other things, which has been both good and terrible.”
The good came with her debut track, “Ocean Eyes,” a song that has permeated Spotify playlists every- where. If you haven’t heard it, your friend has heard it, and its origin circles back to her ill-fated sport: “That song happened because one of my dance teachers knows that I sing and write with my brother. He asked if we could do a song for one of the dances. He actually choreographed the [“Ocean Eyes”] dance video.”
At only 15 years old, the L.A. native writes lyrics that sound well beyond her years, but not without the fantastic imagination that comes with being young. Her contribution to the 13 Reasons Why soundtrack, “Bored,” examines the numbness of unrequited love and her most recent track, “Bellyache,” is about being a serial killer. “It’s really fun to write as a character or in a place you would never be. You don’t have to be going through something to write it,” she clarifies for the concerned. “I’ve got a lot of stuff like that.”
This fall, Eilish will set out on a headlining tour, and you can bet that it will have plenty of on-stage choreography. But first, she’s releasing her debut EP, on which she’s been hard at work with her collaborator/ brother Finneas. “We get along really well. Of course, siblings always have problems with each other—every- body has problems with everyone—but we have similar qualities and taste, and we just get each other.”
