Billie Eilish to Billie Eilish: ‘Shut up’
Star shares what it’s like to watch new film about herself
Billie Eilish can’t stop making lists.
“I’m just finding ways of enjoying life,” the 19-yearold singer-songwriter said late last month. “I really like cleaning my room and rearranging things.”
She’s also been working on the follow-up to her debut album, “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” from 2019, which helped her win all four top Grammys — best new artist, record of the year, song of the year and album of the year — and made her the youngest person ever, and the first woman, to pull off the sweep.
It was the latest milestone in a meteoric rise chronicled in a new documentary, “Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry,” out on Apple TV+ on Feb.
26. But that doesn’t mean Eilish’s rapid ascent is easy for her to watch. “I’m watching it like, ‘Shut the (expletive) up,” she said. “It’s brutal. I’m like, ‘Don’t talk about that!’” (“It’s really nice to get to watch myself go through all these amazing things from another point of view,” she added of the “painfully honest” movie.)
The film, directed by R.J. Cutler, traces a fairy tale career that has seen Eilish’s homemade songs streamed more than 1 billion times on digital platforms. It chronicles the creation of that awardwinning LP, and was filmed from 2018 through early 2020.
Eilish has spent the past year enjoying recent milestones like voting, driving and accidentally ordering 70 boxes of Froot Loops online. She also wrote a song with Rosalía, “Lo Vas a Olvidar” (“You Will Forget It”), which premiered during a special episode of the HBO series “Euphoria.”
In an interview from Los Angeles in late January — punctuated by occasional barks from her pit bull, Pepper — Eilish shared a few of her cultural essentials, including her lockdown listens and her dream first date. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
1. The Strokes’ “The New Abnormal”
When I first found the album, I was going on a lot of bike rides. I would play the whole album on my speaker backpack and ride around random neighborhoods, and it was always sunny and breezy and pretty and green. Julian Casablancas is just a genius — every time I hear his lyrics I think, “I would never think to say that.” That’s what I love about them — they’re so unexpected, but also relatable. Every single song is good.
2. Anything Scented
When I was growing up, everybody said I had a “Super Sniffer,” which is a phrase from the show “Psych” and basically means you can smell really well. I don’t know how, though, because my nose is very small! Mine is kind of extreme because I also have synesthesia, which is when your brain pairs two things automatically — every smell has a certain color, number and day of the week. I have probably 100 perfumes, and I label the bottles with little pieces of paper so I can remember what they smell like to me. Some are very specific, like, “This one smells like a ballet class I used to be in,” or “This one smells like that one day we went to this person’s house and this person said this,” and some are more vague, like, “This Hawaiian Punch perfume I got at CVS for $1 smells like 2015,” the whole year. Some are so strong that I can’t smell them at all anymore because I get overwhelmed with the memory.
3. Crossroads Kitchen
I’ve never been on a date — no one has ever taken me on a (expletive) date before! — but if I were to go on one, Crossroads would be the dream. It’s a vegan restaurant in Los Angeles, and it’s bomb. It’s the most delicious food ever. The meatball sub and chicken waffles are my go-tos. They’re both entrees, so every time I go they’re like, “What do you want?” and I’m like “The meatball sub,” and then they want to move on to the next person, but I’m like, “Also, the chicken waffles.” And I eat them both right up. I don’t have any leftovers afterward.
4. “I’m in the Mood for Love”
The first time I heard this song was on “The Little Rascals,” which was my favorite show when I was kid. All I wanted was to be a Little Rascal; I wanted to kiss Alfalfa so bad! There’s a scene where Darla sings “I’m in the Mood for Love,” and I remember thinking it was such a pretty song. Then years and years went by, until one day, I was like, “What was that song that I thought was so pretty when I was little?” And I found a really beautiful, but low-quality, Frank Sinatra version on Soundcloud, which I listened to when I was traveling through Europe on tour.