Billie Eilish, the Grammy-winning artist known for her distinctive sound and refusal to be reconciled within genre limitations, has been teaming up with her brother, pducer Finneas O’Connell, on most of her most critically acclaimed hits. From the haunting melodies of Ocean Eyes to global phenomenon Bad Guy, the sibling duo has proven, time and again, artistic chemistry. But in Finneas’ words today, Eilish enters a new chapter of her career—learning how to produce music without Big Brother at the help desk.
As Finneas O’Connell said in a recent interview, he would be proud of Billie Eilish’s development as an artist and as a producer too because he discovered that she had been on the way to perfecting her production skills. “She’s very good at it,” he said of his sister, as he pointed out how good she was and how dedicated she was in perfecting the sound aspect. To many of the artists’ fans, it marks a new turn in Eilish’s artistic trajectory: she has hitherto been consigned to the joint, sibling-based processes through which she creates with Finneas.
Billie Eilish and Finneas, having formed a creative partnership, have shown stereotypical views on mainstream pop music trends to be minimalist and experimental. The close working relationship is essentially important for Eilish to climb up in her career since Finneas has also often assumed roles like that of a producer, co-writer, and multi-instrumentalist in many of her albums. But the increasing interest of Eilish to produce alone offers natural development in her artistry.
Finneas reports that his sister is still a pleasure to work with, although he’s okay with her movement away from the comfort zone and into establishing her own voice in the production space. “I think it’s really important for any artist to be at that point where they can be autonomous,” he said, speaking to the value of self-sufficiency in the creative process. With production skills, already known for her rather remarkable lyrical perspective and genre-bending style, Eilish opens new doors to possibilities in music.
In a way, this is another reflection of this general pattern within the music industry, whereby more artists begin claiming control over their production in order to gain a firmer grip in the sound-making process. In the case of Eilish, who has already been bold about her kind of music, this step towards independence will definitely affix her as an icon in the music industry.
In this self-produced work by Eilish, the whole world’s eyes rest on what will come out of this new ability. Even with Finneas in her corner and this unique talent, the next chapter of Billie Eilish’s career seems to unravel with innovation as if anything would happen and with surprises better than what brought her to stardom.
