Finneas O’Connell is not quite as well known as his famous sister, Billie Eilish, preferring to work more behind the scenes as her songwriting partner and quietly release his own music. That’s the way he likes it, though, considering he spoke recently about how his younger sister’s life in the spotlight has made him realize he’s good where he’s at.
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“It’s been eye-opening. Everything that is normal for me is an undertaking for her,” he said in a recent interview with Mr Porter. “I have no idea what I’d think about it if I weren’t exposed to the limitations of her life.”
He then recalled a moment when a fan asked him about the trick to becoming famous. “She was like, ‘I just want to be in the spotlight.’ And I was like, no, you don’t. You really, really don’t,” he explained. That doesn’t mean he’s opposed to fame, he just enjoys it on a smaller scale than his sister. “You know, maybe one person a day comes up to me and says, ‘Hey, you’re Billie’s brother, right?’ And it’s always nice. But there’s no mob,” he said.
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FINNEAS on His and Billie’s New Album
The sibling duo is perfectly in sync between their lyricism and composition, and it’s because they are, as Mr Porter described, “yin and yang.” Billie creates the emotion-filled lyrics, and Finneas produces the sound that complements or turns them on their heads. In the 2021 documentary The World’s a Little Blurry, they were caught discussing the commerciality of their music. Billie expressed that she couldn’t thrive if she thought like that, while Finneas replied, “You don’t have to think that way, but I can.”
Now, he admitted, “We probably need each other so much in that way.” He expressed that they balance each other out emotionally and creatively as they work on music together.
FINNEAS also shared that Billie’s new album is “85 percent done.” They’ve been working on a new project together, following the FINNEASFINNEAS-produced albums When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? and Happier Than Ever. According to FINNEAS, there was a moment of writer’s block which stalled the project for some time.
“I don’t think Billie was particularly sure about how she actually felt about the things we were trying to write about,” he explained. “Making a thing that you feel really connected to – it can really evade you.”
Featured Image by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
