Coachella Band Preview: FINNEAS

From the day after the last Coachella ended in April 2019 until now, I’ve been waiting to go back. Obviously March 2020 put a huge damper on the yearly spring tradition, and since then it’s just been a waiting game. I spent so many times thinking about Coachella, looking at pictures, and wondering what the day would be like when I finally get to go back and hoping by then it would be a normal Coachella. Now here we are, I leave for Coachella in just under a month and the festival begins in 5 weeks tomorrow. 1,090 days since the last Coachella once Day 1 Weekend 1 2022 hits. It’s unreal. I still keep holding my breath as I prep by listening to acts playing the festival this year, watching the Coachella Documentary from 2020, booking my travel, and planning out what I want to wear. With plenty of festivals now happening and three years since the last installment, Coachella seems imminent. I truly can’t believe we’ve made it this far. With the amount of time left, it’s really time to intensify the prep so this week I’m previewing an artist I’ve known about for a few years who, in my opinion, doesn’t get enough credit.

Finneas Baird O’Connell really has his claim to fame through his sister, Billie Eilish. He writes and produces a ton of her music along with other artists. He also writes and records his own music under the name FINNEAS. Before taking on his own project, he was the lead singer in the band, The Slightlys and took on some acting projects in the early 2010’s, including having a few appearances on the musical based TV show Glee. Since 2016, he has been recording and releasing his own music though. He released his first EP Blood Harmony in 2019 and his first studio album Optimist just last year. His music style is considered pop/alternative. After listening to FINNEAS for the first time in 2019, I would definitely consider him a pop artist. Also, despite the fact that he writes Billie’s music, I really do prefer his stuff over his sister’s. I knew once I discovered this that I wanted to listen to him more, but never really made the effort to do so. I guess there’s no better time than the present and no better festival to do it for than Coachella.

Billie Eilish is Saturday night’s headliner and usually a Billie festival appearance equates a FINNEAS festival appearance (sans Coachella 2019 when Billie made her first Polo Fields appearance). He plays a Sunday set. I’d expect a Sunday afternoon appearance from the older O’Connell sibling. I would also expect a Gobi or Mojave set from him. His set will likely be far less crowded than the set he’ll be a part of on Saturday night, but nonetheless, will be just as good. Here’s what you should be listening to in preparation for FINNEAS:

1. Let’s Fall in Love for the Night
2. Break My Heart Again
3. I Lost A Friend
4. Till Forever Falls Apart
5. What They’ll Say About Us
6. Angel
7. A Concert Six Months From Now
8. I Don’t Miss You At All
9. Claudia
10. New Girl

Coachella Band Preview: Billie Eilish

Guess what…Coachella 2019 begins next weekend!!! The three month wait is almost over! With that being said, there’s been a few changes since my last blog post. It was just announced this week that Kanye West will be performing his Sunday Service on Easter Sunday during Weekend 2! This is big news. Since Kanye and Justin Timberlake dropped off the bill as Coachella headliners, the hype for this year diminished some. Adding Yeezy to Weekend 2 was the perfect addition Goldenvoice needed to generate more excitement for a weekend that didn’t sell as well in certain aspects. The other change/news that happened is that I’m no longer going to have the same position at the festival that I committed to and have worked for the last 2 years. It’s definitely me stepping outside my comfort zone a bit, but I accepted on certain conditions, with some of the biggest being that I had great access and some free time to enjoy my favorite festival! I’m not sure I’ll be able to be at the event on Friday so I might be skipping the 1975, RÜFÜS DU SOL, and Janelle Monaé, which is a huge bummer, but I’m hoping for the best regardless.

With all of that news and my departure date now being a day early, this will be the last blog post for a little while until I return from my stay in Indio. If I have a second next week, I may make a post about set times and which sets to hit, but no guarantees. So for now let’s get into the last artist I’m previewing this year, Coachella newcomer, Billie Eilish.

Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell, from Los Angeles, California, had an interest in music from a young age. She joined the Los Angeles Childrens’ Chorus at the age of 8 and started writing and singing her own music by the age of 11. She also comes from a family of actors and musicians. In 2015, at age 13 she recorded the song “Ocean Eyes”, which was written by her brother Finneas for his band. The same song was released as Billie’s debut single on SoundCloud the following year. She also released the single “Six Feet Under” in 2016. At the end of the year “Ocean Eyes” was released worldwide through Darkroom and Interscope Records.

In January 2017, Billie released an EP of “Ocean Eyes” remixes. Her third single “Bellyache” was released in February. She released several more singles in 2017 leading up to the release of her debut EP Don’t Smile at Me. One of the singles she released in 2017 was included on the soundtrack for Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why.

Billie embarked on tour in 2018 and continued to release singles. She contributed to the soundtrack for the second season of 13 Reasons Why with the song “Lovely” featuring Khalid. Just last weekend Billie Eilish released her debut album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?. The debut album features a few already released singles, but a ton of new music.

Billie Eilish’s music is a soft, dreamy type of pop music. It’s comparable to the sound of artists like Lana Del Rey and Alina Baraz. It’s super vibey. Eilish’s vocals are trance-like and you can tell her musical influence draws from plenty of different styles of music.

I first heard Billie’s song “Ocean Eyes” while in Sacramento for an event in 2017, but I didn’t realize it at the time. It was actually the Goldhouse remix of the song too. Once I figured out what the song we were listening to in that fateful Snapchat video from Sacramento was (“Ocean Eyes”), I decided to download it. Since being announced on the Coachella lineup and hearing about Billie Eilish from a lot of different sources, I decided to start listening to her a bit. She’s definitely going to be a highly anticipated set this year at Coachella.

She plays Saturday. In her first Coachella appearance she’s already highly billed as well. I think Saturday has a stacked lineup, but I’d expect to see Billie on the Main Stage or the Outdoor Stage. We only have a few more days until set times are released for Weekend 1, so at least you don’t have to wait that long to find out anymore anyway. You have one more week to listen to all the Coachella bands and songs so here’s a few more from Billie Eilish to add to that list:

1. ocean eyes
2. lovely
3. when the party’s over
4. bury a friend
5. idontwannabeyouanymore
6. bellyache
7. you should me in a crown
8. wish you were gay
9. watch
10. my boy

 

Since this is the last band preview of the year, Happy Coachella Guys! I hope your Coachella is filled with sunshine, great tunes, and all the good vibes!