darkroom records

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!