How Billie Eilish and FINNEAS Created 'What Was I Made For'

It does an emotional thing to you.

I feel the same way about the little...

What reminds me of a Nintendo DS or something,

which is this like arpeggiated-

Oh, I love this. Organ.

I love this, I think this does so much for the song.

But it plays so quietly, it just kind of peaks out

when the vocal goes away.

It sounds fake, sounds like a toy.

It makes me wanna barf, it's so sentimental feeling.

I really wanted the whole thing

to sound like Animal Crossing, I think that was a big-

Yeah, see?

♪ What was I made for ♪

I am Billie Eilish. I'm Finneas.

And we are going to be showing you

how we made the song, What Was I'm Made For.

It was one of the fastest songs we've ever written.

Once we got that first verse

and that line just What was I made for?

I think we were both like... [Finneas laughs]

It was a good vibe and it was honestly a half hour

that it took to do that.

[Billing indistinctly singing]

Made for.

This is one of four cases total in our career

where we've made something

and to then kind of submit to people.

It's a different way of making music because-

You're auditioning.

Yeah, you're- You're auditioning.

It's definitely an audition

and all we had was a voice memo.

Our main concern was we can't send them this voice memo

because was it rough- It was...

But it was good enough.

But there was something about it that was cool.

It was pretty special.

♪ I used to know ♪

♪ But I'm not sure now ♪

♪ What I was made for ♪

It is top three hardest songs I've ever had to record.

It's not even that it's high,

it is high in my range but it's not about that,

it's about the delivery.

I was trying to do a very specific thing with my voice,

which was this like very soft,

held back, upper range falsetto, whereas I could have...

I could have belted it, I could have sung it more out.

I could have sung it in more of a choral choir type...

[Billie humming]

And instead it was like a... [Billie humming]

♪ I used to float ♪

It's really hard to do.

Honestly, it's really hard to do.

It's really hard to sound good

and be enunciating the words correctly and enough having-

I remember that being a big part of the song

was making sure that it was intelligible.

I wanted you to understand what I was saying.

Could have literally done like a...

♪ I used to float and now I ♪

But I was not...

That's not what the song wanted.

And I could have gone...

♪ I used to float ♪

There's so many ways I could have sung it

but none of it worked the way that this kind of heartbroken,

almost like you were just crying

and now you're singing delivery was.

And it was the hardest choice

of all of the choices I could have made.

♪ I used to float ♪

♪ Now I just fall down ♪

♪ I used to know ♪

♪ But I'm not sure now ♪

I had this exact vision for what I wanted it to sound like

and I got it there, and I feel really proud.

I think it's one of the best...

If I can be honest, I've and self whatever.

I feel like it's one of

my best vocal performances I've ever given.

But you were harsh about it, she would-

I was.

We'd do the whole vocal and comp it,

and we'd be working on the production.

She'd go home for the night and she'd come back the next day

and she'd be like, I need to rerecord this line,

this line, and this line.

Yeah, when I was starting out I had one way of singing

and that's how I sang and everything that I sang,

I just sang it how I knew how to sing it

and now I have all these choices,

and I can play with my instrument.

I have an instrument now that I can play with

and it's really amazing, and it's really fun,

but it's definitely hard.

And I would say that I don't know how to feel was brutal.

Cause it goes...

It does that like a ascending

♪ Cause I, cause I ♪

♪ I dunno how to feel ♪

And it's so high and you're kind of sliding at the note.

What is the key?

Play it for a second. C.

Yeah.

♪ I don't know how to feel ♪

That how...

♪ How ♪ [Billie groans]

Oh you guys, I must have done that shit a gazillion time.

♪ I don't know ♪

And the...

♪ How to ♪

Oh my gosh, I'm so glad it's over.

I'm so glad I recorded it

and I don't have to record it again.

The run was definitely tough.

I think it was tough because it's in head voice

and for me runs are much easier

in kind of a lower register, in a mid chest voice.

♪ Cause I ♪

♪ Cause I ♪

That was the one that came to me initially

and I really wanted to do it but I was like,

I don't know if I can get this one.

The second chorus was belted for a while

and that run was belted and it just didn't sound right.

It just was like... [Billie groans]

This isn't what this is...

It's supposed to be.

But of course it's much easier to do that.

I was like [Billie sighs], God, I have to do the soft.

♪ Cause I ♪

♪ Cause I ♪

Okay.

[Finneas] Nice, dude.

I think I'm good.

That run, it's intricate.

What is it...

♪ Cause I ♪

♪ Cause I ♪

♪ Cause I ♪

♪ I don't know ♪

It's fast, it's soft, it's back here, it's not forward.

Billie's ability to double track is really amazing.

There's micro rhythms when you're double tracking

of where each syllable and pitch ends and begins

on the lead vocal that you've tracked.

And oftentimes especially the way

that Billie sings is a little jazzy,

so oftentimes her delivery is behind the beat

or rushing and then behind the beat.

It's all very purposeful.

It is but it's- Just so you know.

But it's hard to- Double.

Hard to double.

So it's hard to replicate.

If you sing in a very sort of common time,

all the notes start on the downbeat,

that's much easier to double,

and she's doing really jazzy intricate stuff.

♪ Made me miserable ♪

To even double that is really challenging

and she'll just go after it and and crush that.

And then she's able to do it when she harmonizes too,

and she's got a big range.

♪ I don't know how to feel ♪

And that's playing at the same time as the lead.

Can you play it with a lead?

♪ I don't know how to feel ♪

So even her vibrato is-

I try to match it all up. On the same rhythm as the-

The breaths are all matched up,

the vibrato is all matched at the same-

♪ I don't know how to feel ♪

So that's three takes at once.

This is just the lead that line.

Yeah, you can barely hear it.

You can kind of just feel it in the imaging of it

and there's a plug-in called VocAlign

that will analyze a waveform,

and stretch it and contract it,

and I've never used it once with Billie.

♪ Cause I ♪

♪ I don't know how to feel ♪

I think of sound in a very physical way.

I think that sound has a weight to it.

And I think that a perfect production

is a perfectly balanced set of scales.

I'm just trying to keep the equilibrium

and I feel like generally I can feel innately

when something is tipping the scale,

and sort of ruining the balance of everything.

And it is all sort of placing things really delicately

and making sure that it holds,

and then if it holds, maybe adding something else.

But oftentimes, especially from a stereo perspective,

it's like, if something's going on over here,

something's going on over here so that it balances.

I've gone on record of saying this,

but the fantasy is that your vocal is unbelievable

and the one instrument playing along to it,

the piano or the guitar is great

and that it's you're like Bob Dylan and it's just that.

The art of production to me

is just to enhance the emotionality,

it isn't to gild a lily or something.

So we just tried to be inventive

and add to the sort of narrative components of it.

One of my favorite components of the production on this,

I've spent a lot of time just handing Billie

some instrument that's in my studio because-

Oh yeah. I'm more interested in

what she's gonna do experimenting with it.

She has less years of standing behind a keyboard

on a stage than I do.

I don't really know what I'm doing.

And that's exciting.

As a producer, the idea that they're gonna come up with

is so much less theoretical and I love that.

And so I have this toy, this little keyboard

that Custom Vintage gave me.

It's literally yellow,

it's toy colored yellow and red-

Yeah.

As if it was from Toys-R-Us.

We had a patch on it. Yeah.

And I just was fuckin' around-

And I ran it through a plugin called SketchCassette

that I love- SketchCassette...

That just fucked up the sound more,

which made it feel really good.

But she's mainly playing along to the melodies

and it's is so sad.

[maudlin soft music]

Sorry, that's so sad. It's fuckin' tight.

Wait, keep it.

And here's how it's interacting with the lead.

♪ How to feel ♪

When it comes to production

and recording instrumental parts.

I'm much more interested in the first pass

and the sort of guesswork that goes into that.

I'd much less like to have her sort of sit there for hours

and figure out exactly what she wants to play for the verse.

Yeah, the first pass is kind of-

I want to be kind of improvisational

Play that ending of that one.

Just the outro? Yeah.

♪ How to be happy ♪

♪ Something I'm not ♪

And it fades out

♪ Something I wait for ♪

But it...

I had to boost it so much to even have you hear it just now.

It's so quiet in the mix.

Also underneath it are a bunch of ad libs that she did,

but they're so buried.

Ad libs, oh my god.

I could do a whole interview about ad libs.

Nobody ever asks me about ad libs.

They make songs so special, you don't even know dude.

But they're that quiet, they're so...

[emotional music] ♪ I ♪

This one?

♪ Don't know how to feel ♪

And again under the lead.

♪ I don't know how to feel ♪

Oh, I love that one.

♪ I don't know how to feel ♪

♪ Feel ♪

♪ But someday ♪

Love it, oh it makes me so excited.

I had this idea for the one,

on the second half of the first verse

when it says, Takin' a drive.

I love this, it's here.

♪ Takin a drive ♪

I just wanted it to have this weird,

kind of euphoric thing happening.

And so I said, Woo!

And I recorded that.

Do you wanna hear what it sounds like with no plugins?

Woo! [both laughing]

I forgot.

And then I ran it through an overdrive

and a channel EQ, and a reverb plugin, it sounds like this.

♪ Woo! ♪ [echoing music]

And then I turned it way down

and it plays at the same time as a big thumpy drum

♪ Takin' a drive ♪

A drum hitting and also a bass starting.

And the three of them together...

♪ Takin' a drive ♪

♪ I was an ideal ♪

It does like an emotional thing to you.

I feel the same way about the little...

What reminds me of a Nintendo DS or something,

which is this arpeggiated-

Oh, I love this. Organ.

I love this, I think this does so much for the song.

It plays so quietly.

It just kind of peaks out when the vocal goes away.

It's so nostalgic to me, it sounds-

It's nostalgic, sounds like a...

It sounds fake, it sounds like a toy.

Oh it makes me wanna barf, it's so sentimental.

Also a bunch of Mellotron patches.

It reminds me of Sims. [beautiful hopeful music]

I really wanted a whole thing

to sound like Animal Crossing.

Yeah, see? I think that was a big...

There's some really, really distant, huge guitars.

[emotional guitar music]

So cool.

I love that, that's hidden underneath.

It's so funny producing music

because when you record something like that,

you inherently have to record it super loud.

'cause part of the way that a guitar sounds is the feedback.

You have to record it loud enough that the speaker...

The pickup on the guitar is picking up

the noise from the speaker.

So you're playing your normal song

and you're destroying your song

with this butt rock guitar part,

and you know as a producer that you're like,

I'm gonna chuck it as far

in the background as humanly possible.

Well no one would ever think that that's in there.

But it adds-

It adds so much, yeah. Energy.

There's just energy that that's providing.

And that's sort of the, again, that's the physics of it.

It would never sit in that song if we had it super loud.

Yeah, when we were writing this,

we were very, very much writing about a character

and we were writing from the perspective of a character

and her life and the way she sees the world

through her eyes, and her experiences.

And it wasn't until two days later

that I was listening to it and I was like, This is me.

This is my life and how I feel.

And it was pretty weird to not realize that

my subconscious was doing that

and also just that I related a lot to this character.

I think it's an excuse to be a little braver

than you might be willing if you are writing something

that you know people are going to receive

as autobiographical. So true.

I think if you write a lyric like,

I'm sad again, don't tell my boyfriend.

And you know your boyfriend is gonna hear it

and think, Jesus Christ.

That takes a different amount of courage than being like,

It's Barbie. Oh, it's not about you.

No, it's literally not about you.

Yeah. Yeah, no it's a character.

Yeah. That's what I was...

I was hitting that the next day.

♪ I'm sad again ♪

♪ Don't tell my boyfriend ♪

♪ It's not what he's made for ♪

When we were with Greta and we saw the first-

[Billie] The first time.

[Finneas] 35, 40 minutes straight,

that was edited at the time and then we saw sort of moments,

key moments that she wanted us to see

and we were shown, what at the time

was the scene that the song ends up in,

which is the, the now feel scene, which made me cry-

[Billie] Oh yeah.

Watching that and at the time had no-

Music. Montage.

Oh yeah, no montage. Had no life montage,

which I later found out is footage

of the crew and cast's family members, which is beautiful.

But at the time it was just a one shot of Margot crying.

[Billie] In this white room.

But we loved that moment in that line

and she had sort of said, We're missing...

What she was referring to as Barbie's heart song.

Yeah.

So we had all that in the back of our minds

when we went into write.

That pressure almost doesn't exist

when it's just us two in the studio, in his house.

We're eating like donuts and making music,

and playing pickle ball and stuff.

It's just the pressure of whoever the fat suits are.

I don't know. [Finneas laughs]

Yeah, how do I quiet the noise?

I'm not really listening.

I'm not really listening.

This is not- The team can attest

Not to throw Billie under the bus,

but you're asking how she quiets the noise

and Billie's like, What's going...

Who's? What's going, who's?

I don't know what the hell is going on, I have...

I literally...

Very little noise gets in there.

I have 1,461 unread texts right now.

I'm not lookin' at that stuff.

I never really questioned the song.

I was like, is that enough of a chorus

just repeating, Cause I, cause I,

I don't know how to feel.

I just was like, don't know how to feel, am I saying enough?

Does that convey what I mean?

And I think that it so did,

I was just nervous that it wasn't saying enough.

But in a way it was saying way enough it,

it was really the perfect simple way to be like,

I don't know what I'm doing!

I don't know how to feel.

I don't...

And I think that it's...

That's kind of one of the most special parts of the song

is just this simple statement that somebody could just say,

I've said that, I've said that before in my life.

I think all of us have probably been like,

I don't know how to feel.

And literally that she doesn't know how to feel physically.

We made the song early enough in the process

of them scoring the film that after we'd written the song,

they started using the melodies

that we'd written for the song in the film score.

And so there'd be scenes

where there's an orchestra playing the melodies

that are in the song, in the film.

Kind of full circle, the orchestra that they'd recorded

of the melodies of our song that they'd put in the movie.

I was like, Well why don't...

Can we get a pass of of the orchestra playing

just sort of chords underneath the song

so that it sort of ties all into the film score?

This is like a breakout of the orchestra stems.

It's a million microphones but...

[lovely orchestral music] there's some horns.

[lovely orchestral music]

Mark and Andrew, who was his composing partner,

he sent over four tracks,

he sent over strings, horns, CS80, harp.

One of my favorite parts that he added

is the ascending harp.

[sentimental harp music]

Ah, very time it hits it... [Billie humming]

That's a great moment. Oh my god, it just...

It's really...

I love that. Great moment.

This song means a lot to me.

It means a lot to me.

I think that it's hard to listen to, I think.

There's some things in this world that don't...

They kind of don't stay yours.

Especially when they are consumed

by the public and things like that

and I think that this song, no matter what happens with it,

I think it'll always be mine

and I'll feel like it's right here because it is for me.

I think it's just about changing

and I think when you grow and when you change,

is sort of inherently an identity crisis.

That sort of metamorphosis as a person,

which is like the most cathartic,

important part of living your life and aging

is also this like devastating experience

and can really put you in crisis.

Growing up is scary.

Yeah and growing up doesn't stop

when you turn 18 or reach the height

that you're gonna be for the rest of your life,

growing up is just lived experience continuing

to wash over you like waves on a beach

until you're worn smooth like beach glass and then you die.

Jesus Christ. [Billie laughs]

And that's fine.