Over the past year, Eilish and FINNEAS have opened up about the challenges they faced while making this album. “I don’t think Billie was particularly sure about how she actually felt about the things we were trying to write about,” FINNEAS explained in an interview late last year. “Making a thing that you feel really connected to – it can really evade you.”
He also admitted that his songwriting “got a little rusty” after spending so much time on the road both with Eilish and as a solo artist. “And that was scary,” he confessed. “It was discouraging to realize that if I take time off, my songwriting muscle atrophies. I had to get back in shape.”
Over the summer, Eilish opened up about how the creative process was different this time around.
“Everything is different about it,” she admitted of the music making process. “I’ve been trying to compare recently, just because I’m getting used to doing it in a different way. And trying to be like, ‘It’s OK to do that. I’m OK. I’m still able to do that; I’m capable still.’”
“And, you know, touring for a year-and-a-half, then coming back to it, and being way older – and not even much older, but again, the jump between 18 and 21 is a big jump,” Eilish added. “Just mentally and physically, and realistically. It’s just been completely different.”
The singer also explained what exactly changed. “The way that I exist in the room is different, my voice has completely changed since then…The voice-changing thing is a trip! It’s all kind of shocking,” she said. “I’ve gotten a little bit more like, ‘OK, it’s just change and I’m figuring that out.’ It’s hard to accept change, it’s hard to get over, ‘But I did it this way for so long, and it worked so well!’ Well, you can’t anymore.”