Known initially for her breathy, almost whispery singing style - not to mention her unmistakable pronunciation of the word ‘duh’ - Billie Eilish has since added more shades to her vocal palette. Now, in an interview with British Vogue, in which Eilish took questions from celebrities, she’s been explaining how that happened.
It was put to Eilish by SZA that on her latest album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, she delivered a lot of “soulful runs and tonal differences”, and she was asked where the decision to “lean into different textures” and flex her vocal ability came from.
After thanking SZA for her “thoughtful question”, Eilish went on to explain that she has indeed been working on her singing.
“Honestly I’ve been doing so much training now for a while and my voice has gotten so much better and stronger and like I just can play in a way that I never have been able to before,” she confirmed. “That has been such an amazing experience.”
Another factor, says Eilish, is feeling confident enough to record her vocals with the freedom she feels when she’s singing just for fun.
“In the past when I’d do demos of songs, or do a voice memo of them,” she begins. “I’d do all these runs that came naturally. But then when I record the song I kind of have always recorded it pretty straightforward to the melody we wrote, and I would never really add any playful runs or anything. And this time I actually specifically remember making a deal with myself that I would play with my voice the same way when recording that I do when casually singing just openly in a room.”
Eilish goes on to reveal that her tendency to sing her parts ‘straight’ came from her experience of being in a choir, where deviating from what was written wasn’t really allowed. “That has been something I’ve had to really unlearn in a way to allow myself to be looser and jazzier with it,” she says. “I love singing more than anything in the world. And it was really nice on this album to let myself sing how my soul wanted to.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Eilish was asked by actor Alex Wolff to name her favourite Beatles song, something that, like many of us, she struggled to do. “Hardest question of my life! So impossible to pick a favourite,” she replied.
There are a few contenders, though: “Something never gets old,” says Eilish. “I’m Looking Through You is actually one of my favourite songs ever. She’s Leaving Home, In My Life, A Day in the Life, And I Love Her, Michelle, Julia... Like, I could just go on and on. I feel bad not naming more.”
