Siblings and singer-producer duo Billie Eilish and FINNEAS sit down with comedian Conan O’Brien for a feature episode of his conversational-interview podcast, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend.
LISTEN NOW: Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend: Billie Eilish and FINNEAS
Launching impressively successful careers at especially young ages, the “bad guy” duo discusses how growing up in the public eye, and public perception, affects them today. “I’ve only ever been ‘teenage Billie Eilish’ and so that’s the person I thought I was,” the singer said. “And then I got to a certain age and I was like, ‘Oh, that was teenage me.’”
According to Eilish, it wasn’t that she was being inauthentic, rather, she had not yet grown into herself. “It was who I was, but that was me as a teenager,” she said. “It’s very strange to grow up and become an adult and… the person everyone thinks is who you are, is yourself as a teenager. It’s very jarring and hard to deal with.”
Following the discussion of audience perception, Conan brings up Billie’s past discussions about social media and worrying about being misunderstood or disliked. “The last thing I would ever do in the world is type in, ‘What do people think of Conan O’Brien” he chuckled, “because I would read things that would make my face fall off.”
As the podcast group regained their composure, Billie followed up, “I don’t look at it anymore. I deleted [social media] all off my phone, which is such a huge deal for me. ‘Cause dude, you didn’t have the internet to grow up with,” Eilish told O’Brien.
Calling herself an “internet kid,” Billie discusses how she was once just as digitally active as the average person her age until she saw a shift in both her career and internet culture.
“Slowly the videos I'm watching and the things I see on the internet are about me. I'm like, 'Ew! Stinky! I don't like that.'” Slowly, her relationship with social media became more than just dislike of occasional content. Eilish continued to reveal that the internet genuinely affected her self-image. “Anything I read on the internet I believe. Me!” Eilish told O’Brian and the group. “And I know for a fact that's stupid and I shouldn't do that because I have proof that it's not all true. Almost none of it's true.”
The Billie Eilish and FINNEAS episode marks the end of the podcast’s music-themed month and surely was well worth the wait.
After 25 years at the Late Night desk, Conan O'Brien realized that the only people at his holiday party are the men and women who work for him. Over the years and despite thousands of interviews, Conan has never made a real and lasting friendship with any of his celebrity guests. So, he started a podcast to do just that. Deeper, unboundedly playful, and free from FCC regulations, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend is a weekly opportunity for Conan to hang out with the people he enjoys most and perhaps find some real friendship along the way. Listen on the free Audacy app.
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