Breaking down Billie Eilish’s single off her latest album, HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, Billie and FINNEAS take fans into the story of “BIRDS OF A FEATHER,” explaining song lyrics, melodic choices, and all the overthinking that went into making the track.
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From the first verse to the pre-chorus, chorus, post chorus and second verse (they’re favorite). Billie and FINNEAS delved into the minutia of each choice that they made, over a seven month process.
“There's a lot of songs about dying for somebody and loving them till they die, and I thought it was really fun to reverse it," FINNEAS added before Billie revealed a journal with variations of the track's lyrics when they were thinking they’d “make a love song for the first time,” including rhymes like "dismay," "convey," and "bouquet" that obviously didn’t make the final cut.
Before really getting into it, Billie implored, "With music, my whole thing is that it's for the listener to decide what it means. It doesn't matter what I wrote it about, what FINNEAS wrote it about... it really doesn't matter, as long as you interpret it the way you need to.”
As for the first verse, Billie explained, “I wanted it to feel a little bit toxic and a little bit like love bomb-y.” Admitting, ”this was probably the most challenging out the entire album to sing,” explaining the different intricacies of notes she considered for each lyric, before making a final choice. “This was not a happy album at all, this is how I wished that I was feeling, and I wasn’t really.”
Moving on, Billie and FINNEAS explained the very thought out word choices they made in the refrain, and inflection choices they made in the pre-chorus. With FINNEAS noting, “we overthought this sort of simple song so hard… we kept getting lost in the maze.” And Billie adding, “I don’t think we’ve ever overthought a song more,” before both delved into how "important" it was for them to set up the line “I love you till the day that I die,” just right.
The superstar siblings admitted that some of their best (and personal favorite) songwriting could usually be found in the nook of their second verse, which applies to this song as well. Revealing they revised the song's now-famous chorus, weaving those revisions in at the end.
"These are the lyrics that we wrote when we rewrote the entire chorus, because we were freaking out," Billie said, referring to "And I don't know what I'm crying for / I don't think I could love you more.”
Additionally while examining the verse, the talented duo stumbled upon the realization that a heavily edited snippet from Billie's Happier Than Ever track, "Getting Older" was chopped into the production, much to their surprise.
To catch it all, and see their genius unfold, watch the full Story of My Song episode below.