Billie Eilish revealed that after struggling with writer’s block and self-doubt, working on the ‘Barbie’ soundtrack single ‘What Was I Made For?’ helped her and her brother/producer Finneas overcome their creative slump. The song was accompanied by a music video directed by Eilish herself and was released on 13th July.
“Honestly, we were in a period of time where we were both… like through this last winter, we’ve both been incredibly uninspired,” Eilish said in a recent interview. “And we’ve still been working and trying to make stuff. And honestly, that song was the first thing we’d written in a minute. Even though we were coming up with ideas and coming up with this and that, I remember after we wrote that first half, I go, ‘I think we still got it.’”
Billie Eilish also mentioned that the writing journey started with director Greta Gerwig arranging a private screening of an early version of the ‘Barbie’ movie at Warner Brothers Studios for Eilish and Finneas. However, the following day, the siblings struggled to find inspiration while attempting to write music unrelated to the film. However, they had a breakthrough when they spontaneously decided to approach the songwriting process from Barbie’s perspective, resulting in the creation of ‘What Was I Made For?’ Instantly, their writer’s block vanished.
“We were really in a zone of feeling like we lost it and feeling like, man, I don’t know if we can do this anymore,” she added. “Barbie and Greta just pulled it out of me, I don’t know,” Eilish said. “Those first couple lyrics, ‘I used to float, now I just fall down,’ just came right out.”
During the writing process, Billie Eilish found it incredibly inspiring that a song written solely from the perspective of Margot Robbie’s ‘Barbie’ character ended up resonating with her on a personal level. The realization that she could relate to the lyrics without even consciously intending to was a remarkable and meaningful outcome for the ‘Happier Than Ever’ artist.
“I did not think about myself once in the writing process,” the Grammy winner explained. “I was purely inspired by this movie and this character and the way I thought she would feel, and wrote about that. And then, over the next couple days, I was listening and I was like, girl, how did this … honestly, and I really don’t mean this to come off a conceited way at all, but I do this thing where I make stuff that I don’t even know is … like I’m writing for myself and I don’t even know it.”
“It is one of the most incredible things I get to experience in my life,” Eilish continued. “Dude, the next week I was playing it in the car all day and playing it for everybody. And I was like, ‘This is exactly how I feel. And I didn’t even mean to be saying it.’ It was truly the trippiest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life. I was like, oh, I absolutely was writing about myself, but I was thinking about myself from a third person.”
-Kaushiki Sarcar