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  • -Welcome to the show and thanks for talking with me.

  • -Thanks for having me.

  • -For those who don't know, you are a songwriter, a performer,

  • a producer as well.

  • And you've worked with Selena Gomez, Camila Cabello,

  • Halsey, and most famously, I think, is probably

  • your number-one collaborator is Billie Eilish, your sister.

  • -That's right. [ Cheers and applause ]

  • -When did you guys first realize

  • that you would be good working together, you and Billie?

  • -Well, I always knew she had an incredibly beautiful voice.

  • But I didn't want to force her into child labor.

  • So I kind of waited until she wanted to. You know?

  • -How much older are you than Billie?

  • -Four years. -Four years.

  • And you saw it when you were a kid.

  • You were like, "Oh, she's got something."

  • -Her voice was always so much better than mine.

  • And it's just like one of those where you're like, "Oh, yeah.

  • That's just the way it is, huh?"

  • [ Laughter ]

  • And then when she seemed interested in recording,

  • I was like, "Well, let's try some stuff out."

  • -And what did you do?

  • You just put something --

  • Like, where did you perform and what did you put out?

  • -Well, the first couple things we did

  • just lived on the website SoundCloud.

  • -Oh, yeah.

  • -We did one song that hopefully people don't know very well

  • because we're not super pumped on it.

  • And then we did another one that, hopefully,

  • people also don't know very well.

  • -You don't have to say the names.

  • -And the third one we did was "Ocean Eyes,"

  • which people heard. [ Cheers and applause ]

  • -And how many people --

  • When did you realize, "Oh, we got something here"?

  • -Well, we put it out because we had no schedule.

  • We weren't on a label or anything.

  • We just put it out one night and then went to bed

  • and then woke up the next morning

  • and it had like 1,000 plays and we were like,

  • "I don't know 1,000 people. Do you know 1,000 people?"

  • But it was really --

  • Looking back, it was so gradual in terms of that.

  • But that was what made it so fun.

  • You know what I mean?

  • I always feel kind of bad for someone who wakes up with

  • like 10 million views on their yodeling in a Walmart.

  • [ Laughter ]

  • -Yeah, yeah, I understand what you're saying.

  • -It just seems like it goes so fast

  • that you don't get time to appreciate little --

  • Like, a thousand's a ton.

  • If you had 1,000 people in your house,

  • you'd be like, "Please, leave."

  • [ Laughter ] -This is true.

  • But look at what you end up doing.

  • Your debut album, "When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?"

  • debuted at number one,

  • has been streamed over 15 billion times worldwide.

  • [ Cheers and applause ]

  • 15 billion times.

  • But the way you put a song together is very interesting.

  • I was asking you about this.

  • You told me that you would record different sounds

  • and Billie would record different sounds.

  • And you'd go, "Hey, can we use this in the song?"

  • -Yeah. Yeah.

  • Well, I mean, because computers and everything

  • have gotten so much cheaper and more accessible,

  • I feel like a lot of music producers have the same toolbox.

  • And I think, like, to me, as a producer,

  • I always want something to set my stuff apart.

  • And so I'll walk around with just an iPhone will work,

  • but sometimes I'll bring a little mobile recorder.

  • And if I hear an interesting sound, I'll just record it,

  • and then later I'll listen through them and I'll go like,

  • "I wonder how I can use that."

  • So, like, there's a song of Billie's called "Bury a Friend."

  • And we both have Invisalign, dental teeth straighteners.

  • And she was at the dentist, and they were grinding down --

  • They put these attachments on your teeth,

  • and they were grinding down of hers with that horrible, like --

  • Like, whatever ASMR is, it's the opposite of that.

  • The most unpleasant -- [ Laughter ]

  • -Oh, yeah.

  • -Like... [ Mimics drill ]

  • Like, that sound. -Yeah. It's in your head.

  • -She came home from one of those appointments

  • and was like, "I recorded it," and I was like, "Great."

  • And we put it right in "Bury a Friend."

  • -Let me show you guys.

  • So, here's the sound that Billie recorded.

  • This is the drill. Ready?

  • [ Drill whirring ]

  • -When it's in your brain, that kind of feeling.

  • -Just playing that really hurt my head.

  • It hurt my teeth. Alright, so that was that.

  • And this is "Bury a Friend," and you can see if you can hear it.

  • ♪ -Calling security, keepin' my head held down

  • [ Drill whirs ]

  • Bury the hatchet

  • -Wow. -Just a little textural thing.

  • [ Cheers and applause ]

  • -Wow, that's awesome.

  • Now, I have one here, that says "crosswalk."

  • What is "crosswalk"?

  • -So, we've toured Australia a couple times,

  • which is really beautiful, and in Sydney and Melbourne,

  • when you stand at a street light and you press the button

  • to cross the street, which --

  • Here's my poll that I'm conducting.

  • Do you think those buttons --

  • -First of all, you're not conducting a poll.

  • -I'm conducting a poll.

  • You're the first person that I'm polling.

  • Do you think the buttons -- -I'm sorry, I'm busy right now.

  • -Yeah, sorry. [ Laughter ]

  • -Do you think the buttons on street corners do anything

  • or do you think they're just for us?

  • -They're just for us.

  • It's almost like the door close in the elevator.

  • That doesn't do anything. -Right, absolutely.

  • -It's not attached to anything. Press it as much as you want.

  • And then eventually the door will close.

  • -The superintendent's like, "Yeah, I put those --

  • I count them every day to see how many idiots there are."

  • [ Laughter ] Anyway.

  • -But I do press the button all the time.

  • -Oh, yeah, me too. You press it over and over.

  • So, when you're on a street corner in Australia,

  • you press the button, and when the walk sign turns on,

  • you hear this rhythmic sound

  • that I love and that Billie loved.

  • And so we recorded it, and it sounds like this.

  • [ Rapid tapping ]

  • It's got, like, a groove.

  • ♪ -Feels like the white-winged dove

  • Sings a song, sounds like she's singing

  • Ooh, baby, ooh-ooh

  • -Perfect. -Wait. That's bizarre.

  • Wait. That happens in Australia?

  • -That's just every time you cross a street in Australia,

  • you hear that. -Wow.

  • Alright. So then you use that for the song "Bad Guy."

  • -Yeah, the thing people think are high hats

  • in "Bad Guy" is actually just that.

  • ♪ -Duh

  • [ Rapid tapping ]

  • -Here's the -- [ Cheers and applause ]

  • -Wow. Wow!

  • -Here's the bonus round, is that we then went back to Australia

  • after the album came out.

  • And we brought our dad for the first time.

  • The first couple tours, we couldn't, like, bring our --

  • We just didn't have enough crew to bring

  • 'cause we have our dad on our crew,

  • and we brought our dad with us,

  • and we were bringing him around Australia.

  • It was his first time.

  • And he goes, "Check out these crosswalk sounds."

  • He goes, "How cool are these sounds?"

  • And I was like, "Yep. Yep."

  • And I was like, "Check this out."

  • I played him "Bad Guy" and he was like, "Wha?"

  • -And you go -- -Yeah, it was great.

  • It was a good revelation for Pops.

  • -You're like, "Duh."

  • [ Laughter ]

  • Come on. -That's why he has a show.

-Welcome to the show and thanks for talking with me.

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