The American pop icon Billie Eilish has discussed her back catalogue in a new interview, picking out ‘What Was I Made For?’ as one of her best vocal displays.
The track in question is Eilish’s immensely popular contribution to the soundtrack of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. The movie, released alongside Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer on July 21st, marked a seismic moment in 2023’s cinematic story.
Speaking to Vanity Fair in a recent interview, Eilish spoke of the track and explained she “had this exact vision for what I wanted it to sound like, and I got it there.”
Instead of projecting her voice in a “choral” style, Eilish opted for an understated whisper to suit the “heartbroken” tone. “I feel really proud,” she continued. “If I can be honest, I feel like it’s one of my best vocal performances I’ve ever given.”
Meanwhile, Eilish’s brother and frequent collaborator Finneas claimed that his sister was “harsh” on herself while recording the song. “She’d go home for the night, come back the next day and say – I need to rerecord this line, this line and this line,” he remembered.
Eilish added: “When I was starting out, I had one way of singing, and that’s how I sang. Now I have all these choices, and I can play with my instrument. It’s really amazing, and it’s really fun, but it’s definitely hard.”
Whatever the weather, Eilish’s performance has been universally applauded and was recently nominated for the ‘Best Original Song’ Golden Globe award.
Eilish previously revealed she and Finneas were “really uninspired” before writing ‘What Was I Made For?’, telling Zane Lowe: “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.’ 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.”
Listen to the track below.
