Who is FINNEAS, the brother of Billie Eilish, who is arriving solo in Belgium?

FINNEAS, Billie Eilish’s brother. Credit. MK

In the O’Connell family, we know Billie Eilish, 22 years old, the youngest. But we know a little less about his big brother, the discreet FINNEAS, 27 years old. However the first is absolutely inseparable from the second who co-signed all his songs including What Was I Made Forthe flagship song of the film Barbie for which they won a second Oscar (Editor’s note: after the one received in 2022 for No Time to Die, the James Bond soundtrack).

Talented and discreet

But FINNEAS is not content to live in the wake of his younger sister: his enormous talent has led him to write for Selena Gomez, Camila Cabello and John Legend but also to sign the original soundtracks of the series The Fallout et Disclaimer d’Alfonso Cuarón.

Three years ago, he dared to come out of the shadows and wrote his first solo album, “Optimist”, which he produced alone in his bedroom. A first conclusive attempt which pushes him to persevere. A few weeks ago, “For Cryin’ Out Loud” was released, a remarkable second solo album, with very different sounds from the first. “There are a ton of reasons why this album sounds different, explains FINNEAS, slightly cold from Los Angeles. The most obvious reason is that I made Optimist entirely on my own. Whereas I made this second album with a group of musicians who are close friends. Another big difference is that I wrote Optimist when I was 22 and this one when I was 26. There’s a four-year gap between these two albums and in four years, people change a lot. But clearly, the involvement of my musician friends in the conception of the album makes all the difference.”

Collective work

A collective way of working that he loved experimenting with. “We worked together in a large space in a recording studio in Frogtown, a neighborhood in Los Angeles. My friend Aron Forbes played bass and guitar; another friend, David Marinelli was on synthesizers, keyboards and percussion; my friend Lucy Healy sang harmonies and brought her touch to the keyboards and then my friend Miles Morris was on drums. We played live and then I wrote the lyrics and melodies on top of that, sometimes with their help but sometimes also letting them do their thing and concentrate on their parts. It was a lot of fun.”

Therapeutic disc

“For Cryin’ Out Loud” est un album “therapeutic”, in his own words, in which he expresses very personal things: “I tried to be honest about how I felt. I don’t keep a diary, but writing songs is the closest thing to it and I find it very useful to dissect my emotions. So, I’m grateful to have this outlet.”

Moving from one project to another, FINNEAS never (or almost) stops creating, each new experience nourishing the next. “I try not to repeat myself, I’m not interested in making music that I’ve already done, he admits. But everyone works differently: there are days when I only have bad ideas and I’m completely stuck, then there are many other days when I’m lucky and have a good instinct or a good idea. It’s just my job to bring the idea I have in mind to life and that’s when making music is the most fun. A song like What Was I Made For with my sister (Editor’s note: the song from the credits of the film Barbie), was also written incredibly quickly. That’s how it goes: sometimes it’s really worth working on a single song for months and months and sometimes the things you like the most just happen in the blink of an eye.”

Shadow and light

When he works with his sister, FINNEAS plays his role in the shadows but their collaboration nourishes the complete artist that he is. “Working on my own projects or stepping back to work with my sister are two aspects of creation that I enjoy in the same way: working on one facet makes me better at the other. Working with Billie makes me better at making my own album and working on my own makes me better at making music with her. That’s the short answer (laughs).”

A song for Billie

Moreover, even when he concentrates on his own projects, Billie is never far away, as evidenced by the very beautiful song The Family Feudpublished on this second album, in which he talks about his relationship with his sister. “With Billie, we were coming out of an intense period of promotion for the film Barbie, he remembers. We spent a lot of time on stage singing this song, which I love. And, I realized that she is only 22 years old… I was the same age when her first album “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” came out. I remember that period of my life very well, what it was like to be 22, but the big difference was that at 22, I wasn’t famous at all, whereas she is incredibly well known. This means that she is judged and criticized more. I feel protective of her but I think she should feel completely free to live her life and have experiences. I’m a little nervous about how others might treat her. This is what this song essentially evokes.”

For Cryin’Out LoudUniversal, 05/05 at La Madeleine, Brussels).