I don’t know if you’ve had the chance to listen to Billie Eilish’s new album “Hit Me Hard and Soft” but I implore all of you to do so. Not only is this a cohesive piece of art but her best yet. I bring all this up to further a point of discussion between Billie and her brother.
In a recent interview with Apple Music, Billie and FINNEAS uniquely discuss the project and music broadly. As Zane Lowe rattles off her discography, the siblings introduce us to a “game” they title “Fear or Fart”.
Listening to music in the studio, FINNEAS exclaims that “…I bet this artist loves the smell of his farts”. Billie explains how they took this silly phrase and started to look at contemporary albums. As they went through project after project they would label them based on if the artist was full of themselves, not self-aware, hence “smelling their farts”. They created an equal and opposite version called “fear” for art that didn't fit this category. Simply put, this is a dichotomy that tries to identify whether the artist was confident in their work (often brash) and those on the other end of the spectrum.
“We realized that every single thing in the universe can be put in one or the other category…”. FINNEAS extends this hypothesis “Here is the caveat, both could be good or bad”.
As remedial as this may seem I think they’re hitting on a point that is not often discussed in the creation of art or for “every single thing in the universe” as Billie puts it. If you’re an artist you know the pain of being overconfident in work that doesn’t stand the test of time. On that same token, we also experience a lot of (majority of) insecurity with our work. Some pieces we despise or fear lack of potential can sometimes be considered our greatest endeavors. As FINNEAS said, both have the capability of producing great art.
So what do we take from this? If I can’t trust my confidence or my fear, what can I rely on? Immediately I think of the importance of authenticity. Are you fearful? Do you like the smell of your fart? Ask yourself these questions next time you go to create and I hope this is yet another ruler you could apply to measure your art.
With love,
Hani H