Billie Eilish partners with Vevo for a new installment of Footnotes, taking viewers behind the scenes of the lead single “Lunch” from her third studio album Hit Me Hard and Soft.
Billie describes the “Lunch” music video as a nostalgic tribute to the 90s music videos she grew up watching, inspired by icons like Biggie, Tupac and the Spice Girls. Aiming for simplicity, she explains that she focused on her performance and on giving the video a vintage feel, as if it were shot on an older camera. She says the most challenging part was having to eat so much food, describing how she would take bites and then have to spit them out after being full from actually eating everything at the start of the shoot. Billie reveals that longtime choreographer Matty Peacock came up with the dance in the video after first hearing the song. She also shares that she created the hook first, but needed time to sit with the song before she was able to finish it.
Billie also discusses how she and her producer, Finneas, were very experimental with sounds for the new album. She explains that Finneas would find cool things online that inspired them, and that the album would be very different had they not used sounds from all the “weird little toys.” Finally, she adds that directing videos is a lot harder than it seems, but it’s something she’s been passionate about since she was younger. She describes her director of photography, Rob Witt, as amazing, so collaborative, and everything she could want in a DP.
FULL FOOTNOTES BELOW:
0:00 – For “Lunch,” I really wanted it to feel nostalgic and like older 90’s videos I grew up watching and wanted it to feel almost like it was shot on an older camera. – Billie Eilish
0:20 – The concept for the video is really an ode to 90’s music videos and all the videos I grew up loving. I’ve always loved the simplicity of performance takes and I didn’t want a lot going on in this video. – Billie Eilish
0:40 – Some artists that inspired the vibe of the video include Biggie, Tupac, Spice Girls, Green Day and My Chemical Romance. – Billie Eilish
1:00 – The most challenging thing about shooting the video was all the food I had to eat. I had a giant table of food that I would take bites of and spit out throughout the day. I should have done that from the beginning though, because at first I was actually eating everything and I was full immediately. It was kind of a lot, but worth it. – Billie Eilish
1:20 – I didn’t want to make the video directly on the nose. I thought that the lyrics spoke for themselves and then the video would be an exciting visual to watch while you listen to the lyrics. I just wanted a classic, simple video. – Billie Eilish
1:40 – Matty Peacock choreographed this dance, he’s been my movement coach since I was about 15 years old. When I played the album for him, he was really excited to do some choreography. So he made this little piece for “Lunch.” – Billie Eilish
2:00 – The first thing we came up with was the hook and I remember feeling very proud of that, I was excited. We made a little less than half of the song, left it alone and then came back to it later. It was really nice to be able to sit on it for a while. The final product would not have been possible had we not given it time. – Billie Eilish
2:20 – We used a lot of new things for this album. We were very experimental with what we used. Finneas would see something cool online and get it and then we’d see if it was inspiring in some way. The album would be very different had we not used all the weird little toys. – Billie Eilish
2:40 – Directing is a lot harder than it seems and that’s something I wanted to do when I was younger. When I finally got to direct my first video, it was such a great experience. I’ve learned so much along the way over the years. – Billie Eilish
3:00 – I’ve been collaborating with Rob Witt for years now and he is so amazing. He’s so collaborative and we work so closely together. I was always very particular about the cinematography, the shots and the framing of my videos. He’s everything that I wanted in a DP and more. – Billie Eilish
