Billie Eilish has revealed she decided to involve UK fans on her brand new single TV after an “amazing” moment during UK tour.
American singer-songwriter Eilish, 20, released two new tracks on Thursday, marking her first new release since 2021 number one album Happier Than Ever.
Speaking to BBC Radio 1 about her new song TV, Eilish revealed the crowd heard chanting the line “maybe I’m the problem” as the track draws to a close is in fact the audience during the first night of her recently concluded UK tour.
that moment when the crowd comes in on ‘TV’ though 🥺
Hands up who’s now technically collabed with @billieeilish? ✋ pic.twitter.com/Nur8zjGZgH
— BBC Radio 1 (@BBCR1) July 21, 2022
Speaking about the experience, Eilish told host Clara Amfo: “So the first night that we did it live was Manchester, night one, and it was the first time we’d done an unreleased song live since when the party’s over or something, years and years ago, and we didn’t talk about it before that we didn’t say anything.
“We sat there, and we just were like, we have a new song. We need you to hear it. Here it is.
“And started playing TV and then at the end we knew we wanted them to sing along, and we had a bunch of recording devices all over the place just to record them really well, and we didn’t say anything, we just wanted to have it.
“We didn’t really know how we were going to do it. I kind of tried it a couple of different ways and really I just winged it.
“So what I did was, I just sang a couple of lines and then had them sing along and back and forth they were singing it, and I was singing it.
“And it was such an amazing moment.
“It’s just so crazy to experience that, especially with a song that two seconds ago was just you alone in a room.
“Nobody had heard it before and now it’s in a room full of thousands of people and they’re all singing along, it was really amazing.
“And they just sounded so wonderful.
“And we did that for the rest of the shows.
“So it was just really important to have that be involved.
“And also the song really feels like tour now to me because we did it on this tour before it was out and I love that that’s going to be a memory for this song forever.
“So it was it was important to have those cute little voices on there and I just I love listening to it.
“I just think the way they sang it it just like it sounds so like longing and desperate and heart-breaking.”
you can hear the full chat with @billieeilish on future sounds on @BBCSounds now! 🎧 https://t.co/by9tzXkYhY
— BBC Radio 1 (@BBCR1) July 21, 2022
Eilish has also released The 30th on new EP Guitar Songs and described the track as “probably the most personal song” her and her songwriter bother Finneas have ever written.
After first gaining public attention in 2015 with her debut single Ocean Eyes, Eilish told Amfo, 38, she has a new album planned but is yet to write the other songs which will feature on it.
“There is a new album that hasn’t been made yet, that’s what I’ll say,” she explained.
She added: “So that means they’re about to be made and it’s a cool feeling. The idea that songs that are going to mean a lot to me one day, haven’t even been written yet.”
The full interview with Billie Eilish is available on BBC Sounds.