Billie Eilish - Speaking to my Soul

    In 2017, I was in seventh grade. That was also the year that Billie Eilish came out with her first EP: don't smile at me, and I was already obsessed with her song "ocean eyes" which I found on SoundCloud in 2015. After discovering this song, I went down a rabbit hole and wanted to find out everything and anything about her. When she came out with this EP, I was ecstatic, I already knew that I would love every single one of the songs, and I was right. Soon enough, my favorite song switched from "ocean eyes" to "bellyache" and I was hooked. Especially going through middle school, I found comfort in her music, and since then I became a huge fan, even to this day.

    In Makoto Fujimara's Culture Care, he begins the first chapter with a story of him and his wife, and how they were going through financial struggles as newlyweds. They did not seem to have much hope for their future, and went day by day trying to make ends meet. One day his wife brought home a bouquet of flowers and he was very upset by this since they did not even have enough money to buy food, let alone flowers. But his wife's response really stood out to me, and to him as well. She told him:

"We need to feed our souls"

And to me, that is exactly what Billie Eilish's music does. It feeds my soul. Her creative process is simply going through life, feeling emotions, and putting those feelings into lyrics.

For Fujimara at the time, he felt lost, and his art was not coming out as he liked since he was too focused on what was to come tomorrow. Instead, his wife was bringing art and beauty back into his life, in the form of flowers. This is exactly what it felt like for me as a 12 year old exploring her emotions, and finding Billie Eilish's music.

    Another thing that really solidified my love for her music is the fact that she created this entire EP in her room with her brother Finneas, and continues to make music with him. Her connection with her brother was something I was also able to relate to her with, because I am very close to my older sister, and she is someone who was able to push me to create my own art in the form of poetry. 

    Billie Eilish is someone that I am sure almost all of Gen Z can relate to, in multiple forms. She speaks to our souls with her openness to expressing emotions, making you really feel the music. I find her a creative genius, as well as someone who I look up to when I write.

Ocean Eyes - Billie Eilish