Obviously I’m very grateful ‘Bad Guy’ is doing so well – it’s shocking and surprising and gratifying – but I do think it’s important to try to make the next song that people are gonna be excited about.
I had a very positive, wonderful, happy upbringing, and still, for several reasons, I really didn’t enjoy being a child very much. I felt that I had no control over my life and everything seemed scarier and larger than life.
I feel like the thing that I’ve learned a lot is when you’re involved in something, you don’t always get to appreciate it for what it is as much. You’re focused on the details and how you can make it better. It’s kind of torture.
I stopped telling people what lyrics meant to them when I saw them tattoo it on them, because it clearly meant much more to them than it ever did to me.
My dreams as a kid were so far below the Grammys, like, maybe selling out a show, or, like, seeing your album on a shelf in an Urban Outfitters… and the Grammys are so far above that. It’s very ridiculous.
What I really didn’t want to do is work with other people and have them go, ‘Oh, Finneas just does that sound for everybody.’ The Billie sound is only Billie – I’ll only do that for her.
You go to a truck stop and there are key chains with names on them, and there’s no Finneas. There’s no Billie. They’re little things, but as a kid, you just feel weirdly ostracized.
