Remember when, a few years ago, everyone was listening to music through the filters of various weirdly specific situation filters? Toto – “Africa” (playing in an empty shopping centre) was probably the most famous example. Well, Billie Eilish must’ve been into that trend too, because in her just-dropped music video for new single “Therefore I Am”, she is literally playing in an empty shopping centre. In the self-directed visual, Billie makes an apocalyptic scene fun as she steals pretzels, donuts, fries and lemonade from a Glendale, California mall (her go-to in her early teens) before breaking into Chipotle and getting chased off by a security guard.
“You know, this song is very, very up for interpretation,” Billie told Zane Lowe during their Apple Music interview today. “I’m very curious to see what people get from it and also what they feel when they hear it. But yeah, it’s a little mean. I love it. I feel that I sound very much like I’m just fucking around. It feels like me.”
The “Therefore I Am” video shoot, it seems, was pretty low key. “It’s basically me running through the empty Glendale Galleria eating a donut and a pretzel,” she told Zane. “That’s literally it. But like random, chaotic, don’t care shit. And it was so fun! We shot it overnight, shot it on an iPhone. We had barely any crew. It was crazy. It was so crazy.”
You know what else is crazy? In lieu of a year of back-to-back touring, Billie has unexpectedly found herself with time to write her second, yet-unnamed record. “I’m really, really happy that we’ve been able to make the things that we’re making. And I can’t wait for you to hear this shit. I can’t wait to have the world hear. I’m very excited and hopeful for the future.” Well, same now. 2021 cannot come soon enough.
See Billie perform “Therefore I Am” for the first time at The American Music Awards on 22 November