Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Billie Eilish feels she is in a much better place today as she awaits the release of her album Happier Than Ever.
Speaking to VEVO, the 19-year-old singer opened up about the creation of her sophomore album and how she felt much more confident while making it, reported People magazine.
Also read: Why Billie Eilish's party will never be over
"I wanted to make a very timeless record that wasn't just timeless in terms of what other people thought, but really just timeless for myself. I gathered a lot of inspiration from a lot of older artists that I grew up loving," she said in the interview.
"And, you know, mostly Julie London, and a lot of Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee. And then the songs in the album are all over the place. And very versatile and different to one another, but also are very cohesive, which is like a big goal for me is to make things feel like the same project, but not like the same song over and over again," she added.
She further said, "The main thing that I would hope is, for people to hear what I say, and then go, 'Oh, God, I feel like that I didn't know that I felt like that. But this is how I feel,' and maybe make a change in their life that makes them happier."
"I don't want to get too specific, because I think it's really for the listener to decide, I don't want to put the ideas into their brains, because I want them to feel 100 per cent that their own interpretation is the right interpretation," she continued.
Eilish explained that she had a lot of "self-reflection" while making the album, a process that felt "very natural and satisfying."
"Before, I always felt under pressure and anxious and felt like I wasn't doing enough, right, or doing a good job. Or this isn't good enough. I felt like I wasn't very talented at the time, and I actually feel much more confident in my craft now," she said candidly.
"And I feel that I've worked really hard on that. And I think that this album was made in a very perfect time for me creatively," Eilish added.
The singer, who has released songs NDA, Lost Cause and Your Power from the forthcoming record, said that she typically has "no idea" which of her songs will do well as singles so that instead she goes with her gut.
"I'm genuinely picking something because I have real actual feelings about it and believe in it on my own. And it's really about lyrics and what I'm talking about and what I feel that the fans will appreciate. I want them to be excited about the album," she said.
The singer added, "I want them to see what the album could contain. I guess with Your Power, a lot of it comes from synesthesia, which I have, which I've talked about a lot. It's this thing where you just associate things with other things like colours and numbers and days of the week. To me, 'Your Power' is this like tan, brown colour... The album as a whole is also that colour."
In a recent interview, Eilish told Rolling Stone that her forthcoming album will dive deeper into who she really is.
"I was a kid and I wanted to do kid s---. I didn't want to be not able to f----ing go to a store or the mall. I was very angry and not grateful about it," Eilish said of early fame.
Also read: Listening to music in a pandemic year
The singer, who described herself as a private person, said that despite being in the public eye for years, people don't know her "at all".
"Anytime I see an impression on the internet, it just reminds me how little the internet knows about me. Like, I really don't share s---. I have such a loud personality that makes people feel like they know everything about me and they literally don't at all," she said, adding that the main takeaways should be "that I can sing. That I'm a woman. That I have a personality."
Happier Than Ever is coming out on 30 July. Eilish is also set to perform in a Disney concert film, which will premiere in September.