Billie Eilish surprises us with a brand-new single under the name of ’bury a friend’, backed by her London-based protegee rapper Crooks. In the song, Billie faces her deepest fears while allowing her demons to take control as she’s trying to embrace the outcome.
This can be seen right from the start of the song when the singer delivers the pre-chorus from the perspective of her ’monster under the bed’, as she later described herself. The monster, who most likely portrays Billie’s darker side, questions their interactions while somehow getting attached to the host for allowing it to co-exist.
Come here
In the first verse, Billie wonders if the interactions with her demons have a good or a bad nature while admitting that she sometimes cannot control her reactions. This becomes an enigma especially when she falls asleep as she is no longer able to control her thoughts. During sleep, Billie is also able to communicate directly with the monster while admitting that she sometimes thinks about ”deadly things”.
In the Chorus, the singer talks about the fight that takes place inside her mind on a regular basis while suggesting that despite coming to peace with her demons, she wants to overcome her darker side, so she can be in a better place and forget about her past. Hence, this is why the ”I wanna end me” line takes place, meaning that she still wants to kill her darker side even if it’s now part of her.
Listen
In the second verse, the monster seems to revolt from the situation created. Somehow, Billie’s darker side expected to take control of the spotlight yet the singer refused to be seduced by it. According to her, she managed to live with the monster up until this point but it’s time to end this harmful connection and make the best out of her life. In the end, she feels like she lost a friend but after it’s all done, it becomes clear that this was the best outcome and her only regret is that it didn’t happen sooner.
Fun Fact: What Do You Get When You Cross a Monster, a Trip to The Dentist, and Sleep Paralysis?
Well, that’s pretty easy… You get Billie Eilish’s hit song “Bury a Friend.” How??? What’s the connection? Well, keep reading, and it will all become clear to you in a moment.
The Monster
If you know anything about “Bury a Friend” or if you have seen the video, you probably know that Billie wrote it from the weird and somewhat creepy perspective of ‘the monster under her bed.’ Explained in her own words:
…’bury a friend’ is literally from the perspective of the monster under my bed. If you put yourself in that mindset, what is this creature doing or feeling? I also confess that I’m this monster, because I’m my own worst enemy. I might be the monster under your bed too.
–Billie Eilish Interview
Creeeeeepppy!
The Trip to the Dentist
If you thought the ‘monster under the bed’ idea was strange, then even stranger is the fact that “Bury a Friend” got some inspiration from Eilish’s trip to the dentist. Yup! You read that right…. a trip to the freaking dentist! A quick listen will show that the song uses multiple sound effects, including breaking glass, an easy bake oven timer, and a dentist’s drill.
It turns out Billie actually recorded the sound of the dentist’s drill using her phone during a trip to the dentist to remove her Invisalign. Finneas, Billie’s brother and producer of the song said that he found the dentist’s drill noise horrible to listen to. However, he quickly discovered that it worked surprisingly well with the song –and that was that!
Crazy Right?
Sleep Paralysis
Believe it or not, “Bury a Friend” was actually inspired by Billie’s night terrors and her sleep paralysis. Quite frankly, this is not surprising, seeing how dark and creepy the song and its video are. The end product really kind of is ‘the stuff of nightmares.’ Billie states that she probably might not have made the song the way she did if she didn’t have the sleep paralysis and nightmares.
So there you have it!
