How can I make a song like “Bad Guy” by Billie Eilish?

Hey everyone. This week’s song/post is about making a song like “Bad Guy” by the artist Billie Eilish.

This one took some different style of thinking, production, delivery, and was just different to what I’m used to in general. I ended up mixing real sounds with software instrument sounds in ways similar to what Finneas O’Connell did with the production of Billie Eilish’s music. Let’s give the track a listen and then get into how I put it together.

Listen here:

How did I write this?

I listened to a few Billie Eilish tracks, watched some videos and interviews of Billie and Finneas, and read a little bit about how Finneas produces their songs and then figured the best way to write this would be to:

• Focus first on the beat – their music is heavily drum/bass oriented where the vocals really seem like an addition rather than the central focus of each track.
• Try to think outside of the box and use live sounds combined with synth/software instruments
• Think of the vocals as an addition rather than a focus
• Add little synth motifs after the foundation is laid out
• Use minimal FX

I started out with making the opening bass-line and then I created the drum beat that follows. These are both created by combining and editing various software instruments and mixing in real-life sounds that I recorded. I recorded myself snapping, clapping, and rubbing my sweater for various sounds and combined those with software instruments to get the sound you hear for the beat(s).

After I completed the beat and bassline I begun writing the lyrics and vocals. I was looking at different topics going on through various streams of social media and, as usual, a sense of depression was resonating. So the topic is about living with and experiencing depression.

The vocal delivery ended up requiring a new type of singing that I haven’t done which was both fun and odd. I have spent a lot of my life learning how to speak clearly and annunciate my words. Billie Eilish, through most listens, is a mumble-singer. The general mumble-vocal style is made by: making sure to open your mouth no further than it is necessary to allow the smallest amount of air in and out, do not annunciate anything – vowels and consonants are both optional in all parts of any/all words -, and, the thought of “words are to be said, not heard” must permeate through the vocalist’s mind while recording/singing. You can also hear that the mic is inside their mouths (exaggeration) when they’re singing so they don’t have to project anything. It’s actually very similar to crooning in that respect.

A side note, and funny thing to me about this type of music, is that I can often make out what cookie monster/death metal vocalists are screaming but I struggle to figure out what most of the mumblers are saying without having the lyrics in front of me.

Anyways, to record the vocals, I put my face as close to my mic as I could and mumbled the lyrics into several tracks.

Speaking of the lyrics, here they are:

Lyrics

Verse

I got a blank stare, I’m lost in my head
Look like I don’t care, stuck in my bed
I got problems, paralyzed by dread
I got depression

Don’t wanna stay here, but you hold me down
I need to get to, some help in town
I can’t get there, with you around
I got depression

Chorus

Inside, you hold a gun to me
Don’t wanna stay still but you won’t let me be
Just want outside where I am free
But like Jupiter’s gravity, you gotta crushin’ hold of me

Verse

The thing I want from you, just leave me now
I’m gonna break you, just don’t know how
I just need to, drown out your sound
I got depression

I won’t take it, how you run my life
I’m gonna cut you, out with a knife
I’ll find a way to, end all this strife
I got depression

Chorus

Inside, you hold a gun to me
Don’t wanna stay still but you won’t let me be
Just want outside where I am free
But like Jupiter’s gravity, you got a crushin’ hold of me

Verse

I won’t take all the things you give
I just need to get out and live
Your problem starts and stops in me
I’m gonna find a way away, I’m gonna finally make it back to me

Chorus

Inside, you hold a gun to me
Don’t wanna stay still but you won’t let me be
Just want outside where I am free
But like Jupiter’s gravity, you got a crushin’ hold of me

Inside, you hold a gun to me
Don’t wanna stay still but you won’t let me be
Just want outside where I am free
But like Jupiter’s gravity, you got a crushin’ hold of me

Inside, you hold a gun to me
Don’t wanna stay still but you won’t let me be
Just want outside where I am free
But like Jupiter’s gravity, you got a crushin’ hold of me

I added a bunch of harmonies in the last chorus and decided against doing the super slow style breakdown at the end of the track; it didn’t feel organic to me in “Bad Guy” and it didn’t feel like it would fit in this track either. My wife said, “You friggin’ Spice Girl!” when she heard the final harmonies because of how they worked out… she isn’t wrong in her observation and their productions were amazing, so I took it as the lovely compliment it was.

Parting thoughts

I ended up with 50 tracks on this song in total. A lot of them are double/triple takes of various aspects. For example, I have 6 total tracks just for the snaps where 5 are recorded audio and 1 is a software instrument. I also have 3 tracks for the sweater flick that makes a very slight “swoosh” sound and often lands on beats 2 and 4. Just little things to consider when you’re making your own songs and putting them together. Another thing I did was record a splash cymbal and then reverse the file so that i have my own personal reverse cymbal sound. Be creative and have fun exploring what you have immediately available to you.

In total, there are 22 tracks that make up the entirety of the beat/music and the remainder are vocal tracks. The only FX I used on this was at the very end where I added the delay and I used the slightest amount of reverb on the vocal tracks – and recorded percussion – to add a slight amount of life to each track. I tried to keep it very clean/dry for the most part.

If you’re interested in writing your own song like this, or like any I’ve written to this point in my blogs, or you like what I’ve done with the production side of things, contact me or email me here to book a lesson and we can get much deeper into the details than I go into in my posts.

I hope you’ve had a fun time listening to this track and spending time with me in my endeavours writing these songs and articles. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to include them on any post that is relevant and/or contact me.

Thanks for your time and have an amazing week.

All the best,

– Matt