Earlier this year, the cinema battle between Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer re lit a much needed spark in the film industry for new stories, new movies and new songs. One of the breakout songs from the Barbie film is Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” an alternative track that satisfy both the lyrical and production needs for a coming of age feminist commentary. Though Eilish takes an active part in the writing and vocal styling of the song, FINNEAS, a 24 year old, 8 time GRAMMY winning producer is the technical brain behind the song.
In a deep dive done with Variety, FINNEAS delves into the behind the scenes madness to the magic. He starts of the interview by saying the initial sounds were recorded on an iPhone in the memos app. An important part of his process is to make sure the vocalist feels safe and comfortable to ensure they are both able to work at their best and be as creatively free as possible. Though the official recording was later done in a professional set up, the ability to record the first sounds in a relaxed and impromptu way helped prevent the raw emotional song from feeling overproduced and detached.
Another production choice they made together was to use the in studio acoustic Petrof piano with a felt pedal. This essentially means a piece of felt fabric is placed between the hammer and string in order to muffle the sound of the piano. He uses multiple mics to record the piano track. He put a few next to the actual hammers in the piano, and one in the room as well. The ‘room’ track is playing throughout the whole song, ever so slightly, in order to not take away from the song but act as a solid ambient layer. The tracks from the mics placed near the hammers are the loudest layer. In order to add layers of depth and complexity without taking too much away from the melody, FINNEAS includes doubling layers and simple chord harmonies. The harmonies are very quiet, again, as to not make the song feel over produced.
Over all, FINNEAS’s production process reflects safety and safe stylist choices to starkly contrast a song that is lyrically centered on a rather difficult subject. I think that all of the production elements work well together and have delivered a powerful, raw song that elevated the movie of the year.