The Collaboration

Prologue

Billie Eilish sat across from the Vanity Fair interviewer, her posture relaxed yet guarded. The familiar setting of the annual "Same Interview" series had become a ritual, a time capsule of her evolving journey. She was rewatching the clips from the year before, confronting her answers.

"Billie," the interviewer began, "What's your dream collab?"

A brief silence followed. Billie's lips curled into a wry smile, her eyes twinkling with a mix of amusement and defiance.

"No one" she replied, her voice steady. "You listeners don't understand how unpleasent it is to collaborate with people. It is not a fun experience."

The words hung in the air, surprising even the interviewer. Current Billie was re-watching what her 2023-self said about collaborations. She was sat on the usual chair, October 18th 2024, biting her index finger while listening to her response.

As soon as the tape finished, a photo of Billie and Charli XCX popped up. It was a shot from the "Guess" music video, a song in which Billie was featured.

She burst out laughing, adjusting herself on the chair. "The back to back." She continued. "I mean, it's Charli though. But it's Charli. Also, like... Charli and I did this collab in, like, the greatest way possible. Like, my ideal way,"

She said as she remembered how it happened. "Where... you know, she put out her amazing album. "Guess" was on the extended version and I heard it 'cause somebody posted it because it came out and I remember being like- 'HOOTT!! WOW! Such a hot song, wow that's such a good song. God, I wish I had a song like that.'"

"And I just went on with my life. And then, weeks later, Finneas went to her show. He was talking with her and one of her teammates or something, I don't even know who he was talking to. And they just talked about, you know... 'would Billie be down? Would she do- Billie should hop on something!'"

"And then I had a call with her, talked about it. It was gonna be another song and then we decided on 'Guess'. And then like- she sent us stems. Finneas and I went on a hike, came back, went into the studio, sat there, played the song, wrote a verse, sent it back."

She finished, eyes shining from the remembrance memory. "That's my dream, that's my dream." She kept telling the story. Saying how they immediately shot the music video and posted it.

"It was the craziest, fastest, like- that is the dream. That is the fucking dream, anyway."

The interviewer collected all the information and asked a challenging question. "Would you collaborate with someone again?"

Billie took a couple of seconds to think about it, then blurted out: "No."
"Not because I didn't enjoy what me and Charli shared, but because there's no way that will happen again. It's rare, finding people so nonchalant, so open and fun to work with. Most labels and artists now are anxious. They have deadlines, time to kill. I'm not like that."

Billie said, shaking her head. "So no, I wouldn't collaborate with someone again. Charli was the exception. No one's team is like hers and she and I were close before that."