Billie Eilish Explains Abandoning Traditional ‘Build-Up’ To Surprise-Release ‘TV’ And ‘The 30th’

Billie Eilish shocked the world today when she surprise-released a pair of new songs, “TV” (which she debuted live last month) and “The 30th.” After the tunes dropped (on a double-single dubbed Guitar Songs), Eilish explained what made her want to release them how she did.

Speaking with BBC Radio 1’s Clara Amfo, Eilish said, “We wrote these songs recently and we were kinda sitting on them, just had written them. And there was just this moment where I was sitting and I was like, ‘Can we just put these out? Like, why are we not just putting these out?’ You know? I think when you get bigger and more eyes on you and whatever, it’s like… a release is so much more pressure and so much more build-up and it’s gotta be a whole strategy and this and that. And I just was like, ‘I don’t… I just want these to be out.’ So literally from then on, it was just like, ‘OK, well, let’s do ’em live, let’s do ’em on this tour, like the old days, and just do a song that’s not out and just have it be like a sweet, intimate fan moment during the show.’ We haven’t done that in, like, years, and so I was like, ‘Let’s just do what we used to do.’”

That echoes the statement Eilish shared alongside the new songs, writing, “Finneas and I really wanted these to be yours as soon as possible. So here they are!! Performing ‘TV’ on tour was such a highlight for us too, so we took the audio from the first night we played it in Manchester and put it in the song. I get shivers every time I hear it. Hope you love the songs and thank you for letting us share our music with you.”

Stream Guitar Songs below.