From Tyler the Creator to James Blake: Billie Eilish's musical influences explored

Billie Eilish has often talked about being raised in an environment where music was encouraged, which is why it is no wonder that she has been influenced by countless artists from the music industry.

Eilish has often named Tyler the Creator, James Blake, and Matty Healy as artists who inspired her with their music, among others. She has also been a die-hard Justin Bieber fan all her life, which was apparent from her reaction the first time she met the Sorry singer.

The Ocean Eyes singer was homeschooled alongside her brother and pursued many creative passions in her early childhood years, one of which was music. Eilish joined a choir at 8 and took songwriting classes from her mother at 12.

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Tyler the Creator has been one of the greatest musical influence in Billie Eilish's life

In 2017, when Billie Eilish was just starting out as a singer and her first EP, Don't Smile At Me, was newly released, she was interviewed by Elle. In the interview, Eilish was asked to name the most influential artists she was inspired by, and her first answer was Tyler the Creator.

"This is kind of embarrassing by now because I say it in every interview ever, but Tyler the Creator has probably been, overall, the biggest influence musically. Just the way he is and what he does and how he chooses to be."

Having mentioned Tyler, the then-15-year-old Eilish moved on to talk about how she was deeply inspired by rappers in general and thought they were ahead of time.

"I'm also really inspired by a lot of rappers because a lot of stuff that real rappers say is kind of ahead of what other people are saying - [artists like] Tyler, Earl Sweatshirt, Odd Future and Brockhampton."

Towards the end, Billie Eilish also shared her love for Lana Del Rey and Amy Winehouse, ending her answer with "name a million."

Three years later, on the fourth episode of her Apple Music podcast, me&dad radio, the Ocean Eyes singer also talked about her musical influences, mentioning Tyler yet again.

"[Tyler] has inspired every part of everything about me... Basically I've been a Tyler fan forever."

Eilish then went on to admit that she had memorized every single of the rapper's songs "from top to bottom" and how she felt embarrassed about never having heard his Earfquake until he performed it at the 2020 Grammy Awards.

Besides music, Billie Eilish also confessed to drawing influence from Tyler's on-stage performances and fashion sense. The singer-songwriter loved his streetwear style, which is reflected in her own outfits throughout the years as well.

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Other artists that Billie Eilish is inspired by

Besides Tyler the Creator, Billie Eilish also talked about other musical influences in her podcast, one of which was James Blake, whom she called "god." She then recalled a solo piano show Blake did in December 2019, which Eilish attended, saying:

"He did a tour where he just only played piano and nothing else, and sang. It was really breath-taking. If any other artist had done that, I would have been bored out of my mind, and because it was James Blake, it was so perfect."

In his show, Blake also played Eilish's party on piano, which made her cry "the whole time."

Next on her list was Matty Healy, whom she met for the first time in 2019. Billie Eilish gushed on The 1975's If I Believe You, saying:

"This song is just beautiful and I feel like there's almost no other songs that are about what this song is about."

Other artists that Eilish praised in her podcast were Lana Del Rey, whose invention of characters was admired by both Eilish and Finneas—something they also used to create their own fictional personas in songs. The Bellyache singer also praised Nicki Minaj's ability to do different voices, which she has incorporated into several songs throughout the years.

The podcast's episode, which was titled from the start, came out on July 18, 2020.

Elsewhere, while accepting the Billboard Woman of the Year award in 2019, Eilish talked about the kinship she felt with Rihanna's approach to style and Taylor Swift's efforts to call out male privilege in the music industry, which positively impacted her own musical journey.