Billie Eilish is known for pushing creative boundaries, and the cover art for her third studio album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, released on May 17, is no exception. The Grammy-winning singer revealed on a recent episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert that the striking underwater image is entirely authentic, involving a grueling six-hour shoot with weights strapped to her body.
“This was the day after this last Grammys, actually. I had gone to sleep at 7 a.m.,” Eilish recounted. “I woke up, I dyed my hair black—it was like bright red—I dyed it black that day. Then I went to this random place in Santa Clarita or some nonsense. There’s a tank in this giant place, and it was, like, 10 feet deep. And I popped my little ass in there, and I was in there for six hours.”
Eilish described being fully clothed underwater, wearing “big long pants, giant shorts, a thermal long-sleeve, a button-up flannel, a tie, rings, arm warmers, bracelet and a weight.” The weight was used to keep her submerged during the shoot, which added to the challenge.
Host Stephen Colbert humorously questioned the rationale behind such a demanding setup, to which Eilish responded, “Dude, I’ve done it so many times—almost died in these shoots. It’s like I need to suffer.” She explained that her artistic vision often precedes consideration of the physical discomfort involved. “It’s not like, ‘What can I do that will be the most uncomfortable that I could possibly dream of?’ It’s more that I think about the visual before I think about how it’s gonna make me feel.”
Eilish further noted that she didn’t use a nose plug during the entire shoot, essentially “waterboarding” herself for six hours, a revelation that elicited laughter from the audience.
“A lot of my inspirations for the visuals on this album were optical illusion-type things,” she concluded. “Things that just make you question it or think about it for longer.”
Hit Me Hard and Soft, created in collaboration with her brother and longtime collaborator Finneas, features 10 tracks, promising a blend of introspective lyrics and innovative soundscapes that fans have come to expect from the dynamic duo.