O’Connell is an affable polymath with a keen sense of humor and an infectious love of his craft. On Monday, I rang O’Connell up as he relaxed in Highland Park, Los Angeles, where he and Eilish were raised, to talk about the making of an international hit album. When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? is making an impact because it feels new and unpredictable, and also because the singer, producer, and players have spent the last few years honing their chops to a fine point. “When the Party’s Over” reimagines a breakup song as a church hymn. “Wish U Were Gay” plays a story of a doomed crush like a radio jingle. “Xanny” tiptoes quietly over pilled-out partygoers wondering what makes them tick. The dance tracks are quiet to the point of claustrophobia, and the pop gestures are unusual and almost ironic.
Asleep is smarter than your average modern post-genre pop album and stranger than our biggest mainstream singer-songwriter works. The success of Asleep might feel like a UFO landing to listeners still new to the sturdy body of work Eilish and O’Connell have pieced together since 2016’s wispy, forlorn “ Ocean Eyes,” but the brother and sister’s journey has been a path of self-discovery and creative refinement. At 17, Eilish is the youngest Billboard 200 chart topper since Shawn Mendes pulled a similar feat at 16 on 2015’s Handwritten. 1 album by an artist born in the 21st century. At home, Asleep’s 307,000 equivalent unit first-week harvest is the second-largest sales week of the year, landing just 40,000-some-odd units behind the first-week total for Ariana Grande’s meteoric Thank U, Next.
This week, the album O’Connell helped assemble in bedrooms and hotel rooms last year debuted on top of album charts in the U.S., as well as in multiple countries across the globe. He’s now slipped into a less-visible role, but his most crucial one yet, as the sole producer of his younger sister Billie Eilish’s captivating debut album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?. You might recognize him as the leader of the Los Angeles rock band the Slightlys, or from his role as Alistair in the final season of Ryan Murphy’s beloved high-school art-kid drama, Glee.
At just 21 years old, O’Connell has enjoyed promising success as an actor, performer, and producer in the last five years. Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for iHeartMediaįinneas O’Connell is having a life-changing week. “You can think whatever you want about our music.
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