FINNEAS

Finneas Baird O'Connell  (born July 30, 1997), known mononymously as  Finneas , is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor. He has written and produced music for various artists, including his sister,  Billie Eilish . He has won eight  Grammy Awards , including  Album of the Year ,  Producer of the Year, Non-Classical  and the  Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical  for his work on Eilish's debut album  When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?  (2019). Finneas has released several singles as a solo artist, and his debut EP,  Blood Harmony , was released in October 2019. The EP includes " Let's Fall in Love for the Night ", his most successful song to date, peaking at number 17 on the US  Billboard   Alternative Songs  chart.  His debut studio album  Optimist  was released through  Interscope Records  on October 15, 2021. Finneas starred in the 2013 independent film  Life Inside Out . He is also known for his role as Alistair in the  Fox  musical comedy-drama series  Glee . He has also made an appearance on the American sitcom  Modern Family . Finneas was born in Los Angeles to actress and screenwriter  Maggie Baird and actor Patrick O'Connell, both of whom are also musicians.  Finneas is of Irish and Scottish descent. In 2010, at age 12, he took a songwriting class with his mother, and began writing and producing songs. Finneas has said his experience playing characters helped with writing music for his sister  Billie Eilish , as he writes from her perspective and for her vocal range. He stated: "Being able to hear an artist and emulate them has been a huge part of being successful as a producer and co-writer". When he writes for his sister, he wants to "write a song that I think she'll relate to and enjoy singing and empathise with the lyrics and make her own", and when he writes with her he tries to "help her tell whatever story she's trying to tell, bounce ideas off of her, listen to her ideas." Similarly to other artists, if you're writing and you know that someone else's voice is going to be the voice telling the story, it should be a language that fits them. ... Everybody has a different vocabulary, a different way of putting sentences together, and the easiest way to tell if a song wasn't written by someone is if it doesn't fit their vernacular, so I try to match whatever I'm helping them make to whoever they seem to be. A lot of that also ... is asking an artist how they feel about it. If you come up with a line, even if an artist really likes it and is like 'That's a really cool line,' it's like 'Yeah, but can you wear it? Is it a thing you’d feel comfortable with singing every time?' Finneas had written and produced his song " Ocean Eyes " originally for his band, and gave it to Eilish when her dance teacher asked them to write a song for a choreography. They posted the song on  SoundCloud , garnering praise from various websites.  Finneas's manager reached out to him in November 2015 to talk about Eilish's potential. Finneas then helped Eilish sign to the  A&R  company Platoon.  He co-wrote and produced Eilish's debut  EP   Don't Smile at Me  (2017), which peaked at number 14 on the US  Billboard  200 .  Finneas also co-wrote and produced Eilish's debut studio album,  When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?  (2019), which debuted atop the US and UK charts.  He won the 2020  Grammy Awards  for  Producer of the Year, Non-Classical ;  Record of the Year  and  Song of the Year  for Eilish's " Bad Guy "; and  Album of the Year  and  Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical  for  When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? He has also been known to work with Grammy winners the Coutinho twins. He produced the 2019 single " Lose You to Love Me " by  Selena Gomez ,  which peaked at number one on the  Billboard  Hot 100 , and two tracks on the 2019 album  Romance  by  Camila Cabello .  He also produced " Moral of the Story " by  Ashe , and collaborated with  John Legend  on an unreleased song.  O'Connell composed the score for the 2021  teen   drama  film  The Fallout .