Finneas opens up on collaborating with sister Billie Eilish

• Finneas reflects on music career at Tribeca Storytellers event
• Green Day concert inspired his passion for music aged 10
• Finneas produced Billie Eilish's 2017 song Ocean Eyes

Musician and producer Finneas O'Connell recently opened up about his musical journey, reflecting on how his love for music began and how his career with his younger sister, Billie Eilish, took off.

On Tuesday, the older brother of Billie Eilish discussed with Anthony Willis as part of the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival: Storytellers series. During the conversation, he reflected on what inculcated in him the love for music.

Green Day concert sparked his passion

Finneas explained that his desire to pursue music professionally began at a young age. He said: "I really have always wanted to make music for a living. I think I knew that from the time I was like 10 or 11 and I went and saw Green Day play a concert and I thought, 'I can't believe that's a job. I want to do that job.'"

Collaboration with Billie Eilish began with Ocean Eyes

Finneas went on to reveal that he started collaborating with his younger sister Billie when he not only penned but also produced her 2017 song Ocean Eyes, which was uploaded to SoundCloud. Since that first collaboration, the Nobody Like hitmaker has co-written and produced all of his sister's albums so far.

When it comes to his own musical career, Finneas admitted to now being proud of his solo journey, including projects such as Optimist and For Cryin' Out Loud!

Choosing music over college

Finneas recalled the early days of working with Billie, when they were both still living at home. He said: "The early portion of my professional life, so to speak, Billie and I started making music when we both still lived at home. I'm 18, she's 13. That's when we started collaborating with each other. We started putting things on SoundCloud."

He also spoke about his decision not to attend college at the time. Finneas said: "So, at 18, I had decided already to not go to college, which was getting some raised eyebrows, not from my parents, who were very supportive, but from kind of everyone else. And I was like, 'Oh s****, now I have to figure this out.' And then that song started to do well, and I think I was like, "Oh, here's my chance now, I really don't want to mess this up. I don't want to lose this opportunity,'"