Tyler, the Creator Talks ‘Igor,’ Wanting to Work with Billie Eilish

Tyler, the Creator recently chatted with Zane Lowe for his Apple Music’s Beats 1 program, which focused primarily on his fifth studio album, Igor, but he also broached a wide range of topics during the nearly hour-long interview.

“Very Eighties pop,” he explains of one of the influences on Igor. “The Eighties is becoming my favorite time — not just music, but overall, and I used to hate it. But now it’s slowly becoming my favorite ’cause of the sector of music that I’ve found over the years.”

He cites Everything But the Girl, Sade and the Style Council as a few of his favorites from the era. “So much weird, like, white people making, trying to make black soul-ish music, but they didn’t. But they grew up kind of [on] white pop stuff. So, this mesh that it made is beautiful,” he said, adding that he appreciates the jazz influences that were also prevalent in that era.

Tyler also opened up about his love of chord progressions. “Since day one, I’ve always wanted to make the prettiest shit that’s borderline boring or the hardest fucking shit,” he explains of the sounds on the LP. “I’ve been trying to mix those together since my first album.”

Looking to the future, he revealed he would like to focus on utilizing his production skills. “That’s all I want to do,” Tyler said. “I’m going to spend the next two years probably working on clothes and just producing for others.” He also reflected on who he’d like to produce in the future. “I’m open for anything at this point … The big dogs, Beyoncé, obviously Jay. Imma do a jazz album some day.” Later, they discussed song structure, and Tyler gave props to Drake, Frank Ocean, early Neptunes and Stevie Wonder.

They also discussed Billie Eilish’s debut album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? “I think it’s sick. I like her. I think she’s, I just want her to just keep doing her damn thing,” Tyler said. “I want to work with her. I don’t know what the fuck we would make, but even if it don’t come out, if it’s trash, I’d still just want to see what we could [do].”

The love is mutual. Eilish responded to his remarks on Instagram. “I would be nothing without you Tyler,” she wrote. “Everyone knows it.”