When director Alfonso Cuarn askedBillie Eilish to contribute a song to the soundtrack forROMA, she and Finneas OConnellher brother and main collaboratorwere drawn to a line of dialogue spoken by Marco Grafs character: When I was older I used to be a sailor, but I drowned in a storm. They took the line and ran with it.
When I Was Older is part haunting lullaby and part electronic eulogy, with Eilishs silky vocals giving the impression shes singing underwater,but its where she wants to be.Im on my back again/dreaming of a time and place/Where you and I remain the best of friends, she laments. Its almost as if the narrator from her 2016 breakout hit Ocean Eyes has swam a few laps in the sea and emerged older, wiser and intimately acquainted with Autotune.
Eilish and OConnell were given access to the sounds used in the film.Lines like Memories burn like a forest fire are accompanied by the sounds of the trees burning in the woods outside the house. The chorus has the ocean sounds overplayed on it, the siblings said in a statement.Nothing about this song would exist without the film, which is exactly what we love about it.