Not long ago it was popular chatter on the Internet that Grammy-winning musician Billie Eilish's mom was a voice actor for Mass Effect and Final Fantasy, among various other series. A love of video games clearly penetrates deep in their family, as Eilish talked about how the theme song to PopCap Games' Plants vs. Zombies was one of the samples used to create her hit song Bad Guy during an interview with Rolling Stone.
The Rolling Stone interview where Eilish and her brother Finneas talked about Plants vs. Zombies was uploaded to YouTube. Around the six minute mark, she says that the chorus hook uses "not at all the same melodies, but it's literally Plants vs. Zombies," to which her brother adds that it also has similarities to the intro for Disney Channel's 2007 show Wizards of Waverly Place.
While it's generally far from the public consciousness today, Plants vs. Zombies was one of the titles that helped push a now-massive mobile gaming industry into the mainstream during the oughts alongside games like Rovio Entertainment's Angry Birds. The strategy tower defense gameplay of PvZ has spawned a long-running franchise with recent spin-offs like Battle for Neighborville in 2019.
It's just one of the many bizarre things incorporated into Eilish's song, which also includes her laughter altered into an unrecognizably higher pitch and the sound of an Australian crosswalk signal according to the Rolling Stone video. Clearly that unconventional approach paid off, as Bad Guy received Song of the Year at the 2020 Grammy Awards and helped open opportunities for the young artist like creating the next James Bond theme.
Bad Guy is not Eilish's only song with ties to video games. Another track in her debut studio album "When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?" is named after the 2010 puzzle game ilomilo — released right around the same time as Plants vs. Zombies.
Toward the end of the Rolling Stone video, Eilish says that Bad Guy was "one of the most fun songs to make ever," and Finneas confirms that "usually songs suck to make." It's safe to say that the world can be thankful their deep-seeded love of video games aided in the creation of a musical masterpiece, and maybe fans should play her song a few more times while waiting for the still under-construction Plants vs. Zombies 3.
Source: GameSpot