@mathiasrosenzweig

“I wouldn’t leave L.A. if the whole place tipped over into the ocean,” late author Eve Babitz wrote for her character Mary in 1977’s ‘Slow Days, Fast Company.’ “She was too tough and too fragile for anyplace else.”  In her music video for “everything i wanted,” Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas drive a car along the streets of Los Angeles before submerging themselves in the Pacific. “I had a dream,” she sings, “I got everything I wanted / Not what you’d think / And if I’m being honest, it might’ve been a nightmare.”  That city, famously, is one where dreams and nightmares abound. It’s where Marilyn Monroe was born and became a star, but also where fellow Hollywood darling Sharon Tate was murdered. It’s home to Malibu’s pristine beaches, which inspired sex-fueled shows like ‘Baywatch,’ just as it’s home to over 62,000 wildfires each year. Billionaires, those Americans who’ve “made it,” live a short Tesla drive away from roughly 8,000 homeless people lining Skid Row. In LA, utopia and dystopia coincide. It is the tension between these two extremes that has formed much of Eilish’s artistry—tough, but fragile, the stuff of dreams and nightmares.  “I live a very high-highs and low-lows type of life,” Eilish says over the phone from LA. It’s midnight in California, and she’s just wrapped rehearsals for the current world tour of Happier Than Ever, her sophomore album. “I’m just that kind of person. Everything feels huge or tiny.” Read my full story at the link in bio. From V135 Spring/Summer 2022 Photography: @hedislimane Fashion: @mandaknowsbutts Interview: @mathiasrosenzweig Makeup: @robrumseymua (@aframe_agency) Hair: @salonbenjamin Editors: @thekevinponce / @overlyopinionatedblackperson / @daniacurvy @alexblynn Casting: @itboygregk (@gkldprojects)