"I was basically waterboarding myself for 6 hours" — Billie Eilish talks about being underwater fully-clothed in a 10-feet tank to shoot album cover

Billie Eilish opened up about achieving the perfect cover photo for her new album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, which came out on May 17, 2024. The singer appeared on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on May 21 to promote her album, where she claimed the photoshoot for the cover image involved "basically waterboarding" herself for six hours.

“I had a weight strapped to me. I didn’t have a nose plug, so I was basically waterboarding myself for six hours,” Eilish said.

The nine-time Grammy winner made history as the youngest person to be a two-time Oscar winner when she took home the Academy Award for Best Original Song for Barbie's What Was I Made For? on March 11, 2024.

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"That is very real" — Billie Eilish about Hit Me Hard and Soft cover image

Billie Eilish's highly anticipated third studio album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, was released on Friday, May 17. In the album's cover image, Eilish is decked in a black outfit, floating in a pool of blue water after having seemingly fallen through a white door.

Billie Eilish was quick to reveal to fans that the cover image was from a real photoshoot, which saw the 22-year-old singer submerged in a 10-feet tank for close to six hours to take the perfect shot. Appearing on Stephen Colbert's late-night talk show on May 21, Eilish said:

“That is very real. This was the day after this last Grammys. I had gone to sleep at 7 a.m., I woke up, I dyed my hair black … and then I went to this random place in Santa Clarita. There’s a tank in this giant place and it was like 10 feet deep, and I popped my little a** in there. And I was in there for six hours.”

She added that she was "fully clothed" the entire time, wearing “big long pants, giant Pro Club shorts, a thermal long-sleeve, a button-up flannel, a tie, rings, arm warmers, and a weight.” She explained that the weight was used to weigh her down to ensure she wouldn't float too high in the water to get a good shot.

Billie Eilish also said that she "almost died" several times to achieve that picture-perfect shot, adding that it was her idea to go ahead with the risky photo shoot.

She elaborated on her need "to suffer" to capture the perfect image, explaining how she visualized what the end product would look so she could later deal with "how horrible" the process was.

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Billie Eilish performed Lunch on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert

In the interview with Stephen Colbert, Billie Eilish spoke about growing up in a musical family and how artists like Lama Del Rey inspired and influenced her music. She called Hit Me Hard and Soft "the most genuine thing I’ve ever made."

Billie Eilish also offered fans a special performance of her second song, Lunch, from Hit Me Hard and Soft at The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.

Lunch, the album's second track, is an exploration of the singer's sexuality and her attraction towards women, which she delved into during an April interview with Rolling Stone.

“That song was actually part of what helped me become who I am, to be real. I wrote some of it before even doing anything with a girl, and then wrote the rest after. I’ve been in love with girls for my whole life, but I just didn’t understand — until, last year," she said.

Hit Me Hard and Soft is Billie Eilish's third studio album, following When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? in 2019 and Happier Than Ever in 2021.