So it turns out that Billie Eilish is just as obsessed with The Office as the rest of us -- so much so that she sampled audio from the show on her new album When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? On the song my strange addiction, audio from the episode "Threat Level Midnight" can be heard. Released in February of 2011, the episode is a fan favorite and centers around an action film that Michael Scott (Steve Carell) had spent years creating. In the "film", titled Threat Level Midnight, Michael Scott plays the main character - Michael Scarn. In one scene of the "film", patrons of a bar break out into a song and dance craze known as "The Scarn."
On the song my strange addiction, Billie Eilish uses dialogue about "The Scarn" from Michael Scott (Steve Carell), Jim Halpert (John Krasinski), Ryan Howard (B.J. Novak), and Kelly Kapoor (Mindy Kaling). The audio introduces the song and is also repeated throughout the song. When discussing the decision to sample audio from the episode almost a decade later, Billie told MTV News, "thought that was really funny, so we literally just ripped the audio from Netflix and put it in the song, not at all thinking that they would say yes to it and we’d be able to put it out. Also, it’s about strange addictions, and The Office is mine, so…"
Of course, Billie had to get permission to use the audio -- and the cast and creators of The Office were more than happy to grant it. According to Rolling Stone, B.J. Novak "already had Eilish’s hit bury a friend on a playlist" before being approached to grant permission for her to use his voice. He said "They had to get approval of all the cast that was on it....I was fine with it regardless, but I was like ‘Wow, bonus: This is a banger.'”
Eve Nelson, who produced the music for the episode was already a fan of Billie's and was more than happy to let her sample the audio. She stated "Can’t say enough about that girl....she is, to me, one of the finest young artists of today. She takes risks. She’s herself. She marches to her own drummer. I love what she did with that. I thought it was brilliant. I could hear that she got slightly inspired by the beat. I respect and admire her so much. I’m honored that I have anything to do with inspiring Billie Eilish."
BRB - I'm busy writing down all the reasons why I love Billie Eilish AND The Office.