Billie Eilish explains a bit of her recording process over fried chicken

The “LUNCH” singer also shared some of the things she looks for in a crush on her recent Chicken Shop Date appearance

Billie Eilish’s latest album is lusty and romantic, the exact vibe the 22-year-old singer brought to her recent Chicken Shop Date with Amelia Dimoldenberg. For the uninitiated, Chicken Shop Date is a bit like Hot Ones, if Sean Evans was British and asked spicy questions instead of eating spicy wings. As is usually the case, Dimoldenberg spent much of the episode shamelessly flirting with her guest. With Eilish having just put out a certified hit about the difference between a “craving” and a “crush,” however, the format felt particularly appropriate.

“I become insane when I have a crush,” Eilish said. “When I don’t have a crush life feels so empty.” She also shared some advice for anyone hoping that that crush might be them one day: all they have to do is smell nice. “That’s the first thing that I notice,” the singer said. “I have a very strong nose, so if somebody smells good, I like them more.” Her other turn ons include personality and passion. Just don’t expect to ever have her favorite laugh in the world. That honor is adorably reserved for her brother and collaborator, Finneas.

Eilish and Dimoldenberg also took some time to talk about the singer’s own passions, namely some of the ad-libs she did for her latest album, HIT ME HARD AND SOFT. “I really like the ad-libs that I did on a new song of mine called ‘WILDFLOWER’… in the second verse,” she shared. “[Ad-libs] are kind of the last step. Like, I do all the vocals, I do everything, and then I do a bunch of ad-lib tracks and then I choose whatever I like. But it’s all improvised, so whatever I use is made up on the spot.”

“With ‘CHIHIRO’… we kind of finished that song without realizing it, and then months and months went by, and then we were, like, basically done with the whole album and I realized I hadn’t done any ad-libs,” she continued. “So last second, I went in there and I added a bunch, and I’m really glad I did because some of my favorite parts of the song… are some of the ad-libs that I did that day.” Maybe the real bird of a feather Eilish was singing about was chicken all along.