Much like the rest of the world, the folks at NPR Music are working from home for the foreseeable future. While Bob Boilen‘s desk, the usual setting for the acclaimed “Tiny Desk Concert” series, remains empty, the music hasn’t stopped during the pandemic. Artists from around the world have offered up “Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts” to keep fans entertained while they isolate. As NPR Music explains, “It’s the same spirit — stripped-down sets, an intimate setting — just a different space.”
But while the steady stream of new content has been more than welcome, the missing ambiance of Boilen’s desk and its myriad trinkets has caused these “Tiny Desk (Home)” concerts to feel a little less satisfying than usual. That is, until Grammy darling Billie Eilish and her brother/main collaborator, Finneas, took their turn. The Billie Eilish “Tiny Desk (Home)” session has that special feel that the other videos have been missing. Why? Because she brought the desk to her.
As NPR Music noted along with the clip’s release, they found a way to get a photo of Boilen’s desk, which they then passed along to the young musicians turned into a set to use for their performance. You wouldn’t be able to tell that this Tiny Desk was an imposter at all if the camera didn’t pan out to show the set’s wooden frames at the very end of the video. “Fake” or not, the Tiny Desk set recreation succeeded in giving this (Home) session the same familiar vibe as Tiny Desk Concerts of old.
You can watch Billie Eilish and Finneas perform singles “my future” and “everything i wanted” from a movie-magic version of the Tiny Desk below:
Billie Eilish – Tiny Desk (Home) Concert – Full Video
[Video: NPR Music]