Folk-pop singer Liz Bills’ newest alt-pop single, “Wi-Hi,” touches on mental health suffering through social media addiction. Though acknowledging it might not look like what many think addiction looks like, she believes it’s an “attached to our hips addiction.”
This past Friday, Bills dropped the official music video for “Wi-Hi.” At the end of the video, she removes her makeup, jewelry, and stage clothes, leaving her with a bare face in only undergarments.
“‘Wi-Hi’ is a song about my feelings of disconnect and mounting anxiety in regards to social media. I believe that the reasons behind my own depression, anxiety and disconnection have largely to do with being glued to my cell phone 24/7. My device convinces me that I am not enough, I don’t have enough, and there is always something that I need to do, have or fix. According to Facebook, the world is in disarray. According to Instagram, beautiful successful strangers live lives that don’t look like my own. Ask Google, and it is sensory overload, too much information! Taking off the makeup, hair, jewelry and clothes are metaphors for stripping it all away and coming back home to Liz,” Bills said.
She continues to discuss mental health topics on her upcoming album (scheduled for a summer release), including loving someone with bipolar disorder (“Come Back Down to Me”) being your authentic self (“Home”) and facing her fear of going on tour (“Train Song”). Bills creates songs that many can relate to, something she believes is important and also keeps her feeling grounded and purposeful.
While her intoxicating stage presence seems effortless, it took her a lot of hard work to get there. When Bills was just eight years old, her father enrolled her in piano lessons. She later taught herself to play guitar, but performed for no one but the inanimate objects scattered around her bedroom. Bills suffered from an eating disorder, addiction and borderline personality disorder to the point of dropping out of school and almost losing her life. It wasn’t until age twenty-four that she began to evaluate where she was headed.
“I had an epiphany. I had two choices in life: I could choose to live and make music, or I could choose to die and not make music. I chose life and music,” Bills said.
The next day she posted an ad on Craigslist for a band, and soon after, Analog Heart was born. One of Bills’ most cherished times in her life.
While her full-bodied and at times raspy vocals reminiscent of decades past draw a crowd, it’s also through her lively stage presence and brightly-colored psychedelic clothing that she stands out. In stark contrast with her stage presence, she surprisingly carries herself with a demure and charming shyness, something she has had to teach herself to love.
“I have overcome my shyness by accepting that I am shy. By accepting and loving that shy girl and by realizing that it can be a strength and being introverted can be a good thing,” Bills said.
In accepting herself, she challenges herself as well. By practicing assertiveness, creating boundaries, and living her truth, she combats shyness and shows she can be shy while standing up for herself and being an eye-catching performer. In fact, her extrovertedness was in part triggered by a family member saying she would never be outgoing or a performer.
“I will never forget that conversation and it has ignited a fire in my heart to show the world, that person, and most importantly myself that I can be extroverted, powerful, magnetic, and charismatic,” Bills said.
And, she is just that. Most prevalent when she covers “Respect,” by Aretha Franklin, Bills moves around the stage, dancing as she goes, having the time of her life. Bills believes she is her true self on stage.
“It’s as if the stage gives me permission to be the person I am not off of the stage. It is as if the stage hypnotizes me. The stage is my power, my meditation, a safe place for me to step into my own power and to transform into a lioness, a goddess, a queen,” Bills contended. “I am a wild warrior woman who wants to express herself creatively, forever. I am a rebel who refuses to give up living a childlike creative lifestyle. I will never stop fighting to keep my heart open and to spread love, acceptance, music, and art.”
That being said, Bills has become more critical of herself as she transitions into her solo career, she attributes this criticism to her perfectionism, people pleasing ways, low self-esteem and cognitive distortions.
“I have lost this sense of wonder, silliness and joy for my art. Lately, I’ve been meditating on this, asking the universe: Why? What do I need?” Bills said. “I’ve realized that I need to stop, slow down, put it down, say no, create more boundaries, trust, relax and rest. This is the season of harvest for me, not for creation. And it has taken a long time for me to be okay with that. Relaxing is hard! Feeling good enough without creating or doing all of the time isn’t easy for most of us.”
To do this, she connects with the universe, something that takes many forms, including meditation, therapy, experiencing nature, dancing, relaxing, putting devices down, doing yoga and taking the time to slow down and breathe.
In being present, she also welcomes the universe.
“Being in the present moment is where the universe is waiting. I am the universe, you are the universe, she is all around us and if we can slow down, we can see, feel, and hear it fully,” Bills muses.
Though sometimes struggling to live in the present, she tries to give herself the compassion she deserves.
“In order to heal, I continuously remind myself that vulnerability and authenticity are far more important and meaningful than being perfect. I give myself compassion, understanding and love. I realize that I have cognitive distortions and look for the ‘bad’ in my work and within myself, so I’m currently working with a therapist to shed them, become aware of them and redirect my focus,” Bills said.
Yet as she struggles, Bills has been carving a place for herself in the music industry in the past ten years by landing the 2020 Boston Music Award Singer/songwriter of the Year nomination, winning the NEMA Roots Act of the Year in 2019, Rock Act of the Year in 2018, making it to the top 30 female finishers on American Idol in 2013 and most notably, opening for Bon Jovi at Mohegan Sun in 2017.
Although Bills chose life and music and has been living in that truth for over ten years, she hasn’t allowed herself to forget her journey. She shares these truths with her listeners, and hopes it will help others feel less alienated. Ultimately, Bills’ goal is that people will pick up on the messages she included within the video itself, a message we could all benefit from hearing.
“I hope the message that comes across is that we are all way more similar than we are different, we are all imperfectly human and we all just want to be loved, heard, seen and accepted, especially by the one who stares back at us in the mirror,” Bills said.“You can probably understand better already why I am so passionate about mental health, self-love, and self-empowerment, because I never had any of that before. I have suffered for so long that I just do not want to suffer any longer. I don’t want to feel shame around my mental illness. I don’t want to feel hopeless so instead I choose to feel empowered.”
Watch the video for WiHi below.