August 10, 2020 • 11 mins
If you want to change, preserve, or build a better America, there’s one easy way to make your voice heard: Vote. This year, iHeartRadio is teaming up with over 20 incredible celebrities (plus a handful of our most popular podcasters) to get the country excited to go vote, broadcasting the personal, emotional and heartfelt stories behind why showing up to the ballot box means so much-- not just as individuals, but for our entire nation.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Why I'm Voting, a production of I Heart Radio. Listen.
You already know this, but it's an election year. You
might already be tired of hearing about it. But here's
the thing. Democracy doesn't work without you. I'm Holly Frying,
and I'm sitting down with many of my fellow podcasters,
from Will Ferrell to Stephanie Rule, as well as other luminaries,
(00:27):
to find out about their relationships with the ballot box
and ultimately just to find out why they vote. I
hope you're exercising your right to vote, and if you're not,
I hope that their stories inspire you. Hello. Hello, Today,
I am joined by none other than Phineas who you know.
(00:49):
He's a singer and songwriter and record producer. He has
collaborated a great deal with his amazing sister, Billie Eilish,
and he has his debut solo EP, Blood Harmony, which
came out in the fall. Phinnias, thank you so much
for joining us. Thanks for having me. Do you remember
when you learned that voting was a thing as a kid?
I think the first election that I remember being aware
(01:11):
of was was George Bush's re election. I remember sort
of like that being on in my parents house and
in my friend's parents house, and I remember, you know, candidly,
my my parents not being super pleased that he was
being reelected, and remember sort of being like, huh, why
and what is all of this and what is And
you know, my my parents, to their great credit, never
(01:32):
sort of babied me or Billy in terms of like
assuming we wouldn't understand something. If we ever asked a question,
they would just explain it. And if it if we
didn't understand it, then we didn't. But they would always
explain everything. So I remember that, you know. The other
thing that I remember was the first march I went to,
which was against the Iraq War after nine eleven, which
(01:53):
you know, I would have been like four or five
during that, So that was the first march I remember.
But yeah, so so pretty early on in a kind
of an abstract sense of like, okay, there is a
government there. Did you then? If you were going to
marches early, I imagine you probably were encouraged to register
pretty much when you turned eighteen. Yeah, I mean I
(02:15):
definitely registered when I turned eighteen. I turned eighteen into
fift so not really an election year, but yes, I
mean that was you know, I was sort of politically
conscious in terms of just what was going on from
the time I was like eight nine. Yeah, do you
remember what it felt like when you voted the first time?
(02:35):
I think it's important to just be honest here and
say that the first time I voted, and to this day,
I'm I'm mostly just hoping I don't get anything wrong.
I think that's probably a big factor in in maybe
kids reticence to vote, is that it's marginally confusing and
it's not something we've done a whole lot of and you're,
you know, in a voting booth alone and you don't
(02:57):
want to make a mistake. It felt reminiscent of like
a driver's d test or something. To me, it's always
been important to me to write down, you know, who
I'm going to vote for for everyone beforehand, and cross
reference their policies online make sure that I'm never guessing
in the booth. Yeah. Yeah, that's always a terrifying moment
(03:18):
when you get in the booth and you see an
initiative or an office and you're like, I didn't remember
seeing anything about this. It's a terrible feeling. The other
thing is like if you've spent months talking about, you know,
how much you hope that this governor or mayor or
president is elected, and you get in the booth and
there's just a choice, and you you always have this
feeling of like, oh my god, what if I just
(03:39):
accidentally shows not the person I've been talking about for months.
You know, since you are so active and really smart
about making sure you have information at hand, I am
presuming that you probably also make sure to vote in
your local elections as well as the big four years. Yeah, yeah,
I mean, I think hopefully part of the thing that
has resonated with the Black Lives Matter moment and movement
(04:01):
specifically against police brutality in the United States is how
much impact these local elections have. I think presidential elections,
gubernatorial elections are pretty publicized, and I think sometimes local
elections are like sort of swept under the rug, you know,
sometimes frankly, because the person that is more likely to
(04:23):
get elected is relying on not having, you know, either
the youth vote or or the vote of a person
who can't afford to take a day off work to
go to the poll. So it's super important, and I
try to be as vocal as they can about how
important local elections. I mean in terms of, quite honestly,
the presidential election matters a great deal because the cabinet matters,
because the staffing matters. But in terms of your actual
(04:46):
daily life in whatever town, city, state you are in,
like your local election matters tenfold. Like you should not
be voting for president if you're not also going to
then vote for every local election. You mentioned before that
it can be daunting for a really for young people
that haven't voted a lot before. What do you think
is the biggest, really the biggest hurdle that we have
(05:06):
to overcome in terms of activating those younger voters to
make sure that they get registered and get to the
polls or mail in their ballot. I think that's an
awesome question. I live in a sort of a historically
blue state, and one of the things I think about
really often is that there's this kind of misconception that
California specifically, or maybe a state like New York, or
(05:26):
maybe a state like Texas and the inverse climate is
this sort of throw away. It's already you know, it's predetermined,
And I think that the predetermined nature of that has
much more to do with the people that have voted
consistently for the past thirty years. And you know, to
put it kind of bluntly, like politicians are trying to
(05:47):
get elected, and they are trying to get elected by
the people within the district that they are running or
within the state that they are running. And I think
that if you make yourself known as a voter, that
they will have to win over you will create politicians
who cater more to your desires. I think if you
refuse to play the game and refuse to you know,
(06:08):
say that you are going to to vote in any election,
then they are dismissing you. They're dismissing your interests, They're
dismissing your desires, your needs. And I think if you
say I am a voter, I'm a voter. My friends
are voters. My family as a voter. Here are the
things that we want to see, and we will vote
for you. You You know, you'll you'll you'll really enact change
in terms of who is running and upon what platform
(06:31):
they run. So that's my advice to kids is just
like the more you you declare yourself a member of
the active voting populist, then the more people will reflect
what you want reflected. I think that's that's part of
the misconception, is people thinking like, well, I don't want
to vote for these two people, and it's like, well,
but you're just starting, because you're now declaring yourself a voter,
(06:52):
and so then four years from now or eight years
from now, you'll have candidates that really reflect you. You
mentioned one of your earliest memories being watching election returns
come in as a kid. Do you have any rituals
around like the election day now? Do you tend to
watch polls come in with friends? Do you like to
be by yourself? Do you just stay away and look
(07:13):
the next day? The first thing that I try to do,
you know, I usually sign up for absentee ballots, and
I try to vote early, either by mail or you know,
sometimes especially in the city that I grew up, and
you can actually literally go cast your vote two days
early or something. I always try to do that because
life is life, and you you just never know what
(07:34):
might befall you on the actual one day of election.
You might get into a car accident that day, and
I just want to make sure that I have done
the thing that I want to do, which is participate
and vote so usually election day itself, I have I
am not voting because I have already voted, which again
just just brings me peace of mind. And yeah, I mean,
(07:56):
you know, I have good and bad memories of election days.
I think everybody does, depending on who they wanted to
be elected either way. Yeah, I mean I've been thinking
a lot about the election on November three and what
I'm supposed to do that day, And you know, I
think the the the hours leading up to polls closing,
(08:16):
I'll be using my platform to just encourage every person
to go vote. So that will be the first two
thirds of my day, and then the last third I
might just turn off all the TVs and play bananagrams
or something. But in a very like that's how I
feel sometimes about like anything of that nature, anything that's
that kind of like live intensity. The last election that
(08:37):
I lived through, I basically had no platform, and now
that I have a platform, I have a feeling like
that's what I'm gonna try to do is just encourage
anyone to go vote. I'm glad that you brought up
your platform because I'm curious what your main like talking
point is. What is the one thing that you want
to tell people to make sure that they understand how
important this right, in this privilege and this responsibility is well, okay,
(08:59):
so let's let's extrapolate to just voting. It is the
legal right of an American citizen to vote, and I
think that is worth exercising. And part of the reason
it's worth exercising is if you exercise it and you
really follow your heart on that, it's not a right
that will get taken away. I think the less people
(09:19):
that vote, the easier it will be too change rights
like that. I think there are so many forms of
activism and protests that are wonderful and effective, and I
think that in some ways voting is actually the easiest,
and I think that that should not be you know, discounted.
(09:39):
I think, if you want to walk down a boulevard
holding a sign with thousands of people chanting for six hours,
that's amazing, and then just take the extra five minutes
it will take to also go to a polling place
and vote for you know who you think will do
a better job. I feel like it's just not that hard,
(09:59):
and and that would be my sort of you know,
encouragement to people. It's like, if you are if you
care about these issues enough to voice your opinion in
any other way, here is a direct and fast way
to articulate that, and you know, cast your name, you know,
in one direction or the other. Perfect Phineas, thank you
so much for sharing you're incredibly informed point of view
(10:22):
on activism and on what it really means to like
take that extra step. It's super important and I really
appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks for having me and um,
you know, I think it's worth mentioning to sometimes like
people can be a little preachy in my position that
I am daily inspired by people younger than I am,
and by how active the young people specifically you know,
(10:45):
our online and I feel like I understand what it
feels like to be a person who is being remonstrated
for something that they're already doing. And I want anyone
listening to this who is an active person and is
registered and is going to vote and it's going to protests.
I want them. I'm not actually talking, they're already doing
what they can. And so yeah, this is this is
(11:07):
me encouraging someone who maybe feels uninformed or uninspired. Hey
are you not registered to vote yet? But you think
it's something you want to do, you may still have time.
Voter registration deadlines vary by state, so to find out
the scoop for where you are, check out a nonpartisan
(11:27):
registration voting site like head count dot org or fair
vote dot org. Why I'm Voting is an I Heart
Radio production. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit
the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever it
is you listen to your favorite shows
Welcome to Why I'm Voting, a production of I Heart Radio. Listen.
You already know this, but it's an election year. You
might already be tired of hearing about it. But here's
the thing. Democracy doesn't work without you. I'm Holly Frying,
and I'm sitting down with many of my fellow podcasters,
from Will Ferrell to Stephanie Rule, as well as other luminaries,
(00:27):
to find out about their relationships with the ballot box
and ultimately just to find out why they vote. I
hope you're exercising your right to vote, and if you're not,
I hope that their stories inspire you. Hello. Hello, Today,
I am joined by none other than Phineas who you know.
(00:49):
He's a singer and songwriter and record producer. He has
collaborated a great deal with his amazing sister, Billie Eilish,
and he has his debut solo EP, Blood Harmony, which
came out in the fall. Phinnias, thank you so much
for joining us. Thanks for having me. Do you remember
when you learned that voting was a thing as a kid?
I think the first election that I remember being aware
(01:11):
of was was George Bush's re election. I remember sort
of like that being on in my parents house and
in my friend's parents house, and I remember, you know, candidly,
my my parents not being super pleased that he was
being reelected, and remember sort of being like, huh, why
and what is all of this and what is And
you know, my my parents, to their great credit, never
(01:32):
sort of babied me or Billy in terms of like
assuming we wouldn't understand something. If we ever asked a question,
they would just explain it. And if it if we
didn't understand it, then we didn't. But they would always
explain everything. So I remember that, you know. The other
thing that I remember was the first march I went to,
which was against the Iraq War after nine eleven, which
(01:53):
you know, I would have been like four or five
during that, So that was the first march I remember.
But yeah, so so pretty early on in a kind
of an abstract sense of like, okay, there is a
government there. Did you then? If you were going to
marches early, I imagine you probably were encouraged to register
pretty much when you turned eighteen. Yeah, I mean I
(02:15):
definitely registered when I turned eighteen. I turned eighteen into
fift so not really an election year, but yes, I
mean that was you know, I was sort of politically
conscious in terms of just what was going on from
the time I was like eight nine. Yeah, do you
remember what it felt like when you voted the first time?
(02:35):
I think it's important to just be honest here and
say that the first time I voted, and to this day,
I'm I'm mostly just hoping I don't get anything wrong.
I think that's probably a big factor in in maybe
kids reticence to vote, is that it's marginally confusing and
it's not something we've done a whole lot of and you're,
you know, in a voting booth alone and you don't
(02:57):
want to make a mistake. It felt reminiscent of like
a driver's d test or something. To me, it's always
been important to me to write down, you know, who
I'm going to vote for for everyone beforehand, and cross
reference their policies online make sure that I'm never guessing
in the booth. Yeah. Yeah, that's always a terrifying moment
(03:18):
when you get in the booth and you see an
initiative or an office and you're like, I didn't remember
seeing anything about this. It's a terrible feeling. The other
thing is like if you've spent months talking about, you know,
how much you hope that this governor or mayor or
president is elected, and you get in the booth and
there's just a choice, and you you always have this
feeling of like, oh my god, what if I just
(03:39):
accidentally shows not the person I've been talking about for months.
You know, since you are so active and really smart
about making sure you have information at hand, I am
presuming that you probably also make sure to vote in
your local elections as well as the big four years. Yeah, yeah,
I mean, I think hopefully part of the thing that
has resonated with the Black Lives Matter moment and movement
(04:01):
specifically against police brutality in the United States is how
much impact these local elections have. I think presidential elections,
gubernatorial elections are pretty publicized, and I think sometimes local
elections are like sort of swept under the rug, you know,
sometimes frankly, because the person that is more likely to
(04:23):
get elected is relying on not having, you know, either
the youth vote or or the vote of a person
who can't afford to take a day off work to
go to the poll. So it's super important, and I
try to be as vocal as they can about how
important local elections. I mean in terms of, quite honestly,
the presidential election matters a great deal because the cabinet matters,
because the staffing matters. But in terms of your actual
(04:46):
daily life in whatever town, city, state you are in,
like your local election matters tenfold. Like you should not
be voting for president if you're not also going to
then vote for every local election. You mentioned before that
it can be daunting for a really for young people
that haven't voted a lot before. What do you think
is the biggest, really the biggest hurdle that we have
(05:06):
to overcome in terms of activating those younger voters to
make sure that they get registered and get to the
polls or mail in their ballot. I think that's an
awesome question. I live in a sort of a historically
blue state, and one of the things I think about
really often is that there's this kind of misconception that
California specifically, or maybe a state like New York, or
(05:26):
maybe a state like Texas and the inverse climate is
this sort of throw away. It's already you know, it's predetermined,
And I think that the predetermined nature of that has
much more to do with the people that have voted
consistently for the past thirty years. And you know, to
put it kind of bluntly, like politicians are trying to
(05:47):
get elected, and they are trying to get elected by
the people within the district that they are running or
within the state that they are running. And I think
that if you make yourself known as a voter, that
they will have to win over you will create politicians
who cater more to your desires. I think if you
refuse to play the game and refuse to you know,
(06:08):
say that you are going to to vote in any election,
then they are dismissing you. They're dismissing your interests, They're
dismissing your desires, your needs. And I think if you
say I am a voter, I'm a voter. My friends
are voters. My family as a voter. Here are the
things that we want to see, and we will vote
for you. You You know, you'll you'll you'll really enact change
in terms of who is running and upon what platform
(06:31):
they run. So that's my advice to kids is just
like the more you you declare yourself a member of
the active voting populist, then the more people will reflect
what you want reflected. I think that's that's part of
the misconception, is people thinking like, well, I don't want
to vote for these two people, and it's like, well,
but you're just starting, because you're now declaring yourself a voter,
(06:52):
and so then four years from now or eight years
from now, you'll have candidates that really reflect you. You
mentioned one of your earliest memories being watching election returns
come in as a kid. Do you have any rituals
around like the election day now? Do you tend to
watch polls come in with friends? Do you like to
be by yourself? Do you just stay away and look
(07:13):
the next day? The first thing that I try to do,
you know, I usually sign up for absentee ballots, and
I try to vote early, either by mail or you know,
sometimes especially in the city that I grew up, and
you can actually literally go cast your vote two days
early or something. I always try to do that because
life is life, and you you just never know what
(07:34):
might befall you on the actual one day of election.
You might get into a car accident that day, and
I just want to make sure that I have done
the thing that I want to do, which is participate
and vote so usually election day itself, I have I
am not voting because I have already voted, which again
just just brings me peace of mind. And yeah, I mean,
(07:56):
you know, I have good and bad memories of election days.
I think everybody does, depending on who they wanted to
be elected either way. Yeah, I mean I've been thinking
a lot about the election on November three and what
I'm supposed to do that day, And you know, I
think the the the hours leading up to polls closing,
(08:16):
I'll be using my platform to just encourage every person
to go vote. So that will be the first two
thirds of my day, and then the last third I
might just turn off all the TVs and play bananagrams
or something. But in a very like that's how I
feel sometimes about like anything of that nature, anything that's
that kind of like live intensity. The last election that
(08:37):
I lived through, I basically had no platform, and now
that I have a platform, I have a feeling like
that's what I'm gonna try to do is just encourage
anyone to go vote. I'm glad that you brought up
your platform because I'm curious what your main like talking
point is. What is the one thing that you want
to tell people to make sure that they understand how
important this right, in this privilege and this responsibility is well, okay,
(08:59):
so let's let's extrapolate to just voting. It is the
legal right of an American citizen to vote, and I
think that is worth exercising. And part of the reason
it's worth exercising is if you exercise it and you
really follow your heart on that, it's not a right
that will get taken away. I think the less people
(09:19):
that vote, the easier it will be too change rights
like that. I think there are so many forms of
activism and protests that are wonderful and effective, and I
think that in some ways voting is actually the easiest,
and I think that that should not be you know, discounted.
(09:39):
I think, if you want to walk down a boulevard
holding a sign with thousands of people chanting for six hours,
that's amazing, and then just take the extra five minutes
it will take to also go to a polling place
and vote for you know who you think will do
a better job. I feel like it's just not that hard,
(09:59):
and and that would be my sort of you know,
encouragement to people. It's like, if you are if you
care about these issues enough to voice your opinion in
any other way, here is a direct and fast way
to articulate that, and you know, cast your name, you know,
in one direction or the other. Perfect Phineas, thank you
so much for sharing you're incredibly informed point of view
(10:22):
on activism and on what it really means to like
take that extra step. It's super important and I really
appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks for having me and um,
you know, I think it's worth mentioning to sometimes like
people can be a little preachy in my position that
I am daily inspired by people younger than I am,
and by how active the young people specifically you know,
(10:45):
our online and I feel like I understand what it
feels like to be a person who is being remonstrated
for something that they're already doing. And I want anyone
listening to this who is an active person and is
registered and is going to vote and it's going to protests.
I want them. I'm not actually talking, they're already doing
what they can. And so yeah, this is this is
(11:07):
me encouraging someone who maybe feels uninformed or uninspired. Hey
are you not registered to vote yet? But you think
it's something you want to do, you may still have time.
Voter registration deadlines vary by state, so to find out
the scoop for where you are, check out a nonpartisan
(11:27):
registration voting site like head count dot org or fair
vote dot org. Why I'm Voting is an I Heart
Radio production. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit
the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever it
is you listen to your favorite shows
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