Backstage at DoLab at Coachella is a scene of chaos. It’s 6:30 p.m. on April 13, and the usually spacious and casual meeting area for industry people and artists is shoulder to shoulder with bodies. Benny Blanco rushes past me with a worried look on his face, then passes by a few moments later with two neon green bracelets in his hand. Someone carrying several large metal trays filled with Mexican food is speeding towards the cordoned off staff area. Nearby, a man wonders if he shouldn’t go see Sublime’s set instead. “She’s a DJ, man!” their friend said in response. “This is the first time this has happened! We don’t want to miss it.
About 30 minutes before, Coachella organizers announced that Billie Eilish would take the stage at the festival’s underground electronic tent, DoLab, for a last-minute DJ set. Indeed, of all the performances at Coachella this year, Eilish’s impromptu appearance was the most unexpected. As the flood of fan-recorded footage later showed, the pop star didn’t actually end up DJing, but she used that time to preview unreleased songs, move on to hip-hop classics and, usually vibing with his crew, consisting of his brother FINNEAS, Tyga, influencer Quen Blackwell and rumored beau Odessa A’zion.
It turns out that the story of how this strange collision of worlds happened was just as spontaneous. It all started with a phone call just ten days before the festival kicked off. Jesse Flemming, one of DoLab’s three founders, received a ring from Coachella founder Paul Tollett, who told them that Eilish’s team had contacted them about wanting to do a surprise set at the festival — and that they wanted it to be on the DoLab stage. . “I was like, are you kidding me?” he tells NYLON in an exclusive interview. “How does Billie Eilish know who we are?
Flemming says “a really big, coordinated effort by a lot of people” was focused on creating buzz for Eilish’s new album, HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, it all happened on a 26-person call with his label, management, and social media team. Her previous time slot — she continued at 7:35 p.m. — was also strategic: “Coachella didn’t want her to take on No Doubt, or Tyler, the Creator… Because it’s Billie Eilish.”
In the end, Flemming estimates that up to 25,000 people gathered in their corner to watch the show, setting a record attendance on stage. Notably, Eilish wasn’t the only big pop star to grace DoLab this weekend. Katy Perry also made an appearance on April 14 to sing a song during DJ Mia Moretti’s set, but this appearance was not planned. “She just showed up,” says Flemming, who was still in bed at the time and discovered Perry via text message.
In the wake of these major pop-star moments, some DoLab purists have expressed frustration about the future of the scene, to which Flemming shrugs in response. He and his brothers Josh and Dede – who founded the scene in 2004 and use it to preview their own summer electronic festival Lightning In A Bottle – say they are still committed to maintaining an underground focus in the framework of their mission. But they’re also ready for the spotlight. “Every big band was small at one point,” he says. “And if this happens to us after 20 years of practice, then we will not resist it.”
