Many listeners know “Moral of the Story,” released in 2020 by Ashlyn “Ashe” Wilson, and Billie Eilish’s 2017 hit “Ocean Eyes,” written by Eilish and her brother, Finneas “FINNEAS” O’Connell. However, few have heard of FINNEAS and Ashe’s joint project: their band, The Favors.
According to Ashe, the idea for the band was hers. Although the exact timeline is unclear, Ashe claimed that in the past — speculated to be late 2023 and early 2024 — she began to lose her passion for making music. As a last resort, Ashe reached out to her close friend FINNEAS, who already had a successful solo career on top of producing for his sister Billie Eilish, and proposed forming a band together.
In December of 2024, they created an Instagram account under the username @weshouldstartaband. The page remained blank until June 2, 2025. In an interview with MTV, Ashe said, “We were probably already teasing it for too long, too. We started maybe two months ago, and people were still saying, ‘Yes, just make the band already.’” In early June, the pair changed the handle to @wearethefavors and posted the cover of their debut album, The Dream.
“We made a band. It’s called The Favors. Announcing our new album, The Dream, out Sept. 19 … We deeply loved making this music together in secret and can’t wait for it to finally make its way to you,” the caption read.
Between the announcement of The Dream and its release, both FINNEAS and Ashe toured for their most recent solo albums, For Cryin’ Out Loud! by FINNEAS and Ashe by Ashe. During the tours, they occasionally made guest appearances at each other’s concerts and performed a few unreleased tracks from their upcoming album, including their debut single, “The Little Mess You Made.” These unreleased songs were later revealed to be “Lake George” and “The Hudson.”
Shortly after announcing The Dream, the duo launched their first tour. The opening concert took place on Sept. 18, 2025, at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. The timing meant their first live performance began just a few hours before the album’s official release that same night at 9 p.m.
This method of album release was irregular, even by the artists’ own standards. Still, fans jumped at the chance to hear the record live before its official release. The first show was general admission — no assigned seating, simply a pit of about 80 attendees with the rest sitting on the grass behind them.
Because this marked their band debut, the setlist also included songs from each artist’s solo careers. Fans loved the idea of getting an early listen to The Dream, an album heavy with yearning, desperation and loss.
Notable emotional tracks include “Restless Little Heart,” the opener; “Ordinary People,” track six; “Necessary Evils,” track seven; “The Hudson,” track five; and “Lake George,” track 10. Each song explores themes of inner turmoil, longing, disbelief, bargaining and loneliness.
More specifically, in “Necessary Evils,” FINNEAS and Ashe harmonize as they sing the words, “And I’d never be wrong ’cause you’d never be true, if you’d never been born I’d avoid every storm I cried for you.”
Other tracks — such as “The Dream,” track two; “Times Square Jesus,” track eight; “David’s Brother,” track nine; and “Home Sweet Home,” track 12 — feel more like acceptance. The lyrics in these songs are more nostalgic and reminiscing, yet are noticeably more energetic. Lines like “You live in your car, but you say you’re in Hollywood” from “The Dream” and “What a way to learn your lesson. Who you are and who you’re not” from “David’s Brother” emphasize these kinds of feelings.
On a different note, “The Little Mess You Made,” track four; “Someday I’ll Be Back In Hollywood,” track 11; and “Moonshine,” track three, are laced with anger and disbelief, a kind of how-dare-you defiance. In “The Little Mess You Made”, the pair sings, “Just pretend, she was just a friend. The little mess you made is filling up our room,” highlighting feelings of anguish that carry throughout the song.
The album can also be alternately organized through the perspective of the five stages of grief, adding a new layer to its already complex core. Denial emerges in track one, “Restless Little Heart”. Anger is seen in track three, “Moonshine”; track four, “The Little Mess You Made”; and track 11, “Someday I’ll Be Back In Hollywood.” Bargaining could be represented by track five, “The Hudson,” and track six, “Ordinary People.” Listeners hear depression in track seven, “Necessary Evils,” and track 10m “Lake George.” Finally, acceptance appears in track two, “The Dream”; track eight, “Times Square Jesus”; track 9, “David’s Brother”; and track 12, “Home Sweet Home.”
When you mix the indie-pop tendencies of Ashe with the alternative pop style of FINNEAS, you get The Favors: a band full of rhythmic, ’70s-inspired indie pop with occasional hints of jazz. Kate Read of The Rice Thresher wrote, “The songs draw you into their lives through a roller coaster of emotions that speak to the human experience of being in love.” While the band isn’t widely known, it has built a loyal following that isn’t just from their individual careers. This could be a promising sign that foreshadows that they may not stay small for long.
