Here’s How Hans Zimmer Struck Gold With The New Bond Score
Earlier in the year, during those wondrous pre-pandemic days, Billie Eilish had the world waiting with bated breath for her new James Bond theme. There was lots to be anxious about. Starting with the fact that she was filling in some big shoes, previously left empty by Sam Smith and Adele. Not to mention that the Bond franchise also has an army of die-hard fans, ready to pick on every little detail. And yet, Billie delivered, with an effortless ease, something that the prolific Hans Zimmer is still in awe of.
In a recent interview with GQ, the legendary composer dished out the origin story of ‘No Time To Die‘ and why he chose Billie and Finneas to lead the charge. “It’s a Bond film, there’s going to be a song and there was like a box full of songs lying around that people were listening to and trying to make decisions on them. They wanted me to be part of the decision-making process. There was this small, leanly produced, very personal song by Billie. I just went, ‘That’s it,'” Zimmer shared.
“And everybody said, ‘Well, but it’s not quite right. It’s not good.’ I said, ‘No, no, no, here’s the mistake you’re making: she and Finneas haven’t seen the movie yet. They don’t know what they’re writing about. Get them on a plane, get them over here’. So on a dark, gray, typical English night, they arrived in the middle of Soho, jet-lagged beyond anything. And we showed them the movie. And the next day the three of us got to work on it.”
But with every Bond theme comes an orchestral arrangement that builds to a spectacular crescendo. And Zimmer provided the sibling duo with all the tools to craft just this. Zimmer recruited Matt Dunkley for a majority of the string arrangements, Johnny Marr on the guitar and Steve Lipson stepping in as the engineer.
Zimmer Finds A Defining Factor
With Billie’s melancholic verses, rising to heart-shattering falsettos and dipping to a husky sense of foreboarding, Zimmer was fully attentive to the fact that both Billie and Finneas were bringing something new to the table with this score.
As he articulated, “I’d never met them, but I felt [that] there’s Shirley Bassey, there’s Adele — everybody who’s ever worked on [Bond] has come at it with a strong style of their own, with conviction and a great commitment. And this song had it. It maintained an intimacy, which I thought was beautiful.”
And so, despite all the raised eyebrows and apprehension, Billie Eilish and Finneas have cemented their names in the Bond universe. A feat Hans Zimmer will continue to find pride in.
By: Nina Karun
