Darkroom/Interscope Records(LONDON) — Iconic film composer Hans Zimmer has revealed a bit of back story on how Billie Eilish was chosen to do the theme song for the upcoming James Bond movie, No Time to Die.
As the Oscar-winner tells British GQ, while the No Time to Die team was picking through “a box full of songs lying around” to make a decision, Zimmer came across Eilish’s song, which he describes as “small, leanly produced” and “very personal.”
“I just went, ‘That’s it,'” Zimmer recalls. “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 [her brother/collaborator] 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.'”
After Eilish and Finneas saw No Time to Die, Zimmer was even further convinced.
“For me, it was undeniable that that was the right way to go,” Zimmer says. “It felt hugely personal; it felt really well crafted. I really liked how lean it was.”
Zimmer even compares Eilish’s “No Time to Die” to Shirley Bassey’s three iconic Bond themes, as well as Adele’s contribution.
“I think everybody discussed what to use, I just kept saying, ‘Nah. Billie and Finneas. We’re done!'” Zimmer says. “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.”
No Time to Die the movie, which was originally scheduled to premiere this past April, has been delayed to April 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
By Josh Johnson
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
