Working with Lana Del Rey on the new James Bond theme — BBC News

[0:00] But I didn't treat this any differently, being a game. [0:03] It feels like this is legitimately an extension of the entire Bond world. [0:08] And this is a version of Bond that we haven't seen yet. [0:11] Try not to draw attention to yourself. [0:18] Housekeeping, I presume. [0:19] Would you go back and do the score or the theme for a new live action Bond movie directed [0:25] by Denis Villeneuve? [0:26] Well, I mean, I've always said that if I got asked, I would, because I love it. [0:30] James Bond is back in a new video game 007 First Light from IO Interactive, the developers [0:36] behind the Hitman series. [0:38] It's an origin story for the super spy. [0:40] Before the game arrives at the end of May, the developers have revealed a theme tune sung [0:44] and co-written by Lana Del Rey and Bond movie composer David Arnold. [0:49] What was it like working with Lana Del Rey, co-writing on this tune? [0:54] Well, what's interesting about a game is that you don't see footage, you know, because there [1:00] is no footage. [1:01] It's all being created digitally. [1:03] So we get an idea about what happens in terms of like story. [1:08] There are action sequences when when when the guys from IOI come over and sort of pitched [1:13] the show to me. [1:14] The game to me is like an hour and a half of walking through everything that happened. [1:18] So it's like, you know, walking through a movie and with Lana, it was like we needed [1:24] to get, I think, a kind of lyrical sense about where where we were heading. [1:29] So I was figuring out the kind of sensual aspect of it and talking to her about what [1:37] this could be about. [1:38] And we would just exchange ideas. [1:40] I mean, she was in Louisiana a lot of the time. [1:44] And so we would sort of zoom each other and I'd send her ideas and she'd send me ideas. [1:49] So there was an that exchange happened sort of remotely. [1:55] And I was just like thrilled that she did it, to be honest, because she is such an idiosyncratic [2:01] person as an artist. [2:04] And it seems to be despite whatever's happening in the world musically, she is always so much [2:09] of herself. [2:10] And my favourite artists have always been, in a way, it doesn't matter what else is going [2:16] on. [2:17] This is what I'm doing and this is where I'm going. [2:18] And to a certain extent, that's kind of what Bond is. [2:21] You know, it's like whatever's going to, I'm going over there and someone had better [2:25] get out of my way. [2:26] That's what, you know, my name was about is like a warning to his enemies. [2:29] Get out of my way or there's going to be trouble. [2:33] And in a way, she is the voice that is now kind of not daring Bond, but, but warning Bond [2:40] to a certain extent that, you know, bad things could happen. [2:42] Because the Bond theme for her is kind of unfinished business, wasn't it? [2:46] Because she was in the running for the Spectre Bond theme, I think, in 2015. [2:50] I think she sent a song in, yeah, but I wasn't, I wasn't on that movie, so I can't, I can't [2:55] speak to that, unfortunately. [2:56] But I know that she loves the series, you know, she loves the songs. [3:01] When I was doing the movies, when we were trying to find artists to do the title songs, [3:07] I was always thinking, who could be in this film? [3:10] Could the person singing this be in the movie somehow? [3:12] You know, for me, like Shirley Manson definitely could have, could have been in the world. [3:16] It's not enough. [3:17] And Chris Cornell definitely could have been in Casino Royale, you know, I just think, [3:21] you know, Lana could be in it as much as be about it. [3:25] So for me, it was, it was, it was a perfect fit. [3:27] And I'm obviously eternally grateful that she agreed to do it. [3:30] It's fair to say that you are a veteran Bond composer, five, five Bond movies under your [3:35] belt. [3:36] What have you brought from your previous experience of doing the, the Bond movies to composing [3:41] a theme for a video game for the first night video game? [3:45] I think the process remains the same. [3:47] And I talk about this a lot. [3:50] It feels like every time you do one, you are at the base camp of Everest and you are looking [3:56] at the top of Everest thinking like, I've got to get up there again, but I can't take [4:01] the same route. [4:03] Uh, so one's experience of having climbed Everest doesn't always help, but it helps a little, [4:08] but we've got a completely new story, a kind of new version of Bond. [4:12] Uh, a lot of the time, if I'm working on one of the films, I really like to find out [4:17] what it's about. [4:18] And what it's about is very different to what happens because what will happen might [4:23] happen across multiple films. [4:25] There'll probably be a car chase. [4:26] There'll be fights, there'll be gadgets, there'll be Q, there'll be M, there'll be all the things [4:34] that we love. [4:35] Um, but that's not always what it's about and music, I think has to get to the heart [4:39] of what something is about. [4:41] So my first job is trying to find out what it's about. [4:44] And that was true of this as well. [4:45] So I didn't treat this any differently being a game. [4:49] It feels like this is legitimately an extension of the entire Bond world. [4:54] And this is a version of Bond that we haven't seen yet. [4:56] That's the thing about the Bond title sequences, especially is the, it's the themes of the, [5:01] of the film are reflected in those title sequences. [5:04] And often that's what the, what the song does too, isn't it? [5:06] It kind of, it touches on it, reflects on them. [5:08] Yeah. [5:09] It's a, in a way it's, it's a shop window. [5:12] It's the double doors that are gradually opening. [5:16] And I think they need to sort of beckon you in. [5:19] The idea that a song will say, this is the world you are about to enter. [5:22] Um, and there's lots of amazing stuff going to happen. [5:26] And we hope that you're interested enough to want to take that step in with us and come [5:30] with us on that journey. [5:31] And music's job throughout all these things is to hold your hand through that process. [5:36] But the song especially is the big sort of flag waving thing is like, this is who we are. [5:41] This is what this is. [5:43] And this is the world that we have created. [5:46] And in a way the song has to do that in its two and a half to three minutes. [5:51] And so sometimes being succinct, sometimes being able to establish a sort of sensory version [5:59] of what the movie is in three minutes. [6:01] Sounds like a big ask to kind of somehow compress this thing into a moment. [6:06] All the great ones have done that. [6:08] I think. [6:09] And so every time I do one, I'm very aware of what's happened before. [6:14] And that, you know, you're trying to live up to the, that standard. [6:17] It's quite an important job as well. [6:19] When you think about it, where it comes in a Bond movie, you get the pre-title sequence, [6:23] then you get the title sequence, which then starts talking about the film itself. [6:27] And especially when you've got a new Bond, when you're introducing a new Bond, this would [6:31] be the second time that you've introduced a brand new Bond. [6:34] Yeah. [6:35] Because Tomorrow Never Dies was your, was that your first one? [6:37] My first was Tomorrow Never Dies, which is now nearly 30 years ago, frighteningly. [6:41] So that was Pierce, but he'd already done Goldeneye. [6:43] Yeah. [6:44] So Casino Royale was the introducing Daniel Craig as James Bond. [6:48] So You Know My Name that I wrote with Chris Cornell was a very different kind of Bond. [6:54] We hadn't really seen someone who could be as brutal, I think, as Daniel's reading of [7:01] that was. [7:02] And you know, he furthered that character as he went through his series of films, but we [7:08] found out much more about him as a person than we'd ever really known before. [7:12] And this again, we are at a point where there is a nascent James Bond, he's very young. [7:18] There's something about us knowing where he's got to go and knowing that he's going to have [7:23] to make this journey and he's going to make mistakes and he's not always going to go to [7:27] plan. [7:28] And I think that's what the song is about. [7:30] The song is about us kind of looking down on this person saying, are you going to dare [7:36] to do these things? [7:38] Because there's a great Ian Fleming quote from one of his short stories, which was, I think, [7:43] for every light, there's always a shadow. [7:47] And for me, that was kind of the clue to where we should go with this. [7:51] He's a person who runs towards the danger and he can't help but do that. [7:58] Don Black's great lyric for Thunderbolt is like, he always runs while others walk. [8:03] You know, he acts while other men just talk. [8:05] That kind of sums up Sean Connery's Bond very much. [8:09] And this is someone that's like, he's so much younger. [8:11] Although in an almost parental way, the song is saying, do you dare to do this because you [8:17] know what might happen? [8:19] And so that was our in, I think, you know, the conversations I had with Lana about that [8:23] were very much about what is it about? [8:25] And that was where we started. [8:27] What are the elements that really come together to make a terrific Bond tune? [8:31] Well, I suppose it would depend on what you think makes something a Bond song. [8:37] I mean, if you listen to Billie Eilish song, if you listen to Live and Let Die, if you listen [8:42] to Goldfinger, if you listen to From Russia With Love, none of them sound the same. [8:46] None of them sound the same. [8:48] They all sound so completely different. [8:50] And yet they all feel like Bond songs. [8:53] So what is it? [8:54] Well, there is a sense of something about it. [8:57] And I think there is oddly, quintessentially British, I'm not sure quite what that is. [9:03] But I think there is an element of romanticism. [9:07] I think there is an element of violence and danger, which is even in the romantic ones is [9:13] somehow present, that there is always this duality between a kind of romantic notion of [9:19] what you would want someone to be and the horrible realization that real life is going [9:25] to happen as well and have an effect on the people that are engaged in it. [9:30] And someone like Bond, who is somewhat personally obliged and irresistibly runs towards danger, [9:39] that you think he is someone who can handle both of those things, which is obviously great [9:46] for writing music and songs about. [9:49] But there is always an element of like orchestral, you know, if you have like sort of soaring [9:53] strings and the sort of punchy brass and that sort of stuff. [9:56] Always for me, always knowing that these things have happened before and being aware of the [10:00] history of it and trying to somehow capture the elements of what made those things special [10:06] to me and bringing that to the songs that I'm involved with. [10:10] Because I want to feel like how I felt the first time I heard a Bond song in the cinema. [10:16] For me, it was You Only Live Twice. [10:17] And it was like, you know, the curtains opened and that was it, I was done. [10:23] And everyone has a favorite Bond song and everyone has a favorite Bond movie and they're all [10:27] going to be different to each other. [10:29] But my favorite words are always James Bond will return. [10:33] Because even if it wasn't my favorite, the next one always, always could be. [10:39] And I think this game does the same thing. [10:41] I think it's a, it's an opportunity for like new people to experience it in a completely [10:46] different way. [10:47] I suppose that orchestral sounds always, you know, when you did Play Dead with Bjork and [10:51] you've got that orchestral sound in there. [10:53] And then when it comes to your Bond stuff, you, you picked up the baton from, from John [10:57] Barry, I suppose, and took it and moved it on and took it to a, took it to a different place. [11:02] Well, I think John defined the sound of John, of, of, of James Bond. [11:06] And I think you'd be foolish to ignore that. [11:09] You know, I think when someone has defined something so completely and totally, uh, and [11:13] you know, he did 11 movies, you know, but he nailed it in the first one. [11:18] Uh, you know, the fact, the fact that you can kind of, you can create a world musically [11:24] about a character so completely, uh, that the next time they make a movie, you've kind of [11:29] got to reference it in a way. [11:31] And I think everyone who's always done one of these things, and there's been quite a [11:34] few composers that have done movies over the years, uh, they've all referenced John because [11:38] they're not stupid. [11:39] You know, they know why it works and what is it about it. [11:43] For me, it's like, I, I, I hope to kind of capture the, the, the spirit of it more than [11:50] copying it. [11:51] You know, it's like, for me, it's more about like, I want to capture the spirit of what [11:55] that did, there are certain techniques, you know, like in terms of the sort of, the, [11:59] the instrumentation, but, you know, rather than saying like, I'm just doing the same [12:03] thing is like, I just want it to feel like it. [12:06] Uh, and I think the actors are probably the same, you know, it's like, you can't play the [12:10] character without being aware of what's happened before it all, you know, it all kind of adds [12:17] to the experience of, of, of, of who is he now? [12:20] Live action bond. [12:21] It's been 2021 was the last time we had any live action bond. [12:25] We know that Denny Villeneuve is directing a new live action bond. [12:28] I know that the reigns have now gone over to Amazon, the creative control and that kind [12:31] of thing. [12:32] Would you go back and do the score or the theme for a new live action bond movie directed [12:37] by Denny Villeneuve? [12:38] Well, I mean, I've always said that if I got asked, I would, cause I love it. [12:42] I mean, the fact that I got asked to do this is like, it's been a while since I'd written [12:46] an actual bond song for, for, for an actual bond project. [12:50] Um, uh, and sitting down and doing it again felt like an old friend, you know, it's a, [12:58] it's lovely. [12:59] I mean, I've always said that if they asked me, but I think that the convergence of things [13:02] that would need to happen for that are probably quite rare, I'd say. [13:07] Um, but I'm just super excited that they're making another one. [13:10] Uh, I think Denny's made amazing films, uh, and, um, you know, they've got great producers. [13:16] Uh, so my fingers are crossed for this next one to be my favorite. [13:21] Uh, so my fingers are crossed for this next one.