How Billie Eilish Caught Hans Zimmer's Musical Attention For James Bond's 'No Time To Die'

A true craftsman of the highest order, German-born composer Hans Zimmer has been shaping and scoring Hollywood and the cinematic universe at large for decades, with over 150 films, two Golden Globes, four Grammys and an Academy Award lying in his wake. 

Embracing music as a child, Zimmer evolved to find a refuge in creating immersive and innovative musical realms on the silver screen, equally at home in a historical epic, sci-fi fantasy or a gritty superhero universe, with films like Gladiator, Pirates of the Caribbean, Sherlock Holmes, Inception, The Lion King, True Romance and Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy to name but a mere few of his ground-breaking works. 

But while Zimmer's prolific output is enough to cement his status as one of the true Hollywood greats in the industry, it's Zimmer's ongoing humility and hunger for fusing traditional orchestral arrangements with modern flavours and technology that truly sets him apart from many of his extremely gifted contemporaries (including being named by the UK Daily Telegraph's Top 100 Living Geniuses back in 2007). 

And with the long-awaited 25th James Bond outing, No Time To Die, finally scoring its Australian release via Universal Pictures Australia next week, there's plenty more Zimmer magic ready to erupt as he takes on the hallowed soundtrack and compositional duties for the 007 universe. But it's not just the trademark motifs and themes that Zimmer played a giant role in for No Time To Die, with the iconic composer also behind the selection of the titular theme song, written by Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas O'Connell, as Zimmer explained on today's episode of The Green Room podcast.

"It was quite an adventure," Zimmer told host Tiana Speter. "A friend of mine pointed me in the direction of a very quiet and very humble and very un-Bond-like song...by an artist called Billie Eilish, and her brother Finneas.

"What happens on a Bond movie: everybody wants to get that song and everybody wants to be the person that has "the" Bond song. So there was a pile of songs for me to just have a listen to. And I just...I just loved what Billie and Finneas were doing!

"At first, people were, sort of, going: 'but hang on a second! It's got nothing to do with this film!'"

Zimmer paused and laughed heartily, his eyes dancing.

"Of course it's got nothing to do with this film, they haven't seen this film!"

After flying the Eilish and O'Connell over to get in the studio with Zimmer and his team, sure enough the end product of No Time To Die's titular theme song grew to become worthy as a modern Bond anthem. But as to what precisely caught Zimmer's eye with Eilish and O'Connell's work in the first place?

"It had edge," Zimmer explained, "It had soul, it had heart. It didn't try to impress me through bombastic things. It felt incredibly personal, it was modern yet timeless. 

"I'd never met them, so as soon as they walked into the room, it was like long lost brothers and sisters!"

As a result of Zimmer's admiration, Eilish joins a long and sacred list of James Bond theme song performers, alongside the likes of Shirley Bassey, Adele, Tom Jones, Duran Duran and many, many more. And there's a whole lot more to Zimmer's Bond stories, but to catch the whole episode of The Green Room - keep scrolling!

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Daniel Craig will don the 007 role for the last time Down Under when No Time To Die releases in Australian cinemas on Thursday 11 November, including a jam-packed soundtrack by the incomparable Hans Zimmer. For more information, head here.

To catch the full chat with Hans Zimmer and host Tiana Speter, including Zimmer unveiling why he would make a perfect James Bond villain: you can listen below, over at the Euphony site, via YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts - or wherever you usually get your podcasts from.

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Need more music, film, TV and comedy in your life? Check out all previous episodes of The Green Room here. And did you know you can also watch episodes of The Green Room too? Head here to check out some of the recent videos.
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