Some of the things he could have mentioned to her include working with soundtrack-extraordinaire Hans Zimmer, or popular US-duo Billie Eilish and Finneas for the film’s title track – “No Time To Die“.

Speaking in an interview on some of the highlights here, Marr noted his excitement in getting to play the iconic James Bond riff on the title track. “That really was a highlight. When I did it, I went and phoned my mum, ‘Guess what I’ve just done, Mum!’“.

However, the Bond movie wasn’t Marr’s first time on a film set. He also worked with Zimmer for the 2010 Christopher Nolan movie Inception, an experience that Marr credits as shaping his music in a more cinematic direction ever since. “It’s made me double down on some things because I didn’t realise until I was told that guitars in films were a no-no for a few decades because of some atrocities that were committed in the 80s. Inception changed that. It was such a big movie …. Also, because I used a 12-string guitar on all of the [scores], it’s got me back to playing the 12-string.“

Marr has also been very vocal about what working with Eilish/Finneas was like, describing the pair as “a natural musical family .… From a technical point of view, [Finneas’] process is so modern that he can make these amazing records on a laptop …. My experience of working with [them] is just that they are musicians. The way that they conduct themselves and their processes are the same as other serious musicians …. Billie and Finneas are no different – they’re just the modern version …. Let’s put it this way, they would have been able to hold their own in any era.”

 In terms of Marr’s career outside the world of 007, he’s got a new album soon for release on February 25^th, to be titled Fever Dreams Pts 1-4. You can listen to his recent single, “Night and Day“, below. And he’s also got a tour in line with Blondie this April, details of which you can see here.

As of today, the duo has released two new tracks from the score, following the reveal of the theme song in 2020, written and performed by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell. The UK release of “No Time To Die” is scheduled for September 30^th, with the full score to be made available for streaming the following day.

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A post shared by Hans Zimmer (@hanszimmer)

The collaboration between Marr and Zimmer is truly a force to be reckoned with, as it combines the formidable talents of two musicians with vastly different backgrounds; Zimmer has been composing scores for films since 1982 and has worked time and time again with highly regarded directors on iconic films such as “Gladiator”, “Inception”, “The Lion King” and “The Dark Knight” to name just a few. Marr, on the other hand, has long been known for his stunning guitar work in groups such as The Smiths, The The and Modest Mouse, carving out a signature sound that will undoubtedly influence new players for years to come.

According to NME, Marr said last year regarding his contribution to the “No Time To Die” theme- was “thrilled” to have been able to collaborate with Zimmer and bring his guitar skills to the score, stating; “Growing up as a British boy in the late 60s, 70s, 80s, to me, the Bond theme should have guitar in it – especially the John Barry stuff”.

The two new tracks are presently available on all streaming services. You can check them out on Spotify down below, or at this link. Additionally, you can listen to the “No Time To Die” theme by Billie Eilish on all streaming services.

Quite rightly, David Gedge anticipated that we might want to know how this came about – I’m sure we all have memories of that one evening where we had the best idea ever, for a board game, a novel, an entire fantasy world. For most of us, it becomes the one that got away. Well, The Wedding Present have been diligently sitting with this move since 2013. Gedge said,

“Where do ideas like this come from? Well, I can tell you that this one was born during a soundcheck in New Zealand, in 2013, when the band were playing around with the main melody of the classic Bond theme ‘You Only Live Twice’.

“And then came another idea. Each of the artists on this proposed compilation would be required to have a physical connection to Cinerama or The Wedding Present. I liked the unifying feel of that. I suppose it appealed to the collector in me. None of the artists I approached asked for payment for their track and so the obvious thing to do was to make this a benefit album.”

For the CEO of CALM, Simon Gunning, this project is like a teenage dream come true. He says: “I’ve loved The Wedding Present since I was a teenager. I once saw David Gedge doing some photocopying in an office, but couldn’t pluck up the courage to speak to him. I have jumped up and down to ‘My Favourite Dress’ in fields across the country and the tension of ‘Brassneck’ and ‘Dalliance’ gets me all sweaty.

“I, and CALM can’t thank the band enough for this album. Suicide is on the increase – it’s the single biggest killer of young men and the cause of death for 18 people each and every day in the UK. CALM is leading a movement against suicide through campaigning and through our free to call helpline and it’s support like this that means our message can reach more people than ever.” A covers album with a cause.

For those who are here for Bond and not the band, The Wedding Present are a 1980s indie group, heavily influenced by The Fall and Buzzcocks. In their lifetime they have had at least twenty different members, with David Gedge as the band’s only constant. Not From Where I’m Standing calls on the talent of multiple previous band members, and other artists associated with Gedge and his various projects. It has twenty different contributors.

The thing we all want is to know how fast-paced post-punk guitar music translates into the multiple and varied James Bond themes. The Wedding Present themselves will lend their talents Nancy Sinatra’s notorious ‘You Only Live Twice’, which begins with that glorious slow crescendo. Unfortunately, there’s not even a hint from the band as to what any of these covers will do, so we’ll have to wait eagerly. In the meantime, they have released the tracklist (you can see it below) for everyone to start anticipating one of the most ambitious cover albums in a long time.

Not From Where I’m Standing will be released on December 4. Coincidentally, earlier this week we learnt that this will actually become the latest offering for James Bond fans, as the twenty fifth Bond film, No Time To Die, has been postponed until April 2021. Until all of this is available, you’ll just have to pass the time by listening to Billie Eilish’s Bond theme on repeat.

Tracklist:

SIDE A
1. James Bond Theme – The Sleazoids
2. You Only Live Twice – The Wedding Present
3. Goldfinger – Simone White
4. Goldeneye – Follow The Moths
5. The Man With The Golden Gun – Jetstream Pony
SIDE B
1. Live And Let Die – The Donalds
2. The World Is Not Enough – Maria Scaroni
3. Diamonds Are Forever – Cinerama
4. Tomorrow Never Dies – Danielle Wadey & Charles Layton
5. All Time High – Minitel

SIDE C
1. Nobody Does It Better – Samuel Beer-Pearce
2. For Your Eyes Only – Klee
3. Thunderball – The Legendary Len Liggins
4. Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang – Sleeper featuring David Lewis Gedge
5. From Russia With Love – Graeme Ramsay

SIDE D
1. View To A Kill – Terry de Castro
2. Die Another Day – The Ukrainians
3. Skyfall – Such Small Hands
4. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service – Shaun Charman
5. We Have All The Time In The World – David Lewis Gedge

Describing the moment he received a call from Bond producer Barbara Broccoli, whom Zimmer has long known, he says, “I never thought we would work together on something like that, so it was surprising just to get the call.” From there he contacted Marr and said, “‘I have two questions to ask you. First question is, what’s the only guitar part worth playing in a movie?’ And he said, ‘the Bond part’. And I said, ‘yeah right. Second question: Do you think I should do the movie and would you play the guitar part?’”

And here we are today, with their names attached to what is pegged to be the biggest cinematic release of the new decade. While Zimmer, using his official Twitter account @HansZimmer, had retweeted this post from the official James Bond page back in mid-February, it seems that we are now looking at old news. Of course, this is no great surprise, for No Time to Die is just one of the many films to have seen their releases, or entire productions, delayed by the world-stopping impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, this original March 27th release date for the film’s hotly anticipated score will likely be pushed back to coincide the film’s November opening day.

The official soundtrack to #NoTimeToDie by @HansZimmer will be released on 27 March. Joining Zimmer on scoring the soundtrack are @Johnny_Marr and @SteveMazzaro. pic.twitter.com/34xpzw2bWI

— James Bond (@007) February 19, 2020

This is affirmed by Amazon’s product page for the upcoming album, where it states on the CD’s product details as, indeed, having been released on November 13, a day after the proposed UK premiere. Quoted in an interview with record label Decca, who will be publishing the soundtrack this year, the film’s director Cary Joji Fukunaga is said to be “beyond excited that Hans is scoring No Time To Die. The music of Bond has always been iconic and I’ve already witnessed Hans adding his touch of genius to the Bond legacy.“

Radio 1 released the videos to YouTube, and the cover has already gained 164,000 views. Hill gave a powerful performance of the song, with instrumentation consisting of synth, drums, a number of backing vocals, and, of course, Hill’s beautiful lead vocal. Eilish has yet to comment on the cover, but fans are loving it.

The performance follows Hill’s latest single ‘Better Off Without You’, which came out on 10th January and featured Shift K3Y. The song has 15 million streams on Spotify and the music video is at over 2 million views, showing clips of Hill talking to her ex, and her process of getting over him. Her debut album was released not long before, in 2019, titled ‘Get To Know’. It was released via Polydor Records and includes collaborations with MK, Jonas Blue, Sigala and Weiss.

The artist had planned to tour the UK through March and April 2020, but sadly the shows were cancelled due to the outbreak of Covid-19. Currently, her gigs for later in the year are still due to go ahead – find tickets on TicketMaster and check out the full dates below.

11/11/2020 – SWG3 – Glasgow
14/11 – O2 Victoria Warehouse – Manchester
15/11 – O2 Academy – Newcastle Upon Tyne
17/11 – O2 Academy – Sheffield
19/11 – O2 Academy – Leeds
20/11 – O2 Academy – Birmingham
22/11 – Rock City – Nottingham
24/11 – Norwich Nick Rayns LCR UEA – Norwich
26/11 – Plymouth Pavilions – Plymouth
27/11 – O2 Academy – Bristol
28/11 – Cardiff University Student’s Union – Cardiff
30/11 – O2 Academy – Bournemouth
01/12 – Brighton Dome – Brighton
03/12 – O2 Academy Brixton – London

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hey, it’s me, i’m sure ur not surprised by this announcement but it doesn’t make it less painful for me to cancel all these dates that i’ve been working so hard towards & so excited to do. this was my chance to test my vocals to see if i could sustain an hour set night after night & train for the 15 date winter tour (WHICH IS STILL HAPPENING) sing new songs that have been so important to me but mainly, play to sold out rooms of fans for 2 weeks. i’ve been dreaming of a tour like this, seeing all your faces & hearing u sing my lyrics back. meeting the people that have been supporting me for years & bringing u the best show i could have imagined. the world is fucked. i’m sorry this is happening. i really wish it wasn’t. stay safe & i’ll see you in the winter tour x

A post shared by Becky Hill (@beckyhill) on Mar 18, 2020 at 5:09am PDT

Hill began her career after she auditioned for The Voice UK and, while she didn’t win, she kept in contact with some industry professionals who she met while filming. She has since worked with many other artists, providing vocals and co-writing songs, two of which peaked at number 1 on the UK Singles Chart.

She shared a post on Twitter, along with the series logo through her Instagram. Performed by Billie, the unnamed track will be co-written with her brother, FINNAES.

The ‘Bury A Friend’ singer said: “It feels crazy to be a part of this in every way. To be able to score the theme song to a film that is part of such a legendary series is a huge honour. James Bond is the coolest film franchise ever to exist. I’m still in shock”.

The #NoTimeToDie title song will be performed by @billieeilish. Billie has written the song with her brother @finneas and is the youngest artist in history to write and record a James Bond theme song. pic.twitter.com/Qd5cYIRlmg

— James Bond (@007) January 14, 2020

Her brother FINNAES, further said: “Writing the theme song for a Bond film is something we’ve been dreaming about doing our entire lives. There is no more iconic pairing of music and cinema than the likes of Goldfinger and Live And Let Die.”

He added: “We feel so so lucky to play a small role in such a legendary franchise, long live 007.”

James Bond producers Michael G.Wilson and Barbara Broccoli gave their thoughts to the decision: “We are excited to announce that Billie and FINNEAS have written an incredibly powerful and moving song for No Time To Die, which has been impeccably crafted to work within the emotional story of the film.”

Billie Eilish has seemingly confirmed the rumors that she will be performing the official theme song of the latest Bond movie #NoTimeToDie after she shared photos of the Bond Girls on her Instagram Story. pic.twitter.com/MmGoaOa0yk

— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) January 14, 2020

Billie Eilish was recently linked to the James Bond theme following claims through the film’s fan site Mi6-HQ, of her involvement, as well as a cryptic post of Bond girls through her Instagram.

Various themes for the past films have been penned and performed by young musicians, with Billie Eilish being no different. For Spectre’s Writing’s On The Wall, Sam Smith was only 23, and Adele was only a year older for 2012’s Skyfall. 

Starring Daniel Craig in his final outing as the infamous spy, he’ll be pitted against Rami Malek, with support from co-stars Lea Seydoux and Christoph Waltz, ‘No Time To Die’ is out on April 3 in the UK.