No Time to Die composer Finneas O'Connell felt "incredible pressure" writing Bond theme with Billie Eilish
O'Connell and Eilish campaigned to earn the right to compose No Time to Die
The co-writer of the James Bond theme No Time to Die, Finneas O'Connell, said he and sister Billie Eilish felt "incredible pressure" writing the theme song.
The musician needn't have worried. No Time to Die shot straight to number one in the UK, giving global pop phenomenon Billie her first British number one.
O'Connell revealed on The One Show that he and Eilish campaigned to get the chance to write the theme to James Bond's 25th movie outing (and Daniel Craig's final 007).
"We grew up like so many people just obsessed with the Bond franchise," he said. "My specific childhood revolved around the Daniel Craig era Bond films. It was always just a lifelong dream of mine to try to write a song for a Bond film, they have such a distinct sound in terms of cadence of the chords and melodies. I felt it would be such an exciting challenge and when I heard they were making this film I said to our team I would be happy to meet with anyone we possibly can and get down on our knees and beg them to write a song for it.... A real honour and a privilege."
The One Show host Alex Jones complimented them for creating a song that felt like an instant Bond classic.
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O'Connell replied: "[It was] definitely always the goal to write a song that somehow existed longer than it has, so thank you for that."
O'Connell, 23, revealed he and Eilish (real name Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell), 18, were home-schooled by their actor parents in a music-rich environment and the siblings grew up surrounded by pianos and microphones and guitars.
A few years later and O'Connell has nine Grammy Awards to his name, which felt "ridiculous".
"It was not my agenda in terms of goals for my career," he said. "Seems like a fantasy, feels like a glitch. I don't know how I got to this high level. I feel it's just a lot of luck."
He added: "If it can happen to us it really can happen to anyone."
No Time to Die has reached the top of the charts in countries all around the world and the video, released on Thursday, has already been streamed millions of times. Sadly, however, the theme was released far in advance of the film, due to the COVID-19 films delays.
No Time to Die will now premiere on 2nd April 2021.
