Billie Eilish and Finneas had a big night at the Academy Awards yesterday, as they performed their James Bond theme “No Time To Die” and picked up the Oscar for Best Original Song award for that song. Eilish and Finneas have previously spoken about what the Bond franchise and its music has meant to them, and for years, they’ve been hoping for the chance to be a part of the franchise. Finneas was so aspirational, in fact, that he says he reached out to previous Bond theme songwriters for advice, even before he and his sister were officially attached to No Time To Die.
In a post-Oscars interview, the siblings were asked if they got advice from other artists who won Oscars for their Bond songs, like Adele (“Skyfall”) or Sam Smith (“Writing’s On The Wall” from Spectre). Finneas responded:
“I talked to [‘Writing’s On The Wall’ co-writer] Jimmy Napes and Sam [Smith] both when we were hoping we’d be given the opportunity to write a James Bond theme. And I just asked what the process was like. Again, it was such an ambition of ours. It was really just, like, picking their brains about it. It was really interesting to hear their take on it. They were very encouraging and gave really good advice, which was basically to make a song we were really proud of.”
Eilish expanded on the latter part of that answer in her response to another question, saying, “I think the biggest challenge was making sure that it felt to us… what’s the word… authentic, but also…” As Eilish tried to articulate her thoughts, Finneas jumped in and said, “It was really important to us that it felt like a Billie Eilish song and a James Bond song at the same time, and not one or the other.”
Check out the interview here.