While no-one can touch John Barry at the top of the James Bond music pyramid, the only person that even comes close is David Arnold.

Arnold scored five James Bond films, from 1997's Tomorrow Never Dies to 2008's Quantum of Solace, but was replaced for Skyfall by Sam Mendes's usual music man Thomas Newman.



James Bond will return. So will Sam Mendes. But will Arnold be back in the studio filling in the gaps between what he calls "the explosions and the car squeals and the gear changes and the punctures"?

Ahead of his Bose Universal Conductor live immersive collaboration with Ella Eyre, Digital Spy caught up with the composer, and when we finished grilling him on all things Doctor Who, we got round to 007.

"I always said that I'd go back if they asked me," Arnold said when we brought up the inevitable.

"I know that Sam Mendes is directing and he always works with Tom Newman."

He continued: "I've stayed in touch with everyone, Barbara [Broccoli] and Michael [G Wilson] from production, they're so lovely. I've always said if they ever want to give me a holler I'll be back in a heartbeat.

"I've loved doing them, I also love watching them. For me it's a great relief for the Eye of Sauron to fall upon someone else for a year or two!



"And if I go back to it, fantastic; if I don't, I've discovered now this latest thing I'm doing - this West End musical [Made in Dagenham] - is a different set of muscles.

"I've loved that experience as well - I'm kind of trying to find another musical to write. I'm doing a couple of films next year.

"Doing these odd one-offs with people like Ella - there aren't many people like Ella! - but doing those kinds of things always feels really exciting."

Of his favourite Bond music, Arnold said: "I could never favour anything I've ever done over John's stuff. I always think the ski chase from On Her Majesty's Secret Service is fantastic.

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"It's just such an evil piece of music. It's simple. It's just a fantastic tune and a fantastic, simple orchestration and production. John Barry had this thing - play the tune, play the tune, play the tune.

"By the time you come out of one of his films, you're not really aware of how many times you've heard it, but you know it's in your head. It's stuck there.

"Like a great chorus, you shouldn't be afraid of it having it playing again and again and again. With a great song, or with a great theme for a TV show, you've got to make your point in 30 seconds

"If you don't make your point in 30 seconds then the moment's gone, they're on to the next piece of information that comes past. You have to be quite concise or quite economic.

"Sometimes as a writer you can do that, sometimes you don't, but you always aim to write the thing that is the key to cluing people in as to what it is they're about to experience and drawing them into the world that you're creating."

Asked who he would like see sing a Bond theme, Arnold said: "Over the years there are always whispers about who might or who might not be doing them.

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"BjÃ¶rk used to come up, principally because of the thing we did together, and we did a version of 'You Only Live Twice' as well.

"Every year the rumour mill starts. There's going to be a new one, who's it going to be? BeyoncÃ© is nearly always on that list. Rihanna is now on the list. Whoever's hot - Lady Gaga.

"The way that they're chosen - you hope to find someone for me who could almost be in the film.

"You would imagine that [Garbage's] Shirley Manson could easily have been in a Bond movie, in a very particular style, a singular style.

"That's what appeals to me. Somebody that either looks or sounds or is like someone from that world that we're making for that particular film.

"With Chris Cornell in Casino Royale, he sounded like how Daniel Craig punched. Somehow the way that he moved and the way that he was.

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"When Chris opens up and does that scream that he can sing so brilliantly, you kind of imagined him coming towards you, like a proper alpha male noise.

"It was interesting at that time, especially if you're looking for who's a contemporary Robert Plant or Bruce Springsteen.

"The move in male vocalists has been much more towards sensitive singer-songwriters. There's been far fewer, for want of a better word, blokes.

"You're still thinking, 'Is there a contemporary Rod Stewart?' In terms of the attitude in the Faces days, rather than The American Songbook, the latter stuff.

"Someone who's sort of a rocker but not an idiot. And substantial. You realise that's a shrinking pool of people you get to choose from.

"Alternatively, women performers are much more exposed, there's many more of them. This upsurge happened with Amy really, with Amy Winehouse.

"People suddenly became aware of how amazing these women performers are and seem to have kicked the whole thing apart.

"It was amazing watching Kate Bush coming back and all the stuff that Adele's done. [FKA] twigs, who's around at the moment - she's just an extraordinary performer.

"You watch it and go, 'This would never get anywhere on any of the talent shows that are on telly'.

"You would never discover someone like that through a talent show. She's just a raw, arrived fully-formed entity.

"There's so many of them. Ella's another one of those. She's 20 and she just sings and it's ridiculous that she's doing that at 20."

Jeff Moore



He added of Eyre, with whom he recorded a cover of Bastille's 'Pompeii' for Bose: "What's always a relief is when you get someone who's as effortlessly talented as Ella is and is so lovely with it as well.

"It's so easy, she's really happy singing and she's amazing at singing... I probably would never have come across the opportunity to work with her had this not come up.

"She's at that point in her career where every day she's got something incredibly exciting and exotic going on.

"She's one of those rare, raw talents, so it'll be fascinating to see where that all goes with her.

"It's got to the point now where I'd love to write something with her. This kind of threw us together in a hermetically sealed box, it'd be nice to write something and do something else."

Listeners have been invited to create their own personal version of the song using the BoseSoundTrue headphones and then share it over social media.

Free listening events take place at Ely's Yard in London on October 3-5 (VIP ballot winners on October 2) and at Great Northern in Manchester on October 10-12 (VIP ballot winners on October 9).

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