an interview with chris cornell

...chris talks movies and music

by alex robertson, virgin media, november 2006

Former frontman of grunge legends Soundgarden, Chris Cornell now fronts rock supergroup Audioslave and is set to release his second solo album in 2007. We met up to talk about his new theme song for Casino Royale...

VM: Hi Chris, welcome to London. How long are you sticking around here after the Casino Royale premiere?

Chris Cornell: Just a couple more days. I'm a presenter at the World Music Awards, and then that's it, back to California, where I'm recording a record.

VM: Maybe you could have a little chat with Michael Jackson about your Billie Jean cover [on the forthcoming solo album] while you're at the WMAs...

Chris Cornell: Ha, I don't know about that!

VM: Right, down to business then - we're here to talk about your James Bond theme, You Know My Name, which you co-wrote with David Arnold. You've doubtless been asked this many times already, but how did this all come about?

Chris Cornell: Well... David Arnold's a lot like Michael Jackson - very difficult to talk to, he wears a veil. No, ha ha! I think the initial idea was based on the fact that it's such a dramatic departure for the franchise and for the character, in hiring Daniel Craig as the lead. They wanted to do the same thing with the music. Taking such a big chance, when the last film was - I think - the highest grossing Bond film of all time, and taking an actor who's known more for British indie films, and putting him in a role in the biggest franchise in the history of film-making. So if they're going to do that, then they might as well go all the way. They were just thinking "what is the voice of this version of James Bond?". It's not a woman, it's not a shoe-staring guy, it's someone who, as they put it, is "unapologetically male". I think David Arnold was a big part of selling that idea to the producers and director of the film.

VM: Did it feel like you were taking quite a big gamble, as far as your career is concerned?

Chris Cornell: When I first was asked, yes, absolutely. The more I researched it, and found out it was going to be Daniel Craig, and I saw a rough edit of the film, it was no gamble at all. Coming from a world of independent music and a scene like Seattle, and being considered someone who's affected rock music in a positive way, you wonder whether being involved in such a big movie franchise is a good move or a bad move, credibility-wise. Knowing how the film is, it's a fantastic idea, it's a wonderful film to be involved with - and I knew that before I even wrote the song.

VM: Reviews of the film have almost all been positive - is that something you're relieved about?

Chris Cornell: I knew. I saw the film, I'm a film buff, I didn't have any trepidation about it. I'm sure that the producers of the film had moments when they were a little bit nervous, but they knew too. You don't bet that kind of money and that type of success on something that is likely to fail. He's a wonderful dramatic actor, and to be honest I think it's a time now when that becomes more important than good looks and a tuxedo.

VM: When you came out of seeing the film for the first time, what were your initial thoughts on how you wanted the song to sound, and on the nature of the lyrics?

Chris Cornell: Lyrically I think it had to echo the opening several minutes of the film, where he's not yet 007, he's not the James Bond we know of yet. The title You Know My Name kind of came from that. We're trying to introduce a character in a song, even though this is the 21st move made about them - how do you do that? It was as simple as what this character has to deal with, such as committing murder for the first time, and really introducing himself to what may be the rest of his life and how he will live it and what it will mean. That's more than enough to write a three and a half minute song about. Musically, it was based on what I'm seeing visually up to that moment the title screen drops. They literally showed me that and said "Your song will start here", and that was just what went through my head over the next several weeks when I was thinking about the music. That's a lot to go on as well - most of the time I write a song in a vaccuum, I have nothing, I'm just sitting thinking, then a melody might come. There's nothing visual to go on, not someone else's character, or a script or a book or someone's acting, so really it's a lot.

VM: Did you and David always agree about how you wanted the song to sound? Was there ever any conflict?

Chris Cornell: I don't think there ever was really. We discussed different ideas, we had different opinions about things in terms of the mix, and it was pretty much always 50/50 in terms of who ended up being right or wrong. We didn't have any conflict at all, it was wonderful to work with David Arnold, and for me it was another time in my life where I actually had an opportunity to learn from someone who does something that, like, a guy in my band doesn't do. It's a whole different ball game.

VM: Madonna was the last person to record a Bond theme, for Die Another Day, and hers was very flashy, futuristic electro. What did you think of it, and did you ever consider writing something similarly non-traditional?

Chris Cornell: When I heard that I felt like it was a dance track she had in her back pocket, and then just threw Die Another Day on it and said "Here, put it in your Bond movie". It didn't sound like she was writing it specifically for the film - it didn't have anything to do with the character, it was just "The Madonna Show" attached to a Bond film. Which is probably, for that moment, what they wanted. And probably partly why it became one of the highest grossing Bond films of all time.

VM: Do you have a favourite Bond theme?

Chris Cornell: Live And Let Die.

VM: That's a good one - especially the Guns N' Roses cover!

Chris Cornell: Ha! Especially not the Guns N' Roses cover! I had to hear that several times because I toured with them. But really, it's an interesting arrangement, it's not traditional at all, and McCartney was going through a period when he was doing that a lot, kind of marrying different songs and movements together and making a rock song out of it, and he does that better than anyone else has ever done it. I really like Thunderball because I'm a huge Tom Jones fan, I think he's an amazing singer, and I love the fact that if you listen to the theme the orchestra sounds really tiny so that his voice can be just enormous and drenched in this old spring or plate reverb or something. It's really great.

VM: Are there any other singers around today who you think would make a good job of singing a Bond theme?

Chris Cornell: The name Thom Yorke came up a lot. Partly because he's British, maybe because he has a funny eye, I dunno! I think that could work, maybe not for this one but for the next one, just because of the emotional content, giving it something besides just being a famous person that people know. The bad idea, that would make sense if I were the movie industry, would be someone like Robbie Williams: "Oh he's perfect, the video would be wonderful, he's charismatic". But for this movie, no, I think someone more like Thom Yorke or Chris Martin would be a great choice.

VM: You've provided songs for quite a few films in your career - have you seen any films and thought "I wish I'd had a song in there"?

Chris Cornell: Yeah, but usually they were movies that didn't have songs in them. I was actually offered to act in the movie The Usual Suspects, and I didn't know anything about the movie industry, and they gave me a list of who was going to be in it and I didn't recognise any names, I didn't know who the producers were or the director. And it wasn't until I was watching the film, halfway through I thought "Oh... I could have been in this movie. Oh my god!". I'm not an actor, but a movie like that would also have been a great movie to have a song in.

There are several Jim Jarmusch films I would have loved to have done music for, he's one of my favourite directors. I think cinematically he has an attention span - he really allows things to play out to the point where it always goes too far, and I enjoy that, I think it lends itself to music. He made a movie called Dead Man with Johnny Depp, where Neil Young does all the incidental music, and it's all his Les Paul through an amplifier and an Echoplex, and that's it, that's all the music in the whole film. It sounds like he just watched the movie and just played a guitar to it, and it's very dramatic.

VM: It's interesting to hear you've been offered acting roles - have you had many offers?

Chris Cornell: I used to get a lot more, then after I said "no" a lot, they stopped coming. I have a lot of respect for the craft and I'm a huge movie fan, and I don't think that the two necessarily co-mingle very well. I'm not sold on the whole Juliette Lewis thing. I've worked really hard at what I do, my whole life, and I feel that's the same way with accomplished actors, so just running in and being in a film seems like a bad idea to me.

Reprinted without permission from Virgin Media.Originally available as an illustrated feature online here.

Footnote: You can watch video of Chris arriving at the Casino Royale premiere, giving a red carpet interview and meeting the Queen at Live & Rare.