Chris Cornell On Creating 'You Know My Name'
In a new interview posted at SongwriterUniverse Magazine, Chris Cornell discussed how he came to work on the title song for Casino Royale, ‘You Know My Name,’ which is included on his upcoming album, Carry On.
When asked how the project came up in the first place, Cornell said: ‘Lia Vollack (President of Music for Sony Pictures) was heading the soundtrack and she called. She said they needed a song and singer that would reflect the dramatic new direction of James Bond, with Daniel Craig starring. They wanted a strong male singer–they wanted a song that would be remembered. I was a James Bond fan–as a kid I really liked the Bond films which starred Sean Connery. More importantly, I’m a big Daniel Craig fan. I had seen many of his films, and I knew he would be great as James Bond.’
Additionally, Cornell explained that the fact that Paul McCartney had previously written and performed 1973’s ‘Live And Let Die’ was also a factor in his decision. And I also liked the idea of doing a James Bond theme song for another reason. ‘I’m a Paul McCartney fan … so it was thrill that I could do a Bond theme, like my hero Paul McCartney had done earlier.’
‘David [Arnold] and I met, and I saw the rough cut of the film in Prague. David suggested that we write a song that echoed the film score. I started writing ‘You Know My Name’ and I gave him a call. It had lyrics first–the melody hadn’t been written yet. Then David came up with some musical ideas. I wrote most of the lyrics–he came up with some of the lyric lines–and we did a demo. Then David and I produced [the full version] and we played all the instruments except for drums. It was just a few guys in the studio playing all the instruments. We recorded it at George Martin’s studio in England–it was the perfect place and experience to make a James Bond record.’
Cornell mentions that he wrote ‘You Know My Name’ while working on other songs featured on his Carry On album, so he feels it fits well with them. ‘Writing for a James Bond movie allowed me to go to into an imaginary world. And now that I’m on tour, I’m having a lot of fun singing this song live.’
Visit SongwriterUniverse Magazine for the entire interview with Chris Cornell.
Stay tuned to CBn for all the latest Casino Royale coverage.