I still miss Kirsty MacColl

I’ve been occupied this year recording and promoting a new album. I was pleased to finally see the release of the latest Bond film — I recorded the soundtrack mostly at Hans Zimmer’s studio in Soho. Hans and I are pretty tight, we’ve been working together for around ten years now. Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas came in with a great song — my job was just to ‘Bondify’ it without it not sounding like a Billie Eilish record. We tried taking it down the road of heavy orchestration first — something you need to do with Bond music — but Billie and Finneas know what they’re doing and they made sure the song kept its integrity. When it appears in the film it’s quite powerful. I’ve been asked quite a lot about working with Billie: what I say is, I know a good musician when I see one and she is good enough to have been from any era.

For the Bond film I got an apartment on Greek Street in Soho. I love the Soho jazz and folkies tradition and the evocative legacy of the place — I enjoy walking around just to see what’s happening and for ideas. Often the best time for walking there is at night while there are still nocturnal animals around. I go through Soho Square a lot, where I stop to look at Kirsty MacColl’s memorial bench. She was a good friend of mine and we wrote some songs together. I still miss her.