The Lost Art of Interrogation: Yannick Zenhäusern Interview

He's really the man with the midas touch when it comes to rescore a Bond film we love or bring a modern touch to the classic GOLDENEYE 64 tunes for the Mod version of the 1997 classic, hence his nickname GoldenZen. Ladies and gentleman, this is Yannick Zenhäusern, best known his work  on GOLDENEYE: SOURCE and GoldenEye: Decrypted, a rescore of the 1995 James Bond film. In the following interview, we have some "chit-chat" with GoldenZen about it all: Bond, Serra, NIGHTFIRE: SOURCE and, of course, something on his upcoming GOLDFINGER project...

Yannick, what was your first experience with Bond and GOLDENEYE? It was the films or the videogames? 

First of all, thank you very much for having me on. I really like The GoldenEye Dossier and it the work that's put in it. To the question: I was still pretty young when GOLDENEYE was released. I remember playing the N64 game for hours with friends. After that I've seen the movie and loved everything from the very start. 

Yannick in his studio, playing his electric guitar.

The Nintendo 64 version of GOLDENEYE was one of the game's strong points, how did you feel of rearranging Grant Kirkhope and Greame Norgate's work? 

Both are great composers and have created amazing pieces. It made my work so easy and you could instantly create that GOLDENEYE 64 feeling by playing the first few seconds of a song because the original pieces where so distinct. I started to build every song upon the original and go from there. Maybe expand it a little, add more orchestra or more modern stuff and that was it. I still love to listen to the original tracks a lot and it makes me even prouder that Grant Kirkhope listened to some of my work and made very kind comments.

How did you came to work with GOLDENEYE: SOURCE? Were you in the project from the beginning? 

No, when I joined the GOLDENEYE: SOURCE team I've just been composing for about 3-4 years and started to sound halfway decent. At the time where I've applied there were already 2 musicians involved. They've really created some great tracks but where more into the techno, dubstep kind of department. When I've applied with a track that was very reminiscent of the actual GOLDENEYE movie soundtrack it started some wild discussions in the background. Some thought there's no need for a third composer and some thought: "Hey, we make a GOLDENEYE game and his music sounds like the movie – sure we take him". To make a long story short, I was given the chance to prove myself with a few more tracks and I was officially a part of the team. One of my biggest achievements ever and I've learned so much during that time. I might say, without GOLDENEYE: SOURCE – no GoldenZen

GOLDENEYE: SOURCE, the Mod version for the 1997 Nintendo 64 classic. where Yannick proved his scoring talents.

Who's your favourite Bond composer, and has he influenced you in your compositions? 

Clearly Eric Serra. He was the original composer for GOLDENEYE. The movie was and still is the ultimate and unbeaten experience movie experience to me. All the amazing characters, the locations, the gadgets, Pierce Brosnan, the ladies the dark and intense atmosphere – all that was perfectly supplemented with a soundtrack that is a perfect fit in my eyes. Despite the fact that a lot of people doubt Eric Serra's work on this movie I absolutely love it and still get goosebumps whenever I get to hear The GoldenEye Overture (Editor's note: This is track #2 of the film's original soundtrack). But of course I love John Barry's, David Arnold's and Michael Kamen's work very much too.

Unlike many Bond fans in the world, Yannick calls Eric Serra his favourite Bond composer: "I absolutely love it", he points out.

You recently rescored GOLDENEYE and the unofficial Bond film NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN. Why you picked those films? You felt they needed a rescore? 

Because I love the movie GoldenEye so much I always wanted to rescore it. Not with the intention to make it better but different. I've tried to combine all the best elements from Eric Serra and maybe a touch of David Arnold and some of my own elements. During the GOLDENEYE rescore project (GoldenEye: Decrypted) I was already approached by different people who asked me if I'm going to rescore another James Bond movie. The thought actually never occured to me first but then some people suggested me to rescore NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN. Nevertheless, after a little break after completing GOLDENEYE I was working on it already, although I wanted to take a longer James Bond music break. I guess I can't just live without this tune.

Artwork for GoldenEye: Decripted, Yannick's rescore for the 1995 film

So your next project is the Mod version of NIGHTFIRE, released in 2002. Why has the team picked this game and what are your expectations in the terms of music and playability? 

Currently the developer team is quite small. A friend suggested me to apply there and send them some material of mine. They liked my previous work and I was in the team right away. It's also a great project for me because I can create a whole new soundtrack based on my ideas. These tracks are mainly based on orchestra and a lot of synth and percussive elements. Fast driven and full of Bond elements – I just love it. Some preview material can be found on YouTube. The developers are very dedicated and slowly but steadily we make progress and I believe it's gonna be a great thing.

Any other projects on the horizon? 

Bond, what else? No seriously, I'm still working on NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN and just finished to write a whole new title track with lyrics and everything. It turned out to be one of my best tracks so far.

NIGHTFIRE: SOURCE is still on my list and then there's the secret GOLDFINGER project in collaboration with some very talented people to. Funny thing - Despite the fact some people doubted the sense of the GoldenEye: Decrypted project, it was the project that got me connected with a lot of cool and nice people like game developers and filmmakers all over the world who liked it and things are looking really great. There's definitely a whole lot more music to come!

As usual, we thank Yannick for his time and we wish him the best of luck in his projects. To read more of him and keep in touch with his projects, check out his official Facebook Page.

The Lost Art of Interrogation: Starr Parodi & Jeff Fair Interview

We're more than happy to update our "Lost Art of Interrogation" section interviewing the creators of an icon: Starr Parodi and Jeff Fair, who reworked the immortal notes of the James Bond Theme for the GOLDENEYE trailer, bringing a classic tune into the '90s without losing its original style. Starr and Jeff are an American wife and husband composing team who have worked together composing music mainly for the film industry, including the classic United Artists jingle that opened the '90s productions of the company including GOLDENEYE.

Was your James Bond Theme reversion for the GOLDENEYE trailer actually your first hit? How did you get involved on that one, by the fact you also worked on the then new United Artists jingle?

Yes, the James Bond Theme version that we produced, arranged and recorded for the GOLDENEYE Trailers was our first hit. We recorded it in our living room! (which doubled as studio tracking room). We got involved because at the time we were just starting to score movie trailers and had just developed a relationship over at MGM with Joe Nimziki who we thought was quite a visionary. After we created the theme he saw it as a music video style teaser with very little dialog. We scored almost all of MGM's film trailers for several years after that as well as working on many special projects for them and GOLDENEYE was one of the first ones we worked on (as well as the United Artists Logo). It was all part of the same department at MGM, and Bond was one of the many films they had at the movie studio that we scored the trailers for. 

You surely know the GOLDENEYE promotion was a big challenge since it was the introduction of a new 007 and at the same time the absence of the character for six and a half years, have you felt the pressure while working on it or was more like a pleasant job?

We were so happy to have the opportunity to work on such a wonderful project. This was before many of the other themes had been redone (MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, THE SAINT, WILD WILD WEST, etc…all of which we also worked on). It was a challenge, however there were not a lot of other models to work from and the studio was not asking us to copy something that had previously been done, but just to be creative and come up with a new idea to introduce the new Bond character. Something that was modern and had a cool feeling. They were open to hearing anything we wanted to try. Overall It was a great experience working on the theme.

What was the first idea that came to your mind while having to work with the John Barry/Monty Norman composition? Was there a reason why you went to that modern approach or you always wanted to keep the original style without going too techno on it?

When MGM asked us to work on the trailer, there was no picture yet to see, just a concept of bringing Bond back after many years away and also introducing a new James Bond character. We wanted it to be fresh, have a cool feel and yet have some of the organic flavor of the original. We made a demo of an initial idea (which incorporated the intro to the piece as it is now) which starts out with multilayered ambient guitars and low trombones. As a starting place we initially did the whole theme in a more ambient, moody direction. The studio really loved the way it started but wanted the piece to have lots of energy as the music came into the main theme, so we did this, and then returned to the ambient section at the end. Sometimes working with a studio can be a lot of pressure to create lots of versions of a project but in this case, they really liked our initial idea and the process of creating this version really flowed.

Your version was finally released on the 2002 edition of the "Best Of Bond" compilation after being claimed by fans and it has won plenty of awards, how have you felt by the fact that a "trailer music" has been so popular in the Bond fandom?

It's great that so many of the Bond fans connected with the piece. It was a tremendous honor to work on and the fans were really the ones that got the GOLDENEYE Trailer Bond Theme music on the Best of Bond CD by sending so many requests to MGM for the music. We were not even aware that our theme had achieved Gold Record status here in the U.S. until we literally saw a Bond Gold record on the wall of one of the MGM music executives.

You also reworked the Bond theme for some DIE ANOTHER DAY TV spots, 

how did it happened that the Bond people came back to both of you?

The executives at MGM/UA were really pleased with the way our musical ideas connected with Bond fans and their response to the GOLDENEYE trailers, so we actually ended up working on the movie trailers and many TV spots for DIE ANOTHER DAY, THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH and TOMORROW NEVER DIES in addition to GOLDENEYE. There are versions that we have done that have probably not even been heard! We ended up working on all these because they were MGM/UA films and at that time we were doing the music for all the studio's movie trailers so these films were part of their roster that we were working on.

Which is your favourite Bond film? And, if there is one, your favourite James Bond Theme version besides the one you made?

We loved DR.NO and also, have a very soft spot in our heart for GOLDENEYE as well since that was our entry into becoming involved with Bond films. Both are great adventures. We are big fans of the original Monty Norman/John Barry version of the theme as well. In addition we loved how David Arnold with Nicholas Dodd orchestrating treated the theme. Starr did a recording a few years ago called "Common Places" (which was solo piano recording of the year solopianoradio.com) and did a very different moody version of the theme using only solo piano.

What were your musical influences for all your careers? You also worked on films like VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2 and HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 1 which is a wide of movie generes.

We listen to all styles of music so much of the time and are immersed in it! Classically, I would have to say our influences include some of the modern classical Polish film composers born in the 1930's ( Gorecki, Kilar) as well as Italian film composer Ennio Morricone. We also like modern pop artists that push the envelope a bit with new original energy.

Any upcoming projects on the horizon? Would you return for another Bond one?

We have been working on so many new projects. We scored a film called BERT STERN: ORIGINAL MADMAN that was in theaters in the US a few months ago, and worked on the soundtrack for that film as well which includes some previously unreleased Louis Armstrong tracks. Starr is working on a new recording with solo piano and orchestra and also writing songs with former lead singer of the Temptations - Louis Price. We also wrote the theme for the current animated series TRANSFORMERS: RESCUE BOTS which is sung by Josh Ramsay (Call Me Maybe) from the band Marianas Trench.

We send a big thank you for such a talented musicans who contributed to the success of the post-Cold War 007 adventures. We'll also invite you to check out Starr's new piano solo album "Common Places" which can be bought on iTunes. It includes a nice rendition of the James Bond Theme, too! For more information regarding the duo, visit their site at www.parodifair.com

THE LOST ART OF INTERROGATION - Pavel Douglas Interview

Everytime someone asks you about GOLDENEYE, you surely remember the frigate scene where Ouromov and Xenia hijack the Tiger helicopter. And of course, you'll remember an officer speaking proudly of the Tiger EMP-resistant technology. That man is Pavel Douglas, a Poland-born actor with important roles in series like LOVEJOY and DOCTORS. He also did a lot of voiceovers and directed and acted in theatre plays, including stand-up comedies and commercials, like a very good James Bond spoof TV advertisement for Channel 5 where he played M. After being a bit busy with his personal life, Pavel took his time to have a small chit-chat and let us conduct a really sinister (well, actually not) lost-art interrogation.

How did you get to GOLDENEYE? Was it a casting or you knew somebody

of the production?

I was living in Paris at the time filming a feuilleton called RIVIERA. LOVEJOY had just come to an end in England and my agent called asking if I'd fly back to London. Martin Cambell wanted to see me for the film. I read for him at Eon HQ in Piccadilly. He had tried to cast the role in Paris with no luck. I asked him why he hadn't been able to find a French actor to play a French part and he replied that the French all "acted" too much for his taste. Fortunately my French was/is good enough to pass as a Frenchman, even though I'm speaking in English in the film!

Martin Campbell is known to be a very strict director, how was your

relationship with him?

"Martin (Campbell) proclaimed
me as 'a thinking actor'
to the assembled throng"

Martin is indeed strict because he knows what he want and expects everyone to deliver. But he commands great respect from cast and crew. He is old school but also understanding enough to allow the actor to get it right. We got on very well to the point where he proclaimed me as "a thinking actor!" to the assembled throng in the deck scene. He was also kind enough to give me a bloody big close up! Nice. 

Have you reached to talk to Pierce Brosnan? What do you think of 

his other Bond films besides GOLDENEYE?

Pierce and I became good chums during the filming, due as much as anything to having a friend in common. We hung out together in Monte Carlo and spoke on the phone after I had returned to England. I last saw him at the Premier. If I were ever to work with him again, we'd pick up where we left off. Such is the way in our world. 

Any other cast member you have good recollections of?

I had the sheer delight of dining with both Famke and Izabella. It was always a case of "Dear Lord, Pinch me!" 

Is there any funny anecdote about the filming of the frigate scene you'd like to share with us?

Not so much during filming, but between takes. As I was playing the Captain it seemed obvious that the Officers would take me on a tour of the ship. Everywhere I went men would snap to attention and salute me. I naturally saluted them back. At one point I inspected the galley, where food is cooked, and a young seaman chef didn't know if he should salute me, do up his unbuttoned tunic, or toss his omelette first, for all he noticed was my rank and medals!

To Pavel, meeting with the Bond girls was
"a case of 'Dear Lord, pinch me!' "

The name GOLDENEYE extends to a lot of histories in the world of

007. That is four videogames and the name of Ian Fleming's Jamaican

estate. What do you think of that?

You're asking the wrong guy the wrong question here. I never play video games. I really enjoyed reading the script of GOLDENEYE and the subsequent film, but I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to Bond. I like the early stuff best. 

Now, let's talk a bit about James Bond. Were you a Bond fan before 

getting involved with GOLDENEYE? What do you think of the Daniel Craig 

films and the 50th anniversary?

I've been a Bond fan since childhood. I WAS James Bond as a boy. I had a gun, knives, smoke grenades, attaché case... You name it. My mother had bought me an early Grundig tape recorder and I had recorded endless audio clips from the movies and all the Bond music and themes of the day. To me the music of THE IPCRESS FILE is as much Bond as Bond, but for the films... I loved GOLDFINGER because The Car had been in a garage near my school and I'd made sure I had a damn good look and touch of it. I also loved THUNDERBALL. But my all time favourite for the true mood and grit of the eponymous 007 has, and always will be, FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE.

Do you follow Pierce Brosnan post Bond career?

I've seen Pierce in a number of movies since then. He's a lovely gentle man, a gentleman, and decent hard working actor. Not sure about his singing though!

What about your career? What are your future projects as an actor?

My career? Hmm. That's unpredictable as always. Unlike my father, I've not become a star. A name, yes, but star... Not yet. I work to bring up my children and pay the bills. I work without cease as an Actor, Director, Writer, Voiceover and Artist. I do Theatre, Stand-up comedy, TV and less often these days Film. I am truly alive when I'm performing, but it’s no luxury. It's a vapid world where one can easily be overlooked because one isn't loud enough in the market place. People often ask if I am successful. I reply “Look, I've been doing this all my life and I've brought up seven children. How successful is that? Oh, and I've been in a Bond Film!". That usually does the trick. 

We thank Pavel very much for his time to reply our questions. Anybody who wants to keep in touch with him can follow him on Twitter @PavelDouglas or check out his site. Thanks to our readers for reading our "Lost Art of Interrogarion" section.

THE LOST ART OF INTERROGATION - Grant Kirkhope Interview

We all know a key element of the Bond movies is the music, and of course,  GOLDENEYE 007 released in 1997 for the Nintendo 64 system was no exception. Who can forget planting the remote mines in the gas tanks while hearing that metallic Facility music or the frenetic sound accompaining the Antenna Cradle shootout? One of the men responsible for that great sound is Grant Kirkhope.

Born in Scotland, he attended The Royal Northen College of Music in Manchester, majoring in Trumpet. After ten years of performing in rock and soul bands, he joined Rareware in 1995 as a video game composer, where his first work was the Game Boy version of DONKEY KONG COUNTRY 2: DIDDY KONG'S QUEST. Shortly after, he joined Graeme Norgate and Robin Beanland to give a timeless sound to James Bond's debut on the 64 bits console. In this lost art session, Grant reflects on the excitement of working with the classic James Bond Theme and talks about his involvement in the XBLA 360 cancelled version.

Grant Kirkhope

Where you a Bond fan before composing GOLDENEYE 007? How did you get on the project?

Of course, everyone loves James Bond don't they!!! When I first got to Rare I was given the job of converting Dave Wise's music for DONKEY KONG COUNTRY 2 on the SNES to the Game Boy. Graeme Norgate was busy doing BLAST CORPS and GOLDENEYE and asked me to take over on GOLDENEYE as he was so busy on BLAST CORPS. I was more than happy to help him out, I couldn't wait to get started!

Do you think there was some influence of Eric Serra's soundtrack in themes like Facility or Bunker?

Definitely! I listened to anything and everything Bond that I could find and of course that meant listening to Eric Serra's score to the movie. 

I have to say I wasn't that keen on his take on the Bond music but it had some moments that I liked.

How much time did working on the score demand? Was it a hard task considering the importance of the Bond sound troughout the years?

Hmmmm ..... I can't really remember how long I worked on it for. I didn't finish it as I was moved onto the team that was doing DREAM (which later became BANJO-KAZOOIE). Graeme returned to finish it off after BLAST CORPS was done. I didn't think of it as a hard task as it was so much fun and I had huge respect for John Barry and what he'd done with the music over the years. To have the chance to use that iconic Monty Norman theme any which way I could was just fantastic ..... who wouldn't enjoy that!

Render of the Statue Park mission, one of
Kirkhope's finest works

With the impact the game music had, why wasn't the game score officially released on CD?

I don't know really. I suspect it would have something to do with the fact that the Bond theme is very closely guarded by Monty Norman and EON. Nintendo would've had to have jumped threw so many legal hoops and probably ended up making a loss on the CD by the time they'd paid everybody!

Have you seen SKYFALL and the Daniel Craig films? What are your toughts?

I haven't seen SKYFALL yet but I have to say I think Daniel Craig is fantastic as Bond. My favourite of his is CASINO ROYALE so far, so I'm waiting to see what I make of the SKYFALL.

Screenshot of the cancelled XBLA 360
remake of GOLDENEYE 007

Speaking about Craig, how did you feel about the Activision remake of GOLDENEYE 007 and the fact that Craig is playing Bond there?

I haven't seen the game so I can't comment. I can't decide if remaking games is a good idea or not. We did have GOLDENEYE remade for XBLA when I was at Rare. It was running at a fast frame rate and was really going to be good but as usual Microsoft and Nintendo and EON couldn't reach an agreement on money so it was shelved... shame really, I think it could've been a success on XBLA like BANJO and PERFECT DARK have.

Talk us about your next projects. Anything interesting round the corner?

I'm currently doing YAIBA: NINJA GARDEN Z, DESKTOP DUNGEONS and an unnanounced game.

We thank Grant for his time for the interview. Check out his official site at GrantKirkhope.com to  find more info and some interesting stuff about GOLDENEYE and his other works.

THE LOST ART OF INTERROGATION - Daniel Kleinman Interview

What was the first James Bond film were Daniel Kleinman worked in? If you answered GOLDENEYE, you're wrong! It was LICENCE TO KILL. Actually, he didn't worked in the film per se, but in the music video for Gladys Knight's song for Timothy Dalton's swan song as 007 in 1989.

Graduated from Hornsey Art School, Kleinman worked as an illustrator and collaborated on storyboards for the music video industry, which led to design many videos since 1983 for icons like Prince and Madonna. He also created commercials during the '90s with complex special effects for Sony, Johnny Walker and Guinness, to name a few brands, and directed some TV drama and comedies like BAFTA winner SMASHIE AND NICEY - THE END OF AN ERA. Nowadays, Daniel works in Rattling Stick staff, a company of commercial directors he co-founded.

Daniel Kleinman, main title designer for
six James Bond films since 1995

After Maurice Binder's death in 1991, he was known the man responsible for transporting the classic James Bond visual iconography into the 21st century: he redesigned the gunbarrel sequence for GOLDENEYE, giving it a slightly digital touch, and created the main title sequences for all the Pierce Bronsan and Daniel Craig adventures except for QUANTUM OF SOLACE, where MK12 did a not so memorable job. From the fall of the Soviet Union to the cybernetic ladies and the black gold. From Bond's torture in the North Korean cell to the flying poker cards and shadows stalking our hero in an underwater limbo, we practice the "Lost Art of Interrogarion" with Daniel Kleinman, discussing GOLDENEYE, SKYFALL, design and Maurice Binder trough the other side of cyberspace.

First of all, thanks for agreeing to be interviewed for the site, Daniel. How did you get to work in the GOLDENEYE main title sequence? Was it related to your work in Gladys Knight's "Licence to kill" music video?

I believe it was, there had been a 7 year hiatus between Bond films and sadly Maurice Binder died during that period. I was asked to take his place probably because people had liked my video for Gladys Knight "Licence to Kill", I'd meant it in part to be a "homage" to the title sequences, which I had always admired.

The main titles of GOLDENEYE reflected the
end of Communism in a rather suggestive way

Let's talk about GOLDENEYE a little. How did you concieve the idea of the Cold War political context of it? It was absolutely your idea or the writers gave you a hand?

I was given the script to read, there was nothing written in there for the titles, but the fact that the pre title sequence was at an earlier time to the post title film gave me the idea to make the titles be about time passing and also to illustrate the great political upheaval that had occurred during the period in question. The fall of the Soviet State and Communism was also very pertinent to the plot of the film so it all fit. I liked the idea of making the titles help the narrative of the film and I love classic Soviet art, it's very graphic.

Have you heard some of the left-winged parties in India protested against it? What do you think of that? I mean, nobody usually makes so much noise about a main title sequence, even when the Bond ones are very memorable.

I didn't know about that, I believe the film didn't get a release in some Communist countries, I think it was due to the titles and Michael Wilson joked with me about it, although I don't think the producers were very happy that they'd lost a territory. I suppose that the events in Soviet Russia and the shift away from Communist ideology was still fairly recent at the time of the film's release, I certainly didn't think I was making any moral judgements just illustrating in a playful way factual events. Statues really were torn down, as is seen later in the movie, and although it wasn't literally girls in lingerie who caused icons to fall and the Soviet State to break up, in an analogous way perhaps it was, the Soviet people wanted what the west had, goods and glamour, remember not that long time before then people had been smuggling in Levi's. 

Have you met somebody of the cast of GOLDENEYE? Or you just worked with the crew and your team of artists?

I worked with my own crew and chose the team to create the titles. To a certain extent the titles are an autonomous unit, the rest of the main film unit is usually still working and very busy.

The classic gunbarrel was CGI rendered for Pierce Brosnan's debut
in GOLDENEYE. The animation was until DIE ANOTHER DAY,
where a digital bullet was added.

Who was your mentor in animation designing? Was Maurice Binder an influence for you in Bond and beyond?

I went to art school, I didn't really have a mentor as such, I admired many designers Maurice Binder among them, of course Saul Bass and Robert Brownjohn are also great in terms of title sequences. I didn't really set out to make titles and I have only ever worked on James Bond titles as I'm a fan, my influences are really more painting, illustration and film than title sequences per se. 

Your only absence in Bond since 1995 was for QUANTUM OF SOLACE. You were unable to do it or they didn't hire you? And what do you think of MK12's work there?

The director of that film (Marc Forster) wanted his own team MK12 so I was left behind on that one. I thought they did a great job, I like the ideas and images and there is certainly a different vibe to it compared to my work, which is a good thing. There are many difficulties, practical and intellectual, when creating such a sequence and I felt they pulled it off well.

Now, if you had to rate all your Bond main title sequences from GOLDENEYE to SKYFALL, which was was the most difficult to create and what was the one you enjoyed the most doing?

Each sequence has had it's own difficulties and challenges, much of this is due to the changing nature of the technology, digital editing and post production. For GOLDENEYE the sequence was edited in an analogue edit suite first, then copied by eye on a high resolution digital film compositing machine which at that time was very, very slow and a cumbersome way of creating optical effects. The good thing about that method was that I had a lot of control and was able to get the sequence just how I wanted quite easily in the relatively flexible analogue suite but at far too low a resolution to be able to put it back to 35mm film. The bad side to it was that the sequence had to be created twice making the process long and expensive and very labour intensive. For the next few films I worked on I went straight to the digital machines to try and streamline the process but even then the time it took to process and render the pictures made the work very slow and frustrating, also it gave me very little room to change anything if I wasn't happy with it. Finally by the time I did CASINO ROYALE the technology had sort of caught up and I was able to work in a more spontaneous and flexible way so I think I started enjoying the process more. I certainly enjoyed the 'creative' part of GOLDENEYE, CASINO ROYALE and SKYFALL as I feel they were closest to what I had in my mind.

The acclaimed titles of 2012's SKYFALL, the latest
work of Kleinman in the Bond series.

What about your other projects, anything on the horizon yet?

I am always working on commercials, that is really my main job, I do the James Bond titles for fun.

From THE GOLDENEYE DOSSIER we'd like to thank Miss Florence Roberson from Rattling Stick (www.rattlingstick.com) for making the arrangements for this interview, and of course we thank Daniel for sparing a little of his time for us to answer the questions and, of course, we wish him success in his projects and, oh yes, we hope he returns for Bond 24 and surprises us as he always did with his creative mind!

All stills copyright of EON Productions and Danjaq and used with illustrative purposes only.

THE LOST ART OF INTERROGATION - John Altman Interview

Welcome to The Lost Art of Interrogation. Here, we will practice this "lost art" with some people involved in the world of GOLDENEYE. Interviews have been done by private e-mailing and might have had some slight editing to fit the structure of the site, but the opinion of the interviewed remains, of course, untouched with its actual words.

Our first interviewed really needs no introduction. He's a famous composer, as famous as James Bond is in a way, and he was also responsible for making Pierce Brosnan a big star after suggesting director John McKenzie to cast him in a leading role in 1987's THE FOURTH PROTOCOL. Born in London in 1949, John Altman has composed and produced music of many famous films like the critically acclaimed TITANIC, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. 

A Bond fan for decades, John finally had the chance to leap into the incredible world of 007 in 1995 when GOLDENEYE came out - he had to re-score what it is one of the best scenes in the whole franchise.

Altman has many friends between the Bond
alumni, including DR NO composer Monty Norman

How where first involved with GOLDENEYE? How did you get to re-score the tank chase sequence?

I came on board since I had done two movies previously with Eric, ATLANTIS and LEON: THE PROFESSIONAL as his orchestrator/conductor. When the producers and director indicated they were unhappy with the way Eric had scored the tank chase and Eric refused to rewrite, they approached me to rescore. I did this on condition that Eric gave his approval as it was he who had brought me into the movie in the first place.

How would you professionally rate him and his work in the film?

He (Eric) loved Ryuchi Sakamoto's work on SHELTERING SKY, which I had orchestrated and conducted, and hired me to replicate that role in his first ventures into orchestral writing. The producers hired him to write Eric Serra but decided they wanted a more traditional approach. I think he was ahead of his time but, as we have seen, nearly 20 years later Bond music still follows the traditional paths.

You know the tank chase scene is perhaps one of the best moments in GOLDENEYE, of not in the entire James Bond franchise. Do you think that is in a way related to the re-scoring of the music you did?

I would hope that what I wrote added to the excitement. I was scoring a couple of movies at the time as composer too so it was fun to jump in and do Bond! - I wish the original soundtrack version which has never been issued on CD would come out as it sounds amazing - it was all written and recorded in four days so it has a wonderful energy.

The famous GOLDENEYE tank chase scene
 was re-scored with an epic sound by Altman.

Let's talk about James Bond and his music. Have you grown up as a Bond fan and listening the John Barry scores? And what do you think of Thomas Newman and David Arnold in the modern Bond films with Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig?

I was a big Bond fan - curiously I was a very good friend of Terence Young who directed several Bonds, Monty Norman sings with my jazz group from time to time, and I've written songs with Don Black who was an early mentor of mine! I do love the Bond tradition and am honoured to be a part of it. I'm off now for lunch with David Arnold!

Now, let's finish talking about your future projects. Anything in the horizon right now?

I have just recorded a big band album which will come out this year. I'm heading to China to do some concerts with the band. I hope to have a couple of movies to score, a BBC show to do, and am still working on live shows and concerts. I produced one CD for the TITANIC 3D Anniversary Edition so I am also involved with that and its aftermath.

We thank John for being the first GOLDENEYE member answer our questions, and we wish him good luck in all his projects. Now, let's see who's the next one to visit us in the Lost Art of Interrogation sessions.