Sam Smith’s theme song to the most recent James Bond film, Spectre, “Writing’s on the Wall,” has brought him a lot of success already. The song reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts, the second Bond theme ever to do so. Discussing this fact with Deadline, Smith said, “It was very, very, very, very surreal to get that. It was absolutely great. I was so proud that this song even got on the charts, because I remember when we first did it, I was like, this is not a pop song.” That’s not all, though, as Smith has already won a Golden Globe for the song, and is nominated for an Oscar. This topic was part of the aforementioned interview with Deadline, from which a few notable notes emerged.
Going into the details of how “Writing’s on the Wall,” Smith said that the song did not, in fact, only take him 20 minutes to write, which apparently is something he had said previously. He also said that, “My whole thing with this song is I wanted to make it a vulnerable Bond song,” and that doing so was “my brave thing to do.” Sam Mendes, director of the movie, did change the lyrics a bit, evidently, but, overall Smith is quite pleased with how the song turned out. Given the success it’s had, that’s not surprising.
You can read more detail on the “Writing’s on the Wall” creation process in the interview. There’s also a fair amount of stuff in there about Smith’s love of Lady Gaga, who is also nominated for an Oscar. Being nominated for the same award as Gaga? It’s surreal, evidently. A lot of things are “surreal” to Sam Smith.
(Via Deadline)
