Quantum of Solace: composer David Arnold talks about his work on the Bond soundtracks

This is my third Bond film and the director Marc Forster wanted me to write music not necessarily to the pictures but to the characters and the vibe. The one I really like is about Quantum itself; this all-pervading, invasive organisation that seems to have agents in every system. Everything seems corrupt and untrustworthy. I wanted to write something snakey and odd; an umbrella signature sound. Photograph: PR

There’s a sequence where certain key members of Quantum come together at the Opera to discuss their plans. And Bond sneaks in too, and they sort of envelope him; as does the music. He gets out of it, though – of course. Photograph: PR

For Casino Royale, I wanted the song to be about Bond, not a casino, to have Bond addressing you directly for the first time. “The coldest blood runs through my veins/You know my name”: that’s the last two lines. Photograph: Kobal

It challenges you not to like him. I wanted to write something that would also blow away the old memories of Bond, to kick the door down and say: right, we’re doing it this way now. Photograph: Kobal

Tomorrow Never Dies was my first Bond. I’d made a record called Shaken and Stirred where I recorded old James Bond songs with contemporary artists, one of whom was The Propellerheads, with whom I did a version of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Photograph: Kobal

And when I visited Barbara and Bob Broccoli before I got the job they were cutting the car chase scene to that track. So when I actually got the job I called Alex and asked him if he wanted to do the same thing for the actual film. Photograph: Kobal

For The World is Not Enough it was great to be asked back to do the soundtrack – but to be asked to do the song as well was fantastic. I collaborated with Dom Black, who did the lyrics for Thunderball and Diamonds are Forever, and I got Garbage involved, because they’re a band I love. Photograph: Kobal

Plus, I think the criteria whereby you cast a singer for the Bond theme should be the same as casting an actor: can they in the world the film has created? I could absolutely imagine Shirley Manson being in a Bond film. Photograph: Kobal

Of all the films I’ve done the music for, Amazing Grace was one of the ones I really felt strongly about – it was about the British parliament’s role in the continuation, and then the end, of slavery. Photograph: Kobal

But it wasn’t a film that dealt with the victims of slavery. It was all about the white parialimentarians. But I wanted to give the victims a voice – so even if they weren’t there, they could be heard, especially in the courtroom scenes at the end. Photograph: Kobal

So I got a black choir singing along a fairly standard British orchestra – very formal and correct – both together, all at once. Photograph: Kobal

Another film I loved doing was Changing Lanes. It’s based in New York and round the idea of what happens when you get out of control, you don’t know how to stop what you’re doing even if you’re a sensible human being. So it wasn’t going to be a score that was reflective of New York in a traditional sense – smoky trumpet, stand up bass, that sort of thing. Photograph: Kobal

And it didn’t need a Hollywood sound: it was all about internal rage. So I did a score all about noise and beats, with strings that would come in occasionally, but be quite distorted. It was about trying to musically create the internal world. That sound you hear when you stand up and the blood rushes to your head. Photograph: Kobal

We had a lot of fun with that film. When the president makes his speech we had this really over the top anthem playing that was obviously indebted to great American writers – a great bit of Copland-esque Americana. And I’m from Luton. Photograph: Kobal

The brilliant thing about it was that the film was so silly you could almost do anything you wanted. And it was the success of Independence Day that really led to my getting the Bond gig. Photograph: Kobal