Johnny Marr praises "great musician" Billie Eilish after Bond theme collaboration

19 February 2020, 11:49 | Updated: 19 February 2020, 12:15

Johnny Marr and Billie Eilish at the BRIT Awards 2020
Johnny Marr and Billie Eilish at the BRIT Awards 2020. Picture: 1. David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images 2. Karwai Tang/WireImage/Getty Images

The former Smiths guitarist, who is scoring the film with Hans Zimmer and just performed the theme song at the BRIT Awards has praised the singer-songwriter.

Johnny Marr has heaped praise on Billie Eilish and her family, after working together with her and her brother on the Bond theme song.

The former Smiths guitarist, who is scoring the next 007 film with Hans Zimmer, performed the Bond theme song with the legend, Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas at the BRIT Awards last night (18 February), and has discussed what it was like working with the teen.

As NME reports, talking about hearing No Time To Die for the first time, Marr said: "When I heard the song, I thought ‘this is fantastic’. It’s very brave, being very minimalist. It’s her sound, and then the trick was to Bond-ify it".

WATCH: Billie Eilish performs Bond theme live at the 2020 BRIT Awards

Watch their performance here:

Billie Eilish - No Time To Die (Live From The BRIT Awards, London)

He added: "It was already a great song, but from a sound point of view, to Bond-ify it without doing the obvious. It’s really easy to be bombastic, so it was a case of less is more, and making it work with the film.”

Speaking about Billie and her talented brother, the Generate singer gushed: "Billie’s just the best new, I don’t wanna say pop act, but it’s great when someone that cool is that popular, individual and a lot of people can relate to her.

"She’s a really good musician, and her family is a really musical family, very soulful. I know a great musician when I see one.”

Billie also picked up the gong for Best International Female.

Watch her moving acceptance speech below:

READ MORE: What Dave Grohl really meant when he compared Billie Eilish to Nirvana

READ MORE: BRIT Awards 2020: full list of winners

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