Casino Royale theme song artist Chris Cornell reveals some details

04-Aug-2006 • Casino Royale

Audioslave's third album, "Revelations," is penciled in for a Sept. 5 release via Epic, but it's hardly the only thing on frontman Chris Cornell's plate these days.

Under his own name, Cornell has entered the world of film music, writing and recording songs for the next James Bond entry, "Casino Royale," and for the independent movie "Bug." And he confirms that he's also planning to record his second solo album starting in September.

"I'm always writing," Cornell tells Billboard.com. "There's a song here, a song there that I wouldn't be able to put on an Audioslave record. Audioslave's really been more of a collaboration, anyway, and I'm a guy that writes a lot of songs, and I write a lot by myself."

Cornell says he's "just finishing up" the songs for the solo set, which he'll release in 2007. It will be the former Soundgarden singer's first since 1999's "Euphoria Morning," and he says that it will sound "completely different" than Audioslave.

"I wrote the film songs," Cornell says, "and I've had some other ones lying around [and] a lot of new songs, just because the ideas are coming. Once I realized I was enjoying doing that again, then I definitely started taking it more seriously and have put together material for a whole record."

The Bond track, "You Know My Name," came as a surprise to fans -- and to Cornell himself. "I just got a call," he recalls, "and at first I thought there must be some kind of mistake." But after seeing the script and studying up on the new Bond actor, Daniel Craig, Cornell decided "I'm actually the right guy for the job. Everybody I met with said the same thing -- 'This isn't anything like any other James Bond film, so we don't really want that song, either. So go do whatever you want.'"

Cornell co-wrote "You Know My Name" with longtime Bond composer David Arnold and describes it as "more uptempo and a little more aggressive than any other Bond theme has been, maybe since Paul McCartney ['Live and Let Die']. It has an orchestra, but it also has some angry sounding guitar, and it's got feedback."

"Casino Royale" is scheduled to open Nov. 17 in U.S. theatres. Cornell also says Audioslave isn't planning to tour in support of "Revelations" until early 2007.

Thanks to `Fro` for the alert.