Hans Zimmer says UK government's career quiz told him to retrain as a music teacher

Last month Chancellor Rishi Sunak made some comments about all workers having to adapt amid the coronavirus pandemic. The initial report (which was later amended) suggested that musicians and other workers in the arts industries may need to retrain and find new jobs due to the pandemic, resulting in an angry response from the music industry.

Shortly after the Chancellor's comments the UK government launched an online career quiz which aimed to tell people what job they could apply for based on their skills and work preferences.

In a new interview with GQ, legendary composer Hans Zimmer has revealed that the online quiz told him to retrain as a music teacher, "I did that test about retraining for the government, since all of us artists are supposed to be retraining. You know what I got? Music teacher. That's really useful, you know? I'm sorry, let me vent: I just found it such an insult to humanity, such an insult to who we are. The idea that culture is worthless, when everything is about culture in one way or the other. My guess is, from what I've been reading, that mentally, the world is relatively unstable. People are really suffering from the loneliness, really suffering economically, but somehow they still manage to listen to a piece of music, they still managed to read something."

Zimmer also discussed how Billie Eilish and Finneas' "No Time To Die" became the new James Bond theme song, "It’s a Bond film, there's going to be a song and there was like a box full of songs lying around that people were listening to and trying to make decisions on them. They wanted me to be part of the decision-making process. There was this small, leanly produced, very personal song by Billie. I just went, "That's it." And everybody said, "Well, but it's not quite right. It's not good." [I said,] "No, no, no, here's the mistake you're making: she and Finneas haven't seen the movie yet. They don't know what they're writing about. Get them on a plane, get them over here." So on a dark, grey, typical English night, they arrived in the middle of Soho, jet-lagged beyond anything, and we showed them the movie and the next day the three of us got to work on it."

The composer added, "For me, it was undeniable that that was the right way to go. It felt hugely personal; it felt really well crafted. I really liked how lean it was. My friend Matt [Dunkley] actually did the majority of the string arrangements and Steve Lipson, engineer extraordinaire, came in. We just spent the day adding little orchestral touches. And, of course, the other thing, which I knew was missing before they even wrote it, was [that] it needed a Johnny Marr guitar."

Zimmer also said, "Let me be candid. I think everybody discussed what to use, I just kept saying, "Nah. Billie and Finneas. We’re done!" I’d never met them, but I felt [that] there’s Shirley Bassey, there's Adele – everybody who's ever worked on [Bond] has come at it with a strong style of their own, with conviction and a great commitment. And this song had it. It maintained an intimacy, which I thought was beautiful."