SPILL FEATURE: IT IS A ROCK SHOW, IT IS NOT LIKE A FILM MUSIC SHOW – A CONVERSATION WITH DANNY ELFMAN

IT IS A ROCK SHOW, IT IS NOT LIKE A FILM MUSIC SHOW

A CONVERSATION WITH DANNY ELFMAN

When Oingo Boingo was making waves in 1980 with their debut album, no one would have suspected that Danny Elfman, the frontman and founder, would leave the band to pursue a solo career that included writing soundtracks for over 100 films and television shows, as well as classical pieces and stage show productions. What would Christmas be these days without The Nightmare Before Christmas, or Pee-wee Herman’s first two films, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and Big Top Pee-wee, without Elfman’s score or Beetlejuice? These are classic and iconic soundtracks. Maybe directors must have noted his skill when Oingo Boingo provided the theme for Weird Science, because Elfman would progress to be one of the most successful and influential score composers.

But, he also likes rock ‘n’ roll and he also enjoys writing, recording, and producing his own solo albums. It has been a little over five years since his rock album Big Mess and he is not only getting ready to release a new, as yet untitled album, but also touring. The tour brings him to Toronto on September 10 at History, as well as a number of other dates throughout North America. Recently, I had the chance to speak with him, the old-fashioned way, via telephone.

Since the new album comes a few years after his last rock, non-soundtrack album, it comes to mind that something had to stir inside Elfman to return to this familiar format of straight-ahead rock songs and album. “I just really enjoyed doing Big Mess,” laughed Elfman. “And once you open that Pandora’s box, you can’t close it. I have to say, unfortunately, and this sounds terrible, but I owe it all to the lockdown and COVID. I had a whole year dedicated to doing concerts, because I had a number of Elfman/Burton shows, you know The Music Of Tim Burton, that I had been doing around the world and Nightmare Before Christmas shows. I also had some concert shows with concertos that I was premiering. So, I thought, that will be my year. Doing all of that stuff, but then everything cancelled. One by one, every concert went down like dominos, as you remember at the beginning of COVID. So, I had a year with nothing to do, which was heaven after 40 years of non-stop 110 film scores. So, I just started writing songs again.”

Although having to cancel the shows was disappointing, the positive side was that Elfman began writing songs again. This led to his previous solo album and his current one. “I started writing songs again, just for fun. But as I said, it is like Pandora’s box, once you start, I realized I really enjoyed it. It has taken a while for this album, because I had the whole thing with Big Mess. I brought that in in about three months, but then I kept writing, and I had a song here and a song there and suddenly I realized I had 16 songs, better start recording. It has been an on again, off again process and we are just finishing up now.”

But Elfman is not revealing a whole lot about the new album. It is a little bit of a mystery and not the time to fully discuss the album. “It is somewhere in between. It is just getting finished and it is always hard to talk about as you are finishing it,” Elfman said. But he did share that it is more than just an album. “I am really excited about it and can’t wait for people to hear it. We are finishing videos. We are making a crazy thing with my record label. It is an album-movie, and it will probably be an hour long with a number of videos in it. It is a lot of crazy work going into finishing it up.”

A definite release date is still up in the air, but Elfman is holding on to hope that maybe a teaser single could be released later this year. “Originally, we were hoping the first single would be out this year, but because we are doing this album film, there are so many elements that are going into it, so it will be early next year when it all comes out. Although I am still hoping to get a single or something out this year.

For an artist who has written so much music for film and television, he does not instantly think about the visuals. For Elfman, when he is writing a song, the music and lyrics come first. “I get inspired by visuals, and sometimes I write something and I think, “oh, this could lend itself to some visuals, when I start thinking about it,” remarked Elfman. “It is as I am finishing a song, I start thinking about that.”

As for the current tour, fans of Elfman can expect a show of his work. “It is really a show of my music,” agreed Elfman. “It takes place in the past, present and future. It is a rock show, it is not like a film music show. I will be doing a kind of two-part show. Dividing it between music from my past, like Oingo Boingo, which I still like doing. Then there will be stuff from Big Mess and premiering five or six songs from the new album.”

For Elfman, putting together a rock album and recording a soundtrack album are two very different projects. “It’s hard to explain,” he said. “They are opposite brains, you know. When you are doing a soundtrack, I am thinking purely electronic, or sonic or even orchestral. I have done so many orchestral soundtracks, and I am really just thinking about big or small, or romantic, or energetic, or mysterious, or fun, or crazy. Music that fits the world I am living in with that film. When I am writing songs, it is the complete opposite. There is nothing to look at, nothing to say, ‘here’s what to do’. It is just waiting for inspiration to hit or writing about something on your mind.

But, when I write songs, I do find myself writing from two brains. I will write a song that is dark, and more personal and then usually follow that song with one that is irreverent and ridiculous and usually quite fast. That will be followed by something slower and moodier. That will be followed by something more crazy and intense.”

It really comes down to what is inspiring Elfman at the time. When he lets his mind wander, he is free to come up with some very unique and brilliant songs that result in equally brilliant albums. “It seems that my brain works like a ping pong ball and it is not something I can really control. I can sit and think about one style of music I can do for a film score, but when I am writing songs, I can’t write songs like ‘I am going to write an album that does this…’ or in a style or a certain tone or an overriding concept. It is all just things that come out of the blue, randomly. And often don’t seem to fit together at all, but I have come to accept the fact that that is what I am. There are a lot of disjointed things that don’t fit together.

When I started out in the late 1970s, I was really influenced by English music coming over here. It was when I heard ska, I decided to leave musical theatre which is what I had been doing for seven years. I then wanted to form a ska band, and that sounds really funny. It was after hearing Madness, The Specials, and the band XTC, which isn’t a ska band but they all had a big impact on me. Then DEVO were close behind and all of them inspired me to start a band. After that I started going in all kinds of different directions. Of course, my audience was not always with where I was going, but they would usually be fairly tolerant of me.

When I got into the 1990s, I started listening to heavier music. That’s why a lot of people ask me why my new stuff is a lot heavier. It was where I was going many years ago, I just couldn’t go there with Oingo Boingo, they just weren’t that kind of band. My favourite bands, for a long time, have been Tool and Nine Inch Nails. The fact that I will be doing a couple of shows with Tool on the same stage is super exciting for me. My music doesn’t sound like Tool, but you can hear it in some of the newer, heavier music, which is where I wanted to go but couldn’t go. But then, I finally let it all go and then came back to rock…the new album is heavier and electronic but also more organic, simpler stuff. So, it is both organic and denser at the same time.”

And with that, Elfman was off for another interview. With his collection of Academy, Golden Globe, and Grammy Awards, he is one of the most celebrated composers of the last two centuries. Now, it is time, again, to see him in concert and enjoy the rock ‘n’ roll side of Danny Elfman.

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Photo Credits: Darren Craig