Danny Elfman
Danny Elfman
Daniel Robert "Danny" Elfman is an American composer, singer, songwriter, and record producer. From 1976 to 1995 he was the lead singer and songwriter for the band Oingo Boingo...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionComposer
Date of Birth29 May 1953
CityLos Angeles, CA
CountryUnited States of America
became demo main motion title wrote
That little demo I wrote became the main title of the motion picture, and that started everything.
american-musician beauty bit establish later main maybe plant secondary theme title
The beauty of a main title is that you establish your main theme and maybe a bit of your secondary theme. You plant the seed that you're going to go water later in the score. And so, having that removed just made it so much more difficult.
american-musician felt material pieces protecting stopped studios stuff themes worth
It's just hard. I wish the studios felt there was more value in these themes and these pieces of material - that they're worth protecting more. Because then it just wouldn't happen. If the studios cared, the stuff would be stopped in a second.
breathe learned musician pass street
It was a ragtag street ensemble, ... Literally, we'd pass the hat. I learned how to breathe fire. I learned to play the trombone. I was a street musician for years.
sweet
It was a very sweet deal, ... But not for us. For them.
blank head possible strictly tastes unprepared until
I try to keep myself as blank and as unprepared as possible until that moment, ... I have to get my head into his head because it's not strictly about my own tastes and instincts. It's a collaboration.
answer calling coffin convenient maker people proper wanting
It's convenient in a way, because you don't have to answer many questions: People say, 'Man, how are you feeling?' And I say, 'How do I look?' And they go, 'Oh, okay.' I've got the coffin maker calling every now and then about measurements, wanting to give me a proper fit.
land four want
The first thing I do is lay out that melody and figure out how it has to hold here and then finish to land here, because you know in advance you're going to want the melody to catch four things in the action.
hate stupid want
It sounds really stupid, I hate making cosmic comments like this but, I just let it do what it wants to do.
thinking differences understanding
I think that's one of the things that has always put me in kind of an odd niche. It's that all of my understanding of orchestral music is via film, not via classical music like it's supposed to be. To me it's the same, it doesn't make any difference.
halloween towns our-town
This is Halloween, everybody make a scene Trick or treat till the neighbors gonna die of fright It's our town, everybody scream In this town of Halloween.
play work-out bars
In some types of music I'm working out all the chords one bar at a time - the whole structure, because it's about that. And there are other pieces which are really about - okay, the melody is going to start here and play through to here.
opportunity special needs
It's hard to get a film, you know, you need a very special film to be able to get that experimental. But, I would love to see that happen. I would love the opportunity to be more experimental than I am.
thinking wish doe
Most often the music does end up in the movie, and sometimes there's a point where I wish that it wasn't, just because I think the score would be more effective if there was less of it. But, again, that's not my call.