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
writing successful exercise
So, it becomes an exercise in futility if you write something that does not express the film as the director wishes. It's still their ball game. It's their show. I think any successful composer learns how to dance around the director's impulses.
kind theme hybrid
I took part of Alan Silvestri's theme on the original [movie], which I really liked, and I pulled it into it new theme, which became kind of a hybrid. I really enjoyed that.
song ideas body
I really look forward to revisiting this body of work which has been such a huge part of my life and bringing it to the concert stage. And the idea of performing some of Jack Skellington's songs from The Nightmare Before Christmas live for the very first time is immensely exciting.
choices undertaker
You'll never get me into a tux. Not until I'm dead and I have no choice because that's what the undertaker put me in.
knowing challenges beginning-middle-and-end
I had to do this very aggressive, big score in a very short time, and knowing that in the beginning, middle, and end would be this very, very famous theme, but I still had to weave a score around it and make it work as a score was really challenging.
would-be firsts impossible
Oh see, first off you gotta realize - everything for me is a reconstruction or deconstruction. I would actually say deconstruction. Mission: Impossible would be the exception. That would be a reconstruction- deconstruction.
missing-you tone film
In Tim's films, more than most, if you miss the tone, you don't get the film.
hate writing feel-good
You have to write a good score that you feel good about. At least, you're supposed to. But, if the director hates it, it ain't going to be in the movie!
independent thinking play
I think that there's a lot more freedom in the low budget, the independent films where, unfortunately, you don't have the money, necessarily, to get the orchestras in there to play a lot of stuff. But, you have a lot more freedom, very often.
writing symphony desire
I don't see myself necessarily having a burning desire to write a symphony.
guy patterns laying-down
Or certainly I would need time - which I would love to have but there almost never is on a film - to just spend a week with a roomful of guys laying down these patterns.
care should happens
Nothing bad ever happens, why should I care?
wall moving ideas
It often feels like a tremendous amount of work is required to get an idea moving forward, like pushing a train uphill. But at a certain point, the thing takes on its own momentum, and takes unexpected turns. So it's that feeling of holding on, rather than pushing it, that is the most exciting thing. It's that need to occasionally bounce off the walls, letting anything happen for any reason, and having nothing to guide you that is the joy.
feelings path kind
You hear the beginning of a melody, you should kind of know it's going to lead down this path. It should start feeling like a friend, like familiar.