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
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.
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.
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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.
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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.
american-musician david directors films nail quite similar tone trying
You have to nail the right tone because sometimes when you just see his films cold, you're not quite sure. It's the same in - I'm trying to think of other directors with a similar sense - David Lynch's films, Tim's films, some of Cronenberg's stuff.
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What Brian laid out was something that felt really uneasy and bordering on feeling like I was on a boat or something. So I went with that feeling.
fun tim
At the end of the day, Tim said, 'Look, can you just do this vocal?' I did not write it for myself, but did in the end, do it because Tim wanted me to, ... It was a fun part.
hope people process quite realize sets talking using
The whole process we're talking about is quite easy, ... I just hope people realize this was done using real sets and real lights.
american-musician composer drive
Sometimes you get real close, sometimes you don't. Sometimes they drive you crazy. I think every composer does that. That's a big part of the job.
came education music tons watching
My education in film music came from watching tons of films,
coached singing sings spider
I coached her through her singing debut, and she did great, ... And, she sings with a spider and worm.
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But, when it comes to all the other little instruments, of which there's a lot in the stuff I've done the last couple of years, I do it all myself.
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.