Composer, solo artist, and Oingo Boingo frontman Danny Elfman joined the Gary Bryan Morning Show in Los Angeles, sharing some background on the incredible way he managed to break into the movie soundtrack business, what fans can expect at his upcoming Hollywood Bowl shows happening over the Halloween weekend, and more.
LISTEN NOW: Danny Elfman on film scoring and upcoming live shows
Danny Elfman made his triumphant live return over the summer with a massive set of shows in the Indio desert featuring music from 2021's Big Mess, his first solo record since 1984, as well as throwback Oingo Boingo tracks, and quite a few awesome surprises.
Perhaps best known for his beloved soundtrack compositions, most notably with the weirdly wonderful Tim Burton on the Disney classic The Nightmare Before Christmas, Danny shared the story of how he was drawn into that world almost by chance. As a fan of horror classics as a kid, Danny's musical taste had grown to prefer theatrics early on. "Weirdly, my first musical love was film music. I became kind of a nerdy film guy when I was about 12 or 13," Danny explains. "Really, movies were kind of the center of my life; I didn't pick up my first instrument to play until I was 18."
Working with his brother Richard on the '70s art project The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo helped hone Danny's musical chops. "I taught myself to write music in those days," he says. "We did a lot of real early 1933 Big Band Jazz arrangements... But then around the late-'70s, I heard Ska from England, and I suddenly woke up one day and said, 'I wanna be in a Ska band. It was just that crazy... I was inspired by The Specials and Madness, and The Selecter and these bands coming out of England -- and a rock band called XTC right around that same period. Suddenly, that's what I wanted to do."
Elfman says he also owes his transition from band member to film scoring to the Mystic Knights. "My brother did a weird late-night cult movie just at the end of the Mystic Knights, before Oingo Boingo started, called 'Forbidden Zone,' which he had provided the music for," he explains. By chance, Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman) had seen the movie and made note of Danny's name for future projects, one of which would be Pee Wee's Big Adventure with director Tim Burton. "I just got hired out of the blue," he says. "I felt like a fan getting pulled into the game. Like, literally, a Lakers fan who's sitting on the court that's thrown the ball like, 'Here, get on the court!' That's what it was like."
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This Halloween, Elfman has a special set of shows planned for fans at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, dubbed a "special Coachella-Plus concert," that promises to be "insane." Interestingly enough, Danny thought longtime fans of his were going to hate his Coachella 2022 performance. "I thought it was going to be the biggest disaster of my life, literally, just before we actually did it" he admits, "because I'm mixing up equal parts old music, new music, and film music in a way that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever because my life makes no sense whatsoever! I was pretty amazed that they weren't throwing tomatoes at me."
"I guess it went over well because here we are doing it enhanced," he says of the upcoming Halloween weekend shows. "I'm hoping if somebody was at Coachella, there's so much new material they're still going to be excited. But I really hope people who saw it online come down to the show, because it's just so much better live with the visuals that I've worked really, really hard to create."
Be sure to check out the full interview above with Danny Elfman, and stay tuned for more conversations with your favorite artists right here on Audacy.
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