Danny Elfman is used to being in the public eye, but usually as a different character.
LISTEN: Danny Elfman speaks with Megan Holiday live from Coachella
The iconic composer/songwriter/singer/jack-of-all-musical-trades joined KROQ's Megan Holiday live from Coachella where fans had the rare opportunity to catch a set from the artist performing as himself, Danny Elfman.
“It’s very surreal,” Elfman says of performing as a solo artist. “I haven’t come out on a stage as me in almost 28 years. That’s a long pause. I’ve done Jack Skellington, but Jack Skellington’s Jack Skellington and so it’s kind of an interesting feeling. It’s like, ‘oh my god, I’m just me tonight.’”
“We put so much work into this crazy show,” Elfman added. He was originally scheduled to be a part of the 2020 lineup, but alas that never happened due to COVID-19. “Putting it together was a ton of work so just as we were getting close, of course, it imploded,” he said. “But it all worked out because I did an album because I didn’t know what to do with myself.”
Listen to music from Coachella artists on Audacy’s Festival Favorites
Elfman’s 2021 album Big Mess marked his first solo record since 1984 and was something that was made purely out of the circumstances of current events. “I didn’t want to,” Elfman said of his decision to make the album, “it just happened.”
He began work on the record in April 2020 when not everything had been canceled yet, “but we all knew everything would,” he said. “I was just so frustrated and I started writing songs,” he added. “Once I opened that Pandora’s box it’s like, ‘OK this isn’t going to stop.’”
Elfman’s live show features several musicians who appeared on his album as part of his backing band. One musician that was not on the album, but will be playing with him at Coachella is none other than Wes Borland from Limp Bizkit. “Wes has just been great,” Elfman said. Amazingly, Elfman said he didn’t know Borland before they began working together for the Coachella set.
Throughout his career, Elfman has written music for numerous landmark films in his career including Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Spider-Man, Men In Black, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and plenty more. He also penned the iconic theme song for The Simpsons, which he provided the backstory for how he came up with it.
“I came out of the meeting with [Simpsons creator] Matt Groening and I got in the car and the whole thing just came out before I got home,” he tells Holiday. “I had to run down to my studio before I forgot it. [I] wouldn’t talk to anybody, like ‘wait a minute I gotta get this thing done!’”
Speaking on his history with KROQ, Elfman credits a particular DJ for putting Oingo Boingo on the map - and it wasn't the notorious groundbreaking DJ 'Rodney On The Roq' Bingenheimer. "It was Jed The Fish," says Elfman. "Before we had any released album - it was a 4-song EP that we pressed ourselves and made 100 copes of - Jed somehow got a copy and started playing it, and we really owe everything to that."
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