Danny Elfman has a special relationship with Salt Lake City, dating back to the 1980s and ’90s. After 30+ years of being away from the Beehive state, he’s made a comeback, and what better place than the Salt Lake City FanX Convention?
Elfman graced a sea of raging fans in costumes and T-shirts paying tribute to his illustrious career on Friday afternoon. And a long career only called for long-winded answers.
He’s the Halloween guy
“I think it’s because I look like a pumpkin,” Elfman said.
Elfman has been a theatrical performer, rock musician, and film score composer, and is still a working musician at the prime age of 72. “I’m surprised I’m not in a nursing home,” he said. Working on his 110th film score, he added that he’s grateful for the opportunity to continue to create, and he promised that it’s not going to end here.
Elfman was a “monster kid” inspired by old horror films, monster comics and magazines and the spook-tacular holiday: Halloween. There are several homages to old horror in his composition, but it was the introduction to classical music in high school and film scores growing up that influenced his career. He began working in a theatrical troupe in the 1970s, performing on the street wherever they could, which introduced him to the sounds of Ska and punk rock. This later led him to the creation of Oingo Boingo, one of the highest-selling bands of their time. It was from his time with Oingo Boingo that he got noticed as a composer by producers and directors like Tim Burton.
Since his first film with Burton in the 1980s, Elfman has stayed true to his musicianship and instinct, which likely is what has kept him in the business for so long. Though he hadn’t had any musical education beforehand, all he had was a passion for film scores and classical horror. When he received the job to work with Burton, he described himself as a fan who got the opportunity to perform what they had been fawning over for years. And now, fans all over the globe fawn over him.
A career of snakes, screams and strings
Elfman has worked on films such as “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Edward Scissorhands,” “Batman,” “Good Will Hunting,” “Corpse Bride,” “Alice in Wonderland,” and many others. “Choosing a favorite score is like choosing a favorite child,” he said. Early in his career, he was able to follow his instinct and guide his own direction of composition. Though this headstrong-ness almost broke his career, producers couldn’t get enough of his authenticity. That’s what makes each film score so identifiable. It’s completely his own, coming from a place of honesty and pure Elfman magic.
Elfman performs in concert every year, whether it’s his own project, “Elfman and Burton” or “Nightmare Before Christmas”; each one has proved time and time again that he is the King of Halloween. His fanbase has only grown, and because of this, 2019 was going to be his biggest year, bringing his act to more cities and touring nonstop throughout the year. Although COVID had other plans and put a pause on all production, that didn’t stop him. In fact, it encouraged him to start writing again.
“It opened up that Pandora’s Box, and you couldn’t shut me up,” Elfman said.
He said he’s written so much since then that he has enough content to release three albums within the year. Recording has already begun, and he plans to release one album, if not all three, next year. At the end of his panel, he said that he would be back in Salt Lake City next year, no matter what it is that may bring him.
