Danny Elfman
Whether you know it or not, chances are you’re more familiar with Danny Elfman’s work than that of any other modern composer. He created the theme to “The Simpsons,” along with the scores for nearly a hundred major films, including “Spider-Man,” “Men in Black” and just about everything Tim Burton has done. He sat down with Charlotte Rea at Hong Kong Disneyland to show off the piece he composed for the park’s newest attraction—Mystic Manor.
HK Magazine: You can now check off “roller coasters” from your composer’s bucket list. What’s tricky about scoring a ride, as opposed to a film?
Danny Elfman: Well, I knew that everything was going to have to be timed out in a unique way. In movies, you might have a number of different scenes, but [for the ride] it had to be compressed. There isn’t one car moving people from beginning to end—there are four. That meant that some things could be synchronized exactly to the action, but others couldn’t and would be played on loops through the rooms. It was really quite a puzzle in terms of putting it all together, but that’s what made it fun.
HK: You’ve written so many iconic scores over a lengthy career. How do you keep your work sounding fresh?
DE: I never know if it’s going to be fresh or not. No matter what I’m working on, be it Mystic Manor or “Batman,” it’s still the same process. It’s like you’re lowering a bucket into a black well and you don’t know when or if you’re going to hear the sound of water. You might have to lower and lower it and you may think, “My God, this is a dry well—it’s never going to happen.” Then you listen for that distant splash of an idea. Sometimes you just drop it in and there it is! But it’s always black: you don’t know if it’s three feet or 700 feet down.
HK: Have you ever found exactly the sound you’re looking for right away?
DE: “The Simpsons” theme was a big surprise. I spent all of one day on that one.
HK: No way. Really?
DE: Yeah! That doesn’t happen very often. Usually you’ve got to work up about a million ideas first. But with “The Simpsons,” I saw one rough copy of it, wrote it in my head on the way home, and by the time I got home it was already done. End of story. And with Mystic Manor, after the very first thing I wrote, I thought, “Ok, so we’ll start a conversation” and sent it to them. They said, “Nope! That’s it.” It happens occasionally.
HK: You’ve said that you don’t listen to your scores after you write them, but can you recall which pieces you had the most fun writing?
DE: The most fun was probably the early stuff when I didn’t care what anybody thought, like “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure” and “Beetlejuice.” I didn’t really take it seriously in terms of “This is my career,” but looked at it like a side job. I didn’t even care if I got hired again! Occasionally, I work on something where I still feel like it’s just pure, silly fun and I shouldn’t be getting paid for it. “Oz the Great and Powerful” was like that, and sometimes Tim Burton’s movies are like that, even though they can be a lot of work. When it happens, it happens.
HK: Is this your first time in Hong Kong?
DE: No, this is my third time. I was here two years ago when there was nothing but foundation [at Mystic Manor], and again a month ago working every day in the rooms, mixing and putting together the sounds. That was fun.
