Danny Elfman

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Daniel Robert Elfman (born May 29, 1953 in Los Angeles, California) is an American singer-songwriter who led the rock band Oingo Boingo from 1978 until its breakup in 1995, and has since gone on to become one of the most sought-after composers working in Hollywood today.

Contents 1 Early career 2 Danny Elfman and Tim Burton 3 Selected Filmography 4 Trivia 5 Musical Influences 6 Selected Awards and Nominations 7 Notes 8 External links

[edit] Early career

Danny grew up in a racially mixed community in the Baldwin Hills of Los Angeles, where he was known as 'the whitest white kid'^[1]. He spent much of his time in the local theatre, adoring the music of such idols as Bernard Hermann and Franz Waxman. After dropping out of high school, he followed his brother to France, where he played his violin on the street and later teamed up with his big brother to perform with Le Grand Magic Circus, an avant-garde musical theatrical group. After living for a while in France, Danny moved on to a new setting: Africa. He travelled through Ghana, Mali and Upper Volta, learning about many different styles of music and also how to play different instruments. One such musical style he learned of was called Highlife, which was a great influence on him in years to come. He caught malaria during his one-year stay and was often sick. During this period he often failed to communicate with his friends and relations in America. Eventually Elfman returned home to the US, where his brother Rick was forming a new musical group called The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo. The group was to provide the music for his first feature-film, Forbidden Zone. Danny agreed to compose the score for the film, and also acted in the role of Satan. The movie was a cult hit, as was Danny. The Mystic Knights went on to shorten the name to Oingo Boingo in 1978, and began touring the country and releasing albums along the way.

[edit] Danny Elfman and Tim Burton

In 1985, Danny Elfman met director Tim Burton, who, as a student, had gone to clubs to see Oingo Boingo and was delighted to have him come on board to write the score for his first feature film, Pee-wee's Big Adventure. Lack of formal musical training was cause for a little apprehension, but he has described the first time he heard his music played by a full orchestra as one of the most thrilling experiences of his life. From that moment on, he was "hooked" on film scoring. He has spoken of the affinity he developed right away with Burton, and indeed he has gone on to score all but one of his films. To date these include:

• Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985) – his first orchestral score
• Beetlejuice (1988)
• Batman (1989) – his first large-scale, full-blown action score. One of his signature scores
• Edward Scissorhands (1990) – his personal favorite of his scores
• Batman Returns (1992) – including the song Face To Face, co-written with Siouxsie and the Banshees
• The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) - in which he also sang as the lead character's singing voice (Jack Skellington) as well as a supporting role (Barrel, one of Oogie Boogie's three henchmen).
• Mars Attacks! (1996)
• Sleepy Hollow (1999)
• Planet of the Apes (2001)
• Big Fish (2003)
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
• Corpse Bride (2005) - lends his voice acting talents again for Bonejangles.

Burton has said of Elfman: "We don’t even have to talk about the music. We don’t even have to intellectualize – which is good for both of us, we’re both similar that way. We’re very lucky to connect" (Breskin, 1997).

[edit] Selected Filmography

In addition to his work with Tim Burton, Danny Elfman has written scores for dozens of other films including:

• Forbidden Zone (Richard Elfman, 1980)
• Back to School, (Alan Metter, 1986)
• Big Top Pee-wee (Randal Kleiser, 1988)
• Midnight Run (Martin Brest, 1988)
• Scrooged (Richard Donner, 1988)
• Darkman (Sam Raimi, 1990)
• Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty, 1990)
• Nightbreed (Clive Barker, 1990)
• Sommersby (Jon Amiel, 1993)
• Black Beauty (Caroline Thompson, 1994)
• Dolores Claiborne (Taylor Hackford, 1995)
• Dead Presidents (Hughes Brothers, 1995)
• To Die For (Gus Van Sant, 1995)
• The Frighteners (Peter Jackson, 1996)
• Freeway (Matthew Bright, 1996)
• Good Will Hunting (Gus Van Sant, 1997)
• Men In Black (Barry Sonnenfeld, 1997)
• A Simple Plan (Sam Raimi, 1998)
• Proof of Life (Taylor Hackford, 1999)
• Chicago (Rob Marshall, 2002) (The instrumental pieces "After Midnight" and "Roxie's Suite")
• Spider-Man (Sam Raimi, 2002)
• Red Dragon (Brett Ratner, 2002)
• Hulk (Ang Lee, 2003)
• Spider-Man 2 (Sam Raimi, 2004)
• Charlotte's Web (Gary Winick, 2006)
• Spider-Man 3 (Sam Raimi, 2007) (with Christopher Young)

He has also written the theme music for several television series, including:

• Pee-wee's Playhouse (some episodes) (1986)
• Sledge Hammer! (1986)
• The Simpsons (1989)
• Tales from the Crypt (1989)
• The Flash (1990)
• Dilbert (1999)
• Desperate Housewives (2004)
• Point Pleasant (2005)

As well as composing, Elfman provided the singing voices of Jack Skellington and Barrel in The Nightmare Before Christmas, the Oompa Loompas in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Bonejangles in Corpse Bride.

[edit] Trivia

• In the Rodney Dangerfield vehicle Back To School (1986), Elfman makes a cameo appearance as himself with his band Oingo Boingo performing their song "Dead Man's Party" at Thornton Melon's dorm party.
• Elfman conceived the iconic score for Batman (1989) on a plane, as he was returning from the London set. In a 2006 interview with KCRW's The Business (8:08 into the track), he explained that he could hear the score in his head as clearly as if it was in the cinema, and being concerned the plane's arrival music would erase the memory, he kept visiting the toilet to hum the arrangement into a tape recorder. Although the subsequent recording was dominated by the jet noise, he was nevertheless able, after enough playbacks, to reconstruct the Batman score.
• In November 2003 Elfman wed Bridget Fonda in Los Angeles' First Congregational Church. They first met on the set of the 1998 film A Simple Plan. They have one son, Oliver, born in January, 2005.
• Although Christopher Young scored the film, Elfman has a brief cameo in Sam Raimi's The Gift as a backwoods fiddler in a dream sequence.
• Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer have scored for movies in the same franchises, Batman and the Hannibal Lecter series. Elfman composed Red Dragon and Zimmer composed Hannibal, and for Batman Elfman composed Batman and Batman Returns, while Zimmer composed for Batman Begins. Danny Elfman has also done the main theme for The Simpsons, while Zimmer will compose music for The Simpsons Movie, the film based on the series.
• Danny is the uncle (through marriage) of actress Jenna Elfman.
• Elfman's work has not only been demonstrated on film and TV. He also contributed the main theme music for the video game Fable and a standalone symphonic work, "Serenada Schizophrana."
• Elfman once hired a famous Romanian brass band, Fanfare Ciocarlia, to play at his birthday.
• In the Simpsons episode, Smart and Smarter, Simon Cowell comments on him (in the end credits), "Yes, but what's he done lately?"
• In december 2006, the song "What's this?" from "Nightmare Before Christmas" was covered by artists Michael Franti, Gabriel Rios and Flip Kowlier. This collaboration came to be because of a charity-event by Belgium radiostation Studio Brussel. The single could be bought at a low price, and the entire profit was donated to the Red Cross to support their campaign for the victims of landmines, under the motto "Music for Life".

[edit] Musical Influences

Danny Elfman’s film scores can be described at times as dark and brooding, other times as lush and romantic, other times still as wild and manic, reflecting the many composers and styles which have influenced him over the years.

He recalls that the first time he became aware of film music was in his youth during a screening of The Day the Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise, 1951). The music was by Bernard Herrmann, and that, he has said, was where his love of film music began (Russell and Young, 2000). The most obvious and self-consciously Herrmannesque influence can be heard in his music for the sci-fi spoof, Mars Attacks!.

Other film composers have also proven to be influential, such as Nino Rota and Erich Wolfgang Korngold, the former in his playful music for Pee-wee's Big Adventure, the latter in his much grander work in Batman. Sometimes his music has a distinctly Eastern European feel, inspired by the likes of Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky’s ballet music, while his love of choral music by the likes of Mozart and Carl Orff has resulted in his frequent use of choirs – one of his signature devices. Then there are the jazz and rock influences from his earlier career, most evident in films such as Chicago and To Die For respectively.

Rather than merely emulate these musical influences, however, he has combined aspects of them all with his unique brand of wit and grandeur and managed to create a recognisable style all of his own, in the process producing a body of work as distinctive as any of his film composer contemporaries.

[edit] Selected Awards and Nominations

• Academy Awards
  • Nominated for Best Original Dramatic Score: Good Will Hunting (1997)
  • Nominated for Best Original Musical or Comedy Score: Men In Black (1997)
  • Nominated for Best Original Score: Big Fish (2003)

• BAFTA Awards
  • Nominated for Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music: Chicago (2002)

• Emmy Awards
  • Nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Main Title Theme Music: The Simpsons (1989)
  • WINNER: Outstanding Achievement in Main Title Theme Music: Desperate Housewives (2004)

• Golden Globes
  • Nominated for Best Original Score: The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
  • Nominated for Best Original Score: Big Fish (2003)

• Grammy Awards
  • WINNER: Best Instrumental Composition: The Batman Theme from Batman (1989)
  • Nominated for Best Album of Original Instrumental Background Score for a Motion Picture: Batman (1989)
  • Nominated for Best Instrumental Composition for a Motion Picture: Dick Tracy (1990)
  • Nominated for Best Instrumental Composition for a Motion Picture: Edward Scissorhands (1990)
  • Nominated for Best Musical Album for Children: The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
  • Nominated for Best Instrumental Composition for a Motion Picture: Men In Black (1997)
  • Nominated for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture: Planet of the Apes (2001)
  • Nominated for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture: Spider-Man (2002)
  • Nominated for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture: Big Fish (2003)
  • Nominated for Best Song for a Motion Picture: "Wonka’s Welcome Song" from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)

[edit] Notes

1. ^ [1]

[edit] External links

• Danny Elfman at the Internet Movie Database
• Danny Elfman at the All Music Guide
• Danny Elfman at Discogs
• Danny Elfman at MusicBrainz
• Official Serenada Schizophrana site
• Filmtracks Danny Elfman Tribute
• Danny Elfman Buyer's Guide
• SoundtrackNet entry for Danny Elfman
• Danny Elfman's Music For A Darkened People
• Batman Cinema: Bat-Composers and pop artists - Danny Elfman
• Beyond Insanity- A Danny Elfman and Oingo Boingo website
• The official Oingo Boingo website
• A Danny Elfman Biography
• Danny Elfman podcast interviewfrom Synthesis (magazine)