'Psycho' Elfman vows return to pop
JUNE 10 - Danny Elfman, former frontman of Oingo Boingo, has reinvented himself as one of the world's most in-demand soundtrack composers, with themes and scores for such wide-ranging films as Flubber, Dick Tracy, To Die For, Mission Impossible, and the recently released adaptation of the score to Psycho (with Steve Bartek) on his resume.
"I've reinvented myself as a bum, really, and I've done it quite well," Elfman quipped. "No, the soundtrack work is fun, trying to match sounds with images, and it keeps me quite busy," he told LAUNCH at the recent Los Angeles premiere of Instinct, his most recent scoring project.
There is obviously no rest for the wickedly talented Elfman. He was scheduled to start writing music for Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, his morbid take on Washington Irving's tale of Ichabod Crane & the Headless Horseman. The film, which marks Elfman's eighth collaboration with Burton, follows the likes of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, and Edward Scissorhands and is expected in theaters in late '99 from Paramount Pictures. It stars Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Caspar Van Dien, and Christopher Walken. "I like working with [Burton]," Elfman explained. "Why would I do eight films with him if he bugged the crap out of me or I didn't find his work fascinating? I look forward to any chance for collaboration with Tim. It will be the most fun I have in the course of this year."
This week's new CDs Elfman admits to missing his pop side, which is responsible for such '80s party tunes as "Weird Science" and "Dead Man's Party," and promises fans he will be revisiting that arena soon. "You can't compare [scoring and performing pop music] really.
They are two different beasts. I liked life better when I was doing both and I split my year 50/ 50, which I did until three years ago," he says. "I'm thinking of doing a ballet with a choreographer friend, and have some writing projects in the works. I have such a long to-do
list that it's maddening, but somewhere on that list is doing my own recording stuff. I hope to get back to pop alternative music by the end of the year."