STACK #196 Feb 2021

FEATURE MUSIC

says. “He gets it from his family – his dad is Dave Davies of The Kinks. So we started down the road, and Daniel got onto the computer and its possibilities. Then when my son came back, well, he’s a virtuoso on the keyboard. He has his function, and we all mesh pretty well.” One theoretical thing Carpenter does enjoy discussing is the unexpected use of major chords in these tracks – major being that ‘happy’ sound, as opposed to a minor’s ‘sad’ sound. The wonderfully creepy-but- poignant Dead Eyes – with spectral female chorals, a tinkling harpsichord melody and a synth-stringed bassline which sounds like wind through a redwood forest – contains a middle section of lilting major chords which instantly lifts the song’s journey into this hopeful territory (the victim tells the killer she understands his sad history! There seems to be empathy between them – maybe the bloodbath is over!) before sinking back into macabre reality (the killer’s nature takes over his humanity; his eyes turn black, and it’s curtains for our poor victim). “Yes, very good, hope – and to change it up for a minute there, and go in a more positive direction,” says Carpenter. “The [song]titles be damned – the music will tell you what movie you’re supposed to start up in your head. It’ll tell you what you’re seeing. A lot of this music is very dark, and it carries you to a very dark place. And I personally am excited by that, because I grew up with horror movies. I was fascinated by darkness – not serious darkness, I don’t want to personally hurt anybody – this is all imagination. So you know, in your imagination, you can afford to go to these places – ‘Take a ride with me.’ The world is bad enough as it is,” he laughs a little sadly. “We might as well have a good time; we might as well go, safely , to a dark place.” If you’re ready to immerse yourself in the Lost Themes world, Carpenter has a suggestion on how to step through the stargate. “I recommend you take the album, and go and sit in the dark, and then put the album on,” he says. “Just let your mind go, and just start imagining. That’s where you’ll have a great time. That’s exactly how to do it.”

LtoR: Daniel, John and Cody

‘Take a ride with me.’ The world is bad enough as it is... We might as well have a good time; we might as well go, safely , to a dark place

Yeah, that’s not exactly how it works.” The tracks are titled to give a loose direction to those scenes in your head – Dripping Blood, Vampire’s Touch, Turning The Bones, The Dead

in the 2005 film War Of The Worlds – scored

by Star Wars, E.T. and Jaws composer John Williams.) Just don’t get too technical when you’re describing these things to Carpenter. “A minor third? You’ll have to tell me the notes – I can’t read music,” he says. “Cody doesn’t read it, none of us read

Walk – but Carpenter says they’re not serious markers: “We just wanted titles that were fun,” he says, “and that’s

it. We fake it!” (He does assent, upon suggestion, that rather than ‘fake’ it, they ‘feel’ it.) The musical relationship between Carpenter and Cody is of course years in the making, but Davies’ inclusion seemed destined. “Cody and I originated [ Lost Themes ],” says Carpenter, “and then Cody went off to Japan. I think it was a girlfriend, I’m not sure. So I had to finish what we had. I asked Daniel to come over and help. I said ‘Daniel, why don’t you play a lead guitar part in here?’” Those wheeling electric guitar lines lend a wildness and humanity to the otherwise electronic compositions. “Daniel’s an incredible lead player,” Carpenter

what it’s about for us – having fun!” And the enjoyment this trio took in crafting Lost Themes III is absolutely present when you listen; though sonically the tracks are dark, they summon all the thrilling terror of the best ‘70s and ‘80s horror films. Closing track Carpathain Darkness uses the creepiest interval in western music theory – a minor third – to wondrous effect, recalling Carpenter’s most famous theme: that of Halloween , also directed by the musician, from 1974. (Fun Fact: the two notes which comprise a minor third are also the sound the gargantuan tripods blast out over the landscape

Halloween (1974)

Escape from NewYork (1981)

Lost Themes III: Alive After Death by John Carpenter is out February 5 via Sacred Bones Records.

TheThing (1982)

Village of the Damned (1995)

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