STACK #200 Jun 2021

MUSIC FEATURE

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INTERVIEW

DANNY ELFMAN

The decorated composer-singer-songwriter is as delightfully playful in conversation as his new album is dark and weird – but this is the wonderful dichotomy of Danny Elfman's metaphysical, metaphorical world. He spoke to us about fresh solo record Big Mess . Words Zoë Radas

H ow's this for a daydream: You're Last night you saw Charli XCX and Run The Jewels; tomorrow night is FKA Twigs and Frank Ocean. But tonight, ladies and gentlemen, Valley-deep at Coachella, hipflask in your combat boot, feather boa flying.

on a pike.) “It was going to be really wild; I had a whole year of shows ahead of me, two world premiere commissions, Elfman-Burton shows... and then everything was cancelled,” he says. “It was a rough time on so many levels. Politically, America was becoming

record of the man's first new solo material in 37 years. It's a sharp-as-a-witch's-toenail affair of industrial prog, metal and electronica, but a defining thread is the chopped up, repeated snippets of lyrics which permeate Elfman's best lines (“The world's an oyster on an appetizer plate,” from Happy ; “Kick me, I'm a celebrity/ I'm a relatable guy/ Treat me like a scumbag/ Love me!”, from Kick Me ), delivered with his ominous-then-impish croon. “I've always been into rhythmic chanting,” Elfman smiles. “The only actual music I've ever studied in my life was from Bali and Java. I went to CalArts as a 'not' student – you'll never find me in the records there! – but nonetheless I showed up for three years and studied [Indonesian gong and tuned metallic percussion orchestra] Gamelan, and part of that was the Balinese chanting. I do love working with syllables and rhythm...” ZKR

the artist you're looking forward to seeing will present... well, you're

this opium palace that I didn't recognise... It was impossible on top of impossible, and I got really depressed.” The musician went to his house outside of LA in the Californian countryside – the

not actually sure. Will it be a melange of Jack Skellington, Edward Scissorhands , and Beetlejuice chorales, as

America was becoming this opium palace I didn't recognise

patchworked as Sally's own skin? Perhaps some Oingo Boingo faves, Weird Science and all, interspersed with symphonic interludes? Or, more likely, something way off the charts and impossible to predict? “I'd put three months of energy into finally coming up with the live show,” Elfman says from his home in LA, over Zoom. (Behind him are charcoal artworks and a row of tall glass bell-jars; inside each sits a babydoll's head

landscape of which he affectionately compares to rural Adelaide – and, to

get out of his “funk”, started writing. Once he'd begun, it was like opening a “Pandora's Box”; Elfman attests he hadn't realised the “rage” that was inside of him. Out poured Big Mess , this month's absolutely astonishing

Big Mess by Danny Elfman is out June 11 via ANTI-.

Read the full interview online at stack.com.au

JUNE 2021

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