How Danny Elfman Became The Pumpkin King

When Danny Elfman took the stage at Coachella back in 2022, backed by an all-star rock band and orchestra, he was surprisingly nervous. "When I walked out on that stage at Coachella with this show, I thought I was walking onto my own firing squad," he tells Los Angeles by Zoom. "You know, like a firing squad of my own creation— that's what I was expecting. First off, Coachella is not my audience. And [I was] mixing, like, "Dead Man's Party" with "Batman"  next to "I'm So Sorry," from Big Mess. It was like, this doesn't make any sense. They're not going to know what's going on. This was the worst idea ever."

Turned out it was the best idea ever. Though he was one of the few legacy acts on the bill, Elfman's Coachella performance was widely regarded as one of the best of that year's fest. It provided a new kind of exposure for the musician who had been largely working behind the scenes as a film scorer and composer since he left 80s new wave favorites Oingo Boingo in 1995— and it proved that he was still a dynamic performer in concert. 

This Saturday, Elfman brings the same amalgamation of live music to the Hollywood Bowl, and as he tells us, the show will be equally all over the place. Of course there will be a hefty dose of his film music, mostly with Tim Burton: Alice in Wonderland, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, Wednesday, and The Nightmare Before Christmas, the latter of which is the most recognizable in terms of his vocal work. Jack Skellington aka "The Pumpkin King" has become such a part of pop culture, especially for those of us obsessed with Halloween, that some might forget it's Elfman who gives him a voice. And what a majestic voice it is.

The musician says that while he doesn't chose favorites in terms of his work, singing as Skellington is something he truly loves doing. "Obviously I have a special affinity for Nightmare Before Christmas, because that's the one I'm actually performing on," he explains. "You know, on a piece like Edward Scissorhands or Batman, I'm just there, but I'm not actually performing. So I'm doing some bits from Nightmare in this show, as well as other stuff. It's just a really weird mash up of old and new, and film."

Elfman met his longtime collaborator Burton in 1985 on the set of Pee Wee's Big Adventure. "He'd been to some shows and Paul Reubens had heard the music I'd done for this weird midnight cult film from my brother called Forbidden Zone, so he wrote my name down. And he said, 'Whoever this guy is, if I ever do a movie, I want him to do the music.' So between Tim and Paul, my name came up. And honestly, when I met Tim, I said, 'Why me? I don't know how to do this.' And he was like, 'I don't know. I think you could.' So I just decided I'll give it a whack. But I hadn't planned on it at all. I hadn't sought it out. In fact, when I met with him the first time, I assumed he was looking for a song. I didn't even think he wanted a score. It all came as kind of as a surprise to me and kind of worked out."

Another thing the visionary duo had in common —and still do— was their local backgrounds. Burton is from Burbank, Elfman from Baldwin Hills.  "I'm a lifelong Angeleno... I've never lived anywhere else," he says. "Tim and I connected over the fact that both of us were born and raised in Los Angeles. So we had monsters and Los Angeles in common."

Asked about the pair's creative process, Elfman says he's a "true master of indecision" so he always plays the filmmaker "two or three ideas." Over a period of time, he hones in on the director's psyche as well as the film or project's tone and narrative. "And that's something you only find through experimenting," he adds. "So we're just used to it, you know? It hasn't really changed much over 38 years. He shows me a picture, I write a bunch of music, and then we talk it down, and I'll see what he's gravitating towards."

Burton's best known projects are of course, macabre in nature, something Elfman says he's always gravitated towards himself. "Halloween was always my favorite holiday," he shares. "I was one of those kids that got really depressed around Christmas time but really loved Halloween. Those were like the two extremes for me.. Halloween was just little kids having great fun, and abandonment and being something else."

In the same spirit of his cinematic work and Oingo Boingo's long held connections to Halloween (much like The Cramps back in the day, his former band's Hallows Eve shows were a local tradition), Elfman recently decided to release a surprise single on Oct. 31st. Titled “Monkeys on the Loose” the new track was produced by Nick Launay (The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, BRMC, Amyl and the Sniffers). Check it out above. 

Expect to hear the wildly rhythmic new track at the Bowl show alongside Boingo faves, Elfman's solo material, his music from The Simpsons and Spiderman, and his Burton gems including the just released score for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), which follows up on his iconic score for the original Beetlejuice from more than 30 years ago.

Danny Elfman plays the Hollywood Bowl, Sat., Nov. 2, HollywoodBowl.com