The Horror Returns - THR - Ep. #78: Music In Horror With Lasse Elkjaer (Re-upload)

Episode Date: May 10, 2022

This week, we are joined by film and television composer Lasse Elkjaer to discuss music in horror.Thanks for listening! The Horror Returns Website: https://thehorrorreturns.com THR Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thehorrorreturns THR Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thehorrorreturns/ Join THR Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1056143707851246 THR Twitter: https://twitter.com/horror_returns?s=21&t=XKcrrOBZ7mzjwJY0ZJWrGA THR Instagram: https://instagram.com/thehorrorreturns?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= SK8ER Nez Podcast Network: https://www.podbean.com/pu/pbblog-p3n57-c4166 ESP Anchor Feed: https://anchor.fm/mac-nez E Society YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UCliC6x_a7p3kTV_0LC4S10A Music By: Steve Carleton Of The Geekz

victims. For those of you delight and dread, who fantasize about fear, who glorify gore, welcome. You have found the place where the horror returns. Listeners beware. This podcast contains major plot spoilers and the foulest of language. Join us in celebrating the old and the new, the best, and the worst in horror. Thanks, listeners, you have once again found the horror returns. And for all of you who delight in dread, fantasize about fear and glorify gore, welcome home.

This is the podcast that proves the horror never ends. As with every episode, be aware that from time to time we may use some four-letter words. So the sky's the limit, Lassie. Horror movies tend to be R-rated, so you can pretty much expect us to be too. I'm Lance, and with me, as always, are my co-host, Philip and Brian. And this week, we bring you guys a really special episode featuring the role of music and horror. movies. And we are joined by very special guest Lace El-Qier, multi-talented, hopefully I was close. Yeah.

Multi-talented composer and arranger for television and film. Lassie, welcome to the show, and thank you for joining us, friend. Yeah, man, no problem. It's great to be here. And yes, my name is Lassie El-Kier, very hard to pronounce. but you did good. Well, we'll jump right in, man. What got you into music in the first place? Were you always interested in working in the movies, or did you start out with different intentions?

For example, to be a rock star. So, as a teenager, I definitely wanted to be a rock star. I was a huge, like Gunnarrow's fan. I just wanted to be a slash. but as a kid I was pretty obsessed about movies and that was kind of the problem because I just wanted to watch movies all the time

and I didn't know why and it wasn't like one movie a day like two or three movies and I don't think my parents really appreciated that so much I thought it was like a minor problem and in school that was the thing I was talking about but I didn't know what it was it was first later on that I found out that it was

film music. But how I got into music was that there was a violin player that visited our school, a Danish violin player that was pretty big, or not pretty big, he was like a legendary violin player in Denmark. And he just like played on the violin and showed all these exciting effects. And something happened in my brain. So I went home to my parents and said, I need to play this instrument and I wasn't very old. And they were like a bit confused because I was into sports at that time. Like I grew up on gymnastics and became a competition. I did competition gymnastics and so on as a teenager.

So they were like, what the fuck is going on here? We got like a kid that's into art. That's like weird. But I got involved in the local music school. and started to do classical violin and piano, and later on picked up guitar, and I learned that I was way better at the guitar. So I kind of like shelved the violin later on

and tried to get it going as a guitarist, but then I reached a milestone with the guitar where it got accepted to a pre-conspiratory education thing that took like three years. After the first year, I burned out because I was like, should my life only be guitar? And what about like all this other music that I didn't really know much about because that was film music? I only know about classical music, but that was like above my head in some kind of way. So I asked to get classical composition and arrangement orchestration at my second year at that pre-conservatory.

and all of a sudden I began to get a lot of gigs of doing arrangement, orchestration, conducting while I was playing in rock and metal bands at that time and then yeah so when I was done with that education I decided not to proceed like an education studying guitar because my goal was to enter the concerted and guitar.

But I was like five or six more years of studying guitar. Wow, that's super intense. Yeah, but that's how it is, and that's how I wanted it. But it was just too much. So I started just like freelancing right away with music.

And then the turning point for it all where I really became aware of film music in my, I think it was like 20 or 21. I went to the library and picked up this red book with a lot of interviews with Hollywood film composers like Christopher Young that I'm not working with. Daniel Fman, Jerry Goldsmith, Edelma Bernstein and so on. And I could relate to what they were talking about. I think I had a hard time relating to the rock world in some kind of way. I read interviews and books about Six Pistols, Guns, Roses.

Rolling Stones and so on. There was always something where I was like, I don't know. But with this film music, I could relate to it. And I knew pretty much all the movies. And when I turned the last page, I was like, oh, fuck, this is going to change everything. And I actually said that loud.

And it changed everything. And a year later, I got my first little shitty movie and I scored it. And then it pretty much started where I begin to dial down everything that had to do with being a guitar performer and dialogue, everything that had to do with film music. So, yeah.

Well, it sounds like film music was a huge influence on you. Outside of film, who were your biggest musical influences, or who do you give credit to for really influencing you? Definitely my guitar teacher, which sadly died less. week. Yeah, that was a big one. And he was like not only a big, like huge

influence on me, but like on a lot of guitars from my generation or just musicians from my generation in the music business in Denmark, because he was teaching

full time and I grew up like on the countryside. So all the art-related fuck-ups kids that grew up in that like at that area was taught by

him and and a lot of them like went on to get really good careers as musicians and composers, guitarists and so on so he he just has some

there was just something to him he was awesome and he was French and always had all these like French jokes. So yeah. I think the thing was that he was just a good experience. And I kept coming to his classes.

And I started with him for like 10 or 12 years. So he was a huge influence. But in the film music world, I learned that a guy like Elmer Bernstein had always been around. because in some kind of weird way I was obsessed about the movie The Ten Commandments he scored and maybe it was because it was a long movie

and at some point I was allowed only to watch one movie a day and then I was like okay I'm gonna watch that one because it's like only three hours so yeah but of course like through his other movies also American Werewolf in London and Ghostbusters and so on.

Oh, yeah. So I can understand that he was a huge influence on me and also Jerry Goldsmith of film composers and, of course, Christopher Young. And he, to this day, is a huge influence in me and a good friend of mine. So, so yeah, my guitar teacher and those guys are definitely now, Chris. what was the experience like going from the south danish conservatory to the university of southern california so yeah like what's the difference between demwagon in l.A.? there's a fucking moose difference so like yeah the weather what about the women the women oh man

women are crazy but luckily la women is also crazy so it's always fun. But besides that, yeah, the conservatory, you write like three minutes of music a month, and you see you write three minutes of music at day.

There's a huge difference and you get prepped in two different ways where, of course, like the Hollywood business is on overdrive and it should be. So you see prep you for that workload

and especially prepping you to become an assistant when you're out of university of Southern California, USC because you are able to make a living as an assistant.

Of course the goal is to become a film composer and work on your big Hollywood movies and so on if you want to do that. Of course we want to do that. Whereas at the conservatory, it's more, they prep you. I don't think there's really many assistant opportunities in Denmark.

I was lucky to begin work for my professor, Jakob Kod, who's a very famous Danish film composer. But I started with him at the conservatory and he picked me up as one of his assistants. And so I've been working for him since then on and off. So I was lucky, but you can't really do that in Denmark. So you're not like at the concert or prepped at all for that. It's more about like how can you prep yourself to get a like DIY career in some kind of way because the movies is not big budget. And if you're able to get a big budget movie, you mostly have.

have been around in the business for quite a while. So when you're a student, you do a lot of student projects and smaller features and so on. So you prep yourself with working with smaller ensembles of live musicians and do a lot, really be good at programming. And then, of course, like the North European music language is different compared to the American one because you work a lot with orchestras. And our final assignment is to record at Warner Brothers with a 64-piece orchestra.

And I think, like, at the conservatory, our biggest orchestra or ensemble was maybe six people. So six people compared versus 64 musicians. There's a big distance. But there's like advantages of like being in an like educational institution where

everything is not so big because then you focus is other places. We had more time to focus on like drama, reading the movie and take our time with scoring the scenes where at USC

you get bombarded and you learn to be really fast. So for me it was extremely healthy to make the transition. And the weird thing was that I felt at home at USC right away, no, in L.A. right away. And I come from the countryside of Denmark. Big difference. A big difference, but not at all really.

I think it would be a bigger difference if I grew up in Copenhagen because the mentality there and the push pace, I would say, is maybe more compared to, it's wrong to say in New York, but it's the best I can do.

So L.A. is kind of laid back, but you work your ass off. And it's like being a farmer in Denmark where I grew up, like you work your fucking ass off. And it's laid back. So it's like, in some kind of way, same, same.

That makes sense. Do you have a favorite genre, a movie? a movie or TV show you like to work on? I grew up with horror movies. There you go. Yeah, exactly. I assume you guys also grew up with horror

and had some really good experiences with watching horror movies. And it was kind of like what started everything. And I have to say within the horror category, it's a cult movie slash fantasy. I could easily also say, and fantasy. But I think, like, as a kid, horror movies started something in me. It started, that's where I got my creator spark, watching horror movies,

where I also became aware of special make-up effects. And also, because I've been a big fan of special make-up effects, and I thought that I would like venture into that. I think it was like being into effects or stunts or so on, but it was music that like I fell in love with. But the creative side of me got ignited with horror movies. But so I really like that. But compositional wise, I work a lot with dramas also.

and have a big interest in that, like social, realistic stuff. And I think it's also because it's like a big opposite to horror. And it's like eating a meal. It's good to not eat the same thing all the time. You need to like challenge yourself. And if I've been doing a lot of like drama, social, realistic kind of stuff, I'm always really excited to get into horror. And when I've been doing a lot of horror stuff,

which is mostly multiltered, you've got horror fantasy, you've got horror drama, you've got horror comedy and so on. Of course. Yeah. And that's like the brilliance of horror. And in all of them,

I just like it. There's just something to it. So, yeah. Yeah, I can see what dreams. to Midnight, Texas, if you like the fantasy aspect, and I'm sure you're a big fan of Del Toro, right? Oh, yeah, definitely. Have you guys

seen his latest movie? The Shape of Water? Yep. We'll be seeing it next week. Oh. Is it even out yet? You've probably already seen it. I saw it at a special screening. Ah, you're lucky you. Now, it's a fantastic movie,

and he's making some really interesting decisions. He is really interesting as a filmmaker and especially right now it's it's kind of like i see a change in the business maybe like i don't know what it is yeah there the business is always changing and the styles is always changing but his movie there's something special about it and so it look forward to it very much more yeah yeah i always look forward to his stuff and it's always a little bit different. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly.

I've seen on I and D.B. that you had a little acting experience. You played a zombie in zombie exorcism. Is acting something you want to do more of? So, okay, let me first

say, like, this, with this movie, that's actually in Danish was called like, Upstanzan. it was a good friend of mine that did it and I was like when I got the movie I was like I'm just all in whatever you need me to do I'm going to do it

and he was like oh could you come to the set and like act up as a like a zombie definitely why not he wouldn't yeah

it's just fucking fun and then I hooked up with the make-up guy and actually had a year where I was like doing a lot of events with him and went up in a TV show, like a game show as a zombie. One more did I do with him. We also did a music video where I was a zombie for a rapper, Danish rapper, called Neon. And before I moved to- Wait, wait, wait, wait, what was the Danish rapper's name?

I'm totally looking this up. Okay, neon. Neon? Neon. Yeah. Okay. All right. Typing it in.

All right. Continue. I'm going to look it up later. Right. But before I went to L.A., I just, like, tried to get fundings for, like, everything is fucking expensive here in L.A. Yeah. And it's also expensive. So I took whatever gig I could take.

And I actually got, like, a small acting gig. Because there's, like, this medieval village close to where I lived, where a lot of, like, filmmakers do some shoots and so on and there was like a German documentary that was like doing something they're like yeah filming something there and they needed extras so I was like okay I can do that and I ended up getting a small like a speaking part because that pays more so I said yeah I do that but it was fun I didn't get a sword that was very disappointing oh no Yeah. It was like, there was guys walking around with like, what's it called armor and swords and we're able to find it.

And it's like, I want that candy, give me. It's not fair at all. So do you want to do more acting stuff? I don't think much about it. If something passes by my way, yeah, why not? So. Cool. How closely do you work with the directors to get a feel for what the music should be in neither a movie or a TV show?

I try to like, let me, I can say it all collaboration starts with a conversation. And I think in all it's very important not only to focus on the movie, you should, also be able to, like, sit down and have a beer with the collaborator. It can be a bit hard sometimes because of if you placed in another country and so on. I've been doing, like, how many short movies? 52 short movies? That's a lot. And worked on a lot of features and so on.

But when you have that amount of movies, you can't travel all over the world all the time to sit down and have that. starting conversation. So that's where we appreciate Skype, Facebook, and so on. But to have a conversation with the director and not talk about the movie is a starting point because everything is a puzzle and many times you can find many of the breaks to the puzzles just like through normal conversations. But you just like figure it out by sharing reference music. Many times they attempt the movie also.

And then you just like try out stuff. And if you're not like afraid of scoring the same scene like a couple of times, you can only go in a good direction because I tried with, actually with that zombie movie that me and the director had some really good conversations about the score, but a lot of stuff changed. And so the music I did in the start was tonal, like with melodies and so on,

and he was like, no, that's not it. And he had a hard time, like, figure out what was wrong and so on. But through a conversation, we landed on the movie what the fuck is my notes I think there will be a lot Oh yeah

So it was just like He didn't have the The vocabulary To Like to express what he Wanted Music-wise

But he was able to express it like emotional wise, but the reference music he sent me was more like from his favorite movies and a lot of stuff had total stuff. So we were like off on the wrong foot. And then I don't know how we went. We settled down and there would be blood. But when I did something like that, like grab my violin and begin to do all this weird of things. he was like, yes, we got it. And then, yeah. So like all collaboration starts with the conversations,

and that's what it's all about. Be good at talking with each other and make mistakes and share music and be really good at rescoring some of the scenes. You write to rewrite. That's extremely important. Writing a great song. So I know we talked about a, working on midnight, Texas, and the differences in L.A. and the Danish world.

We heard that the pace for television work in North America is very grueling. How does that affect your creative process? Do you prefer working at that real hard pace? Or would you rather take it easy and do six guys in your orchestra? I like to be pushed. It's like there's something about it. I don't like skydiving. I'm afraid of heights.

I would never do bungy jump, but I definitely like the adrenaline when you get pushed music-wise. And there's also this saying you don't need more time, just like give me a fucking deadline. And that is true because if you have too much time, sometimes you can like sabotage your own creativity. Many times, like we need to trust our intuition as artists. And many of us have like low self-esteem.

And so we can like maybe write something that's brilliant. And if we begin to think too much about it, all of a sudden we get all these extra ideas and all of a sudden we just like sabotage something that's really good. So there's something to be pushed and to have like a fast pace. And the only thing is when you work on TV shows is that many times you have to do this stuff in one sitting. Like you have to do one queue in like one day of work and you can't walk away from it or you can't sleep like work. like work, sleep, and then listen to it again next day. Because when you get a bit away from it, many times you hear a lot of stuff that you should change.

Many times you hear that you're doing too much and you need to take stuff out. Because when you get into gear and so on, you become many times all creative. and especially with movies and TV stuff and so on. It's not like concert music where you can have all these details in it. It's like in movies, what can you say? The movie is important. Your music should be first priority, but it is not. It is a second priority in some kind of way.

And especially in TV shows where it's bought vehicle to push stuff forward. Right. So if you have too much that's like popping out, it can interfere. But that's also like where you need to, for example, like on Midnight, Texas, there's some, I have to say first, I work for Jakob Gort, the guy I worked studied with at the conservatory in Denmark, and we've been working together for a long time now. And so. And he's always organized, and I know his material. So it's easy to work with him. He's the composer, and he tells me what to do. So I'm like programming everything and so on. But we can always talk forth and back so we can move extremely fast in that kind of way. And that's where in the very end we have the music editors that saves our ass if we're too creative in some kind of way.

So it's just good to have a good team when you have to work fast. That's the only thing if you do, if you're in a situation where you have to work fast and you're all alone, then it's, then it get hard because you need your extra set of ears many times to smooth stuff out. So, but I like to. Yeah, I like to be challenged. I like it very much. But I'm doing an album now and I've been working on that like for one year. So it's totally opposite way of working.

on it, but it's also because it's not to picture. So I'm able to do all these irritating details I can't do in this. Is it like a classical album, or are you going back to rock and metal roots? It's a, it's more like film music based. I got it. It's a blend of, now I wouldn't say classical. I just use the orchestra, but there's also like some rock elements in it. I decided not to go metal because then I would maybe more collaborate with some artists.

Because then I would be able to create like a band feel in some kind of way. My priority in life right now, artistic-wise, is film music. But I like to have side projects. And it could be cool to work together with guys that would do some. something like that. And it would be even better if we like wrote the songs. And I could like take care of a lot of stuff with the arrangements because that's what I do. So maybe it would be like we write the songs together and they take more like focus on writing the songs where I'm more focused on if it should be metal, it should definitely be symphonic metal because then I can

the orchestra. That would be fun, right? We could like say, I take care of the orchestra-wise, some of the writing, of course, but they take care of like the majority of the writing and how the guitar should be recorded and so on. I would like to play guitar on it because I'm also a guitarist, but I'm sure like people that's playing in a band

and so on would be way more into it than I am right now. And you've also, you've won or been, nominated for several awards throughout your career is there anything in particular that this stands out to you as being your favorite? Oh yeah

and the first award of won as a guitarist it was a before the film thing yeah exactly before I was like even thinking about like getting into movies even before

I began to like study really get into my studies of music. And it was a huge accomplishment for me because I went on stage and played exactly the music I wanted. It was like some progressive instrumental music and we were playing it at this place where like a lot of big rock and middle bands usually play.

But the best thing was like the people that was like, the jury, was a lot of very famous jazz, rock pop composed, not composer, producer and musicians and so on. And when I went

on to the stage and started playing, a very famous jazz singer that was part of the jury's like shouted finally some rock music. Oh, fucking ain't.

Yeah. Because... Danish Idol. Yeah, the whole day that it's been like just standard jazz bands that was been playing. Yeah, standard jazz bands that I was playing. So it just like shows that it was totally left feel what I was coming with. And I like that.

So, but I also learned that when I do my own thing, it's like I get, further with it than if I get to interfere in some kind of way especially at that time because I was playing in a lot of bands and I was like I don't know I didn't really believe in what we were doing in those bands and then

I was doing my thing with this instrumental music and and that like award it was like a first prize that started especially this thing with composition. It would me maybe believing more myself composition-wise than only becoming a guitarist because I could see it lead it somewhere.

Playing in a band, you almost had to pay money to get out and play when we were playing our rock and so on. Yeah, yeah, because you're loving it, and they know you love it, and they have some leverage over you sometimes. Definitely. And it was also a time where the business was changing a lot where I saw all the CDs of my guitar heroes

get like disappeared from the shelf in the record store. It was a, it's like when I really got into music and got into guitar playing, everything changed. and instead of like I think it's also like I remember one of my friends said I'm looking forward to download your album and then I was like oh okay a whole new world

yeah then I was like I don't think I would be able to support myself with what I really wanted to do as a guitarist makes sense so yeah Superhero origin story. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah.

But I'm happy that I, I, I, it's like my first composition teacher. He's like a brilliant trumpet player and played in the Sydney Opera as a kid, I think. No, it was Sydney, Oprah. I don't know how old he was. And we were all like, why the fuck you see in Denmark? and why is he composing when he's such a good, like, trumpet player? But he managed, now he's writing for Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He have, like, his composition performed there.

And that's his biggest dream. So the instrument is a way to do, like, you have to mature as a musician in some kind of way. or let me just say if you want to be a composer, be really good at playing an instrument first. Then it gets easier in some kind of way. Okay. Right.

Nice. Well, you're obviously good at playing instruments and the whole thing. You've got, among other educational accomplishments, you have a master's degree from the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and the South Danish Conservatory of Music. What has been in the role of education into getting where you are now?

Be disciplined and keep studying. So you think the college career played a big part in where you are? That's a tough one. Yeah, that's a tough one because, see, when I started at the, pre-conservatory school where I got like my first real music education. After that I said, fucking no more. I don't want to study music anymore. But then I got an opportunity that would lead to come here to L.A.

And then I had to like get back into school. And because I had had a departure from the school environment and just been working a lot, freelancing a lot with music. I actually appreciated being back in school again because I was able to give myself a new chance in some kind of way. I don't think like what leads you to get somewhere is you drive and passion. You can buy yourself to that and that's like more important than going in school. if you have drive and passion, you figure out a way.

But my way was like educational system. And I have always been teaching myself also since I was like 2021, been teaching music because I learned that, oh, by sitting and having fun with a student, I can actually earn money. That's not bad at all. So I can't narrow in like specifically in all. in all I just believe in education and you should study and for a guy like me

I never stop studying it's always you always like one I always want to learn something new now in just like the music world nice you talked about Christopher Young earlier being a big

influence on you has he always been an influence how did you come to work with him like is you know like what kind of influence has he had on your career

so the thing is how my ears are working that my ears really like his sound and that's maybe because Chris's ears really like some of the other guys

that I also like like Bernard Herman and Jerry Goldsmith so like before I begin to know that there even was something that had to do with film composition, I really

like the movies that Chris scored and was pretty obsessed about them. And of course, like when I heard the music or just saw Hellbound, the second heroin is a movie, I was like fuck, this is amazing.

What the fuck is going on? I really like the sound of that score, like from the writing to the recording, how it's produced and so on. So I kind of slowly begin to notice that, oh, there's a guy named Christian, Christopher Young. His name was in the credits and began to watch more movies. I just got aware of that his name just began to pop up in the movie that I liked.

So I begin to take a note of that, like, with Heather razor what's it called like the car exorcism

of Emily Rose we have to go way back with the dark half Stephen

King's the dark half and so on Nightmare on Elm Street too

don't forget that the the homoerotic nightmare The homoerotic actually that score

there's we did a a a me Chris and his team

worked on a, what's it called, a suite based on that score. So I was able to get in depth. If you buy the new box set, a Nymerm. Elm Street box set, CD box set, then you're able to like get that suite also. So yeah, I was able to get like really deep into that score. It was amazing. So yeah, like, but, but, um, um, when,

I really got into film music and so on, I of course, like, made sure to copy paste Chris as much as possible. And when I saw he was one of the guys that were teaching at USC, because you have a class at USC, I was like, I fucking need to come to L.A. and study at USC, because if Chris is there, I can speak with him and he can hire me as one of his assistants. And he did. Good good plans. Yeah. I was like, this is almost like cheating.

But no, it was like, I've been lucky. And yeah, I really like Chris. Also as a person. So he influenced me a lot music-wise. And he keeps influencing me because, again, I just like his sound. and I'm able, now when I work with him, I'm able to really get into his music, look in his scores. He got like his library with scores at his office. And we also, I think I've been working for Chris like three years now.

So of course you're like, there's a reason for that. He's my mentor and good friend. And we're also doing the USC class together right now. It's my second year where I'm doing it with him. I assisted a bit. The assistant that was doing the class with Chris, like when I started. But then I got more and more into it and were able to take it over. And the best thing is when the class is over and it's always like really late around midnight.

I'm able to sit down with Chris and just chat with him. And yeah, so he's a huge influence on my music. Of course I have like my own sound also. I don't hesitate to copy paste him at all. Nice. Everybody's got their influences. Yeah. So we ask this to everybody we have on.

Are there any special foundations or charities that are near and dear to you or that you're passionate about? I don't think there's any specific, but I'm a big believer in education and that kids just need to be. educated as early as possible because the brain is like a sponge and it's like an open window really to to make life easier in the future and also that to have parents teach their catch something every day because like it's a form of communication and it's just like it's like a cycle if parents learn to teach kids something, then the kids learn to teach their friends something and so on and so on. And then you just like create an environment where people is just like very focused on helping each other and why not. And then music in school, there need to be music in an educational system because it's like we can only base our society on not.

numbers and facts. There also need to be the in-betweens. And I grew up in a, I was lucky to grow up in a school where we had my math teacher. He's like extremely crazy with music. He just loved it. And he was making sure we were taught music in school and every morning we sang a song. And it's also a great way to make everybody equal in some kind of way there's just like something to it

and of course like art have kind of saved my life because I was without knowing it extremely passionate about music since I've been alive since I could think

and to miss out of that that would have been like not good at all. So, yeah, I think like education and education in music in an educational institution environment is extremely important. And I've been teaching since I was 20 years old. So, of course I say that. I've been teaching music. So, yeah.

That's awesome. Yeah, because in America there's kind of a trend of losing that music. education and hopefully we can put it back in there. It's the same in Europe. Like in Denmark, I think everything have changed a lot since I was a kid till now. And like I grew up with music in school and I definitely, it affected the students in some kind of way. We created some kind of unity within music. But then it disappeared from the music system.

And even like in what's it called like in music school, there was like waiting lists. So people that wanted to play an instrument, they were like, no, you need to wait like six months to be able to play. Yeah, exactly. But that's where I come in because then I begin to teach like privately. Because it's just like, come on. It's kind of dangerous not to have art in society. Absolutely. See, this part is a longer conversation, but I think it's extremely important that we have art and music in, yeah, just like we need to have it as soon as possible because it's going to benefit us in many ways.

Yeah, for sure. Well, there's still hope. My granddaughter plays violin in the orchestra at her middle school. Yeah. There's still hope. They're still hope. I'm going to jam out with my kids after this. Yeah. There you go. Give them some Metallica, some tools, some rush. Yeah, I thought to play that stuff.

All right. Last now, if you would join us, we'd like to take a brief trip through some of the greatest musicians and arrangers in the business. Have you have time to stay with us for a little bit? Yeah. Excellent. All right, well, we'll start with one of the greats. We've already talked about him a little bit. You've worked with him extensively. Of course, Christopher Young.

I did a little research. I'm sure you know a lot more about him than I do through my Googling. But born in New Jersey, just so the listeners know, born in New Jersey, Christopher moved to Los Angeles in 1980. His first job in the movies was for the cult classic. the dorm that drip blood. That star Daphne Zuniga, who would go on to play Princess Vespa in Spaceballs.

Yes, a listener favorite. Christopher has won a number of awards and was nominated for a Golden Globe for the shipping news. Definitely not horror. But his Fangoria Chainsaw Award victories include The Grudge, Drag Me to Hell, and Sinister. So he definitely has the chops.

Right. He's actually an avid, you may know this better than us. For what I understand, he's an avid collector of horror autographs, Halloween mask, and jackal lanterns. Is that true? Oh, definitely. If you guys ever come here to LA, I need to show you in his office. He's not just like a big collector. He's like obsessive collector, and he's aware of that.

It's awesome. What's it like working with him? Chris is an interesting guy. I love him. I do really love him. But he also pushes you to the edge, of course. Okay, good. It demands a lot from you.

And if you're a mind reader, it's a fucking win. In this story when I was working for him, it was like, oh shit. There's a lot of stuff to get into. But as you, like, it took a couple of months and then you get up to speed. And luckily, I'm, as said, I'm a big fan of him. and I always say it's like if you work with Chris and you're not a big fan of his music I'm not saying you wasting your time but I just like say it's an advantage because you spend a lot of hours when you work at his office full time it's a lot of hours

and there's a lot of stuff that needs to be done and I never felt that I was wasting time And I even when we were working on like a big movie and there just was a lot of stuff to do, I was like sleeping at the office because I didn't want it to miss out of anything. So it's good to be obsessed about his music. And also because he's an open book. And if you have a question, he will like try to answer it as best as possible. He's very into mentoring people and prepare you as good as possible for the business. He's not going to give you a movie and he's not going to have you write music for him.

But everything else you're able to like get really deep into. And that's also why I like to stick around. But another thing is also like he's old school. He don't touch computers at all. They're going to explode if he's like touching them. so oh wow okay that's pretty unusual I'm not mad at that

no the thing is that because he's old school like when he writes music you have to be together with him and like take notes he sits at the piano and play all the stuff and hum and so on he's a shitty

pianist he says that himself so it's okay but he's able to get the point across, but then you're sitting there with your handheld recorder and taking notes on a like note pad or something. And it's just amazing to see how he got everything into his head. Of course you have to help him. And if you're like, oh, I think we missed out the part of the woodwinds and so on.

Then he's like, oh, yeah, maybe we should do something there. And many times he's like, oh, fuck that. we just like only need like string on brass the more the better there but um yeah and then we when you sit down and if you have to put it into a notation program so you can turn it into a score and have musician played it's just like amazing to see how he he's just an amazing composer um so it's like for me it's extremely interesting to work with him And I like his personality. He's a lot of fun.

He's also a weirdo, but we all are. So, yeah, but I have to say as a composer, it's really hard not to be a fan of Chris because he really have the jobs. And also, like, he really liked to do a lot of different kind of stuff, not only horror and not only for orchestra. Like, Sinister, that's all electronically. stuff.

Exorcism of Emily Rose is like all this weird string kind of stuff, very brutal. And then we have Monkey King, which he recently did, which is like all fantasy music. And then

you mentioned a movie, like he's also into drama and really good with drama also. So you're able to like work on a like on a big variety of genre

of movies within different kind of genres and so on. And that's like a win, definitely. I would kind of bullet point a couple of the giants in the industry and I'm sure these are all people that you're pretty

familiar with if you could kind of share your reflections on these particular artists. And you said you said Christopher's a bit of a weirdo so let's go to another weirdo. this time a British weirdo. He's done a lot of progressive rock music.

He's played with a lot of different bands. But he's a lot more into film than I thought he was. Of course, everybody recognizes tubular bells from The Exorcist. But what are your thoughts on Mike Oldfield? See, of course, like, got to know Mike O'Field through the Exorcist because it's like so present that theme even though I think it's only like two minutes of music in total that's in that movie

one scene and and then some stuff in the end credits but a guitar student of mine introduced me like really introduced me to my Goldfield and I haven't listened to his music for a long time but I have to say the Tuoblo Bell's album that's like very ahead of its time in some kind of way. And especially like the start, it's so, there's just something to it.

And it also makes, especially the scene in the exorcist where they use that piece of music, it feels very timeless. So without being like really studying Mike O'Field, I think just like that piece of music, music is like really ahead of its time. The production can maybe sound a bit dated somewhere, but still like, super, I fucking love like how they used it in The Exorcist. But no, I haven't really listened to a lot of his music, so maybe you guys know him better than I do.

Well, I've heard a lot of his stuff. The entire tubular Bell's album, of course, everyone's listened to that. He's done a revisited album recently, I think, within the last three or four years. And it's an extension of tubular bells. It's like 48 minutes or something like that, right? That sounds just about right. That sounds about like, oh, but yeah, anytime, I think anyone who hears that immediately thinks of the exorcist, for sure. That's also the interesting thing when you're being.

begin to think about composition because composers want to be complex and do a lot of stuff, but when you have to brand a movie, you just need little ingredients. Absolutely. And that's just like so way more important than being able to be able to write a fugue, learn about sonata form and all this. like film music and the classical world is two different entities in some kind of way and when you have figured that out dang you can like you just need this small fragment and then you've done something that's going to be remembered forever it's like with

John Williams like he's do do oh yeah then we know it's false and a Friday of the 13 John Carpenter's Halloween theme Yeah exactly You talked about John Williams I was actually watching Home Alone 2 of all things last night And I was like I know that music It sounds just like Raiders of the Lost Ark That part of it

Now it sounds like Star Wars But it's Home Alone too So you can really recognize him right away I love that And it's like a I would wish that composers would copy paste themselves some more. I was like, what was it, Elmer Bernstein, I saw like American Werewolf in London where I was like,

and I think he only contributed with like under five minutes of music to American Werewolf in London. Really? Yeah, exactly. Okay. But I was like, oh, I can hear some Ghostbusters in that. That's right. And he did Animal House and a lot of comedies, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. That's also, it's interesting with American Werewolf in London because that movie, that's where I was like, okay, I love horror movies because I think the first horror movie, the first horror movie I watched was like an old black and white Dracula movie. Sure. And I was just excited about it. that and pride being like a six-year-old kid that finally watched a horror movie. But then my parents did something I would call bad parenting in a good way. I think we've all been there. Yeah, but they had like a rule of thumb that as long as I've kissed, I have two sisters,

as long as us kids watch the movie with our parents, it's good. It's good because then they can explain it to only ketchup and so on. but I think I saw the fly in a way to early age and it's the only time where I covered my eyes but that started something in me where I was like really appreciating the art of horror also because the fly, David Cronenberg's The Fly it is like horror but it's also a drama

if you take away all the horror there's just then it's a drama And that's where American Werewolf in London, if you take away all the gore and so on, it's a comedy. It's a comedy, of course. Yeah, exactly. And that's just like where I learned that, okay, horror is extremely multifaceted. You get a lot on your dish, and I like that.

You were talking about Howard Shore, the fly. That was Howard Shore. He's one of the great. Yes. Oh, fuck, yeah. And it's just like incredible that he did the fly and then he did a lot of the rings. It's like super opposites. But that's also the cool thing about being a film composer that and also the thing that Chris is like really embracing the variety of styles you can like go into.

And I even like as a film composer, I got away from horror for a while by actually. and all of a sudden I was like this person that did all this drama kind of thingy. I just had a sound where people were like, okay, this is really good for drama. Okay, cool, then I do that. Sure. And then I got into some thriller kind of stuff at some point and so on. And I think as a composer, it's just like very important, as a film composer, it's very important to just embrace different styles and prepare you.

yourself to whatever come you away. Because you don't, a movie is a movie and if it's a good movie, it's a good movie. Whether it's a comedy, it's a splatter movie, it's a drama. And it's just like a privilege to work on a good movie. And then you, of course, can be a fanboy of something like horror movies. And that's maybe where I'm like a bit more. Well, if people want me to work on a horror project, that's not like up to snuff.

Many times I'm like, yeah, fuck it. I'm just a fan. I want to support. You said you were heavily influenced by There Will Be Blood? Yes. So was that pretty much all Johnny Greenwood from Radiohead that put all that music together for that film? Yeah. It was all his stuff.

And I think it, I think some of the. tracks was even from some of his previous projects he did but that score and that movie actually when I saw there will be

blood in the start I didn't get it like the first scenes and so on I was like what the fuck is going on here it's just like music wise I was like so confused but I just got mesmerized and when

like it ended I was like this is fucking genius so it really but that's how I usually have it with when I experience new stuff that's like really have an impact on me that I

because it's not like same same what I'm used to I'm like oh fuck this is like I don't like this and then as I get further into it I'm there will be blood it's a masterpiece in itself It's just a fucking masterpiece.

And what Johnny Greenwood did, like, Jesus fucking Christ, it did a really good job. And yeah, yeah. And it helped me a lot of that score because I think it's a great score to study. But it's also based on the technique, the Polish technique of what's it called, what Christoph Penelixki's doing a lot. So, and I think those two guys, that's like a modern classical composer, those two guys have even, like, collaborated. And that's quite interesting because John McGrath would come from the rock world.

Rock and roll, sure. Yeah, and venturing into the classical world. I don't know anything about his education, but I think he also studied composition of classical instruments and so on. But then he teamed up with this classical musician that's into all this Aitong kind of stuff. And then they clash. It's just like amazing. But Johnny Greenwood, there would be a fucking masterpiece.

And there's a lot of techniques you can definitely copy paste. Do you have like a favorite film that's coming up that you would like to work on? Like Star Wars franchise or something like that? You mean like a dream job, right? Yeah. Oh, I should have prepared myself for this. It's a good question. It's a good question.

Which movies are coming up of fantasy movies? So like something in the fantasy genre then. Oh, yeah. If there's a fantasy horror thing, definitely. Yeah, some sort of epic thing. Those are known for soundtracks. Yeah. But if it's like fantasy, first of all, I like fantasy of it.

And if I have like this horror side to it, also because then you can both do like a tone kind of stuff, all these effects and so on. But you can also do melodic stuff. And I feel that music, the movies nowadays just need more melodies. I think we are at the edge where. you can have longer drones like in what's called the movie that Chris Nolan just did. Oh,

Dunkirk. Yeah. Dunkirk. Most of the music is just like one. And it's extremely effective. And I really like the movie. But it's just one note. It could be nice with two notes.

Now, It's okay. I feel what they did with that movie was really interesting and so on, and it's a great, great movie. But personally, I would really like to work with melodies, and I spend a lot of time writing just melodies in my free time. That's kind of my hobby. When I'm not like lifting weights and so on,

I write melodies because I'm very fascinated about melodies, as I'm also fascinated with all this. Aitonal kind of stuff that Johnny Greenwood is doing because it's like when you have all this allotory complex orchestral kind of stuff to send stuff that's

really like weird then you have something that really can do something with drama but when you have melodies you can kind of fly high in some kind of way it's just like

two great opposites and then you just have to learn to do this little fragment like Michael O'Field's fragment in The Exorcist. Then you're set to go. Makes sense. Yeah. But I don't know any movies coming up. It would be great to score a movie like Star Wars,

but I would also be like fucking scared and had to do a lot of research because I think if you want to score a Star Wars movie, you need to copy paste like John Williams as much. not just... Don't fuck it up too much. I don't see any reason to fuck it up. Just like...

Listen to what he's doing and be his hands in some kind of way. Yeah, don't... It's like... Say again? No, don't fix it if it's not broken. Exactly. And I would say the same way,

if there was like a hair race remake coming up, I would say if a composer should pick that point. project, don't do your thing just like, do what word? Because the hell raise the score is just like fucking amazing. Be Chris's fucking hands if they can't afford hiring him.

Yeah. And that's, it's like, I'm a big fan of the band queen and I love all the bands that sound alike. It's just like, yeah, and especially with movies and French, and so on. If you're onto something that works, especially with Star Wars, don't fuck it up. Just don't fuck. Just be

John William's hands. Plus, fan boys are going to lose their mind if you change it too much. Exactly. We don't want that. It's too much like noise. Right. Well, last, we really want to thank you for joining us this

week, man. We know your schedule's busy. Yeah, I have to get back to work. Well, listen, before you go, where can our listeners find you? And also, what are you up to lately? So what I'm up to lately, I'm about to do a feature if everything goes in the right direction. I already have been doing like 15 minutes of music to it. But still, there's more writing and we also need to figure out some paperwork and so on.

But that's like one of the projects I'm really excited about. And then I'm finishing my solo album we talked about. But it's first going to be done, like, be out around summer. And then, yeah, I'm working with Chris at his studio at least once a week. And then have, like, all these small projects coming in and out that keeps me busy. But the album and that feature is my focus right now. So how do we all follow you on social media? we, how do we purchase a digital download of your album?

So, you just have to Google me or Facebook me and so on. And I should maybe spell my name, because that's what you have to Google. L-A-S-S-E-E-L-K-J-A-E-R. And if you're at a dot-D-K, you're going to end up on my website. But I would say Facebook. Find me on Facebook. then it's easier to figure out what I'm doing because I'm updating that daily. So, yes, Google me, Facebook me, Instagram me and so on, just like figure out to spell my name, then you're going to find me.

And on Facebook, I'm the long-haired guy. If you're like hook up with a short-haired guy, he's a wrong-haired guy. Yeah, and I don't know which company he have, but I get a lot of his invoices. story, which I have to sit to hear. All right, well, as always, listeners, we want to thank you guys for listening to another episode of The Horror Returns. We would love to hear your feedback and ideas. You can always reach us at the Horror Returns at gmail.com.

Follow us everywhere, and of course we'll put some links on for our guests so you can follow him as well. Next week, it's time to celebrate the season with our favorite Christmas horror movies. and we will be joined by our friend Darian Brock from the Padded Room podcast. So, until the horror returns again, good night.