angelheaded hipster

Do you and Tim Burton have similar obsessions?
When we first met, I was in a rock band at the time. To make a long story short, I hadn't considered scoring films. Learned that this young kid was making a movie of PeeWee Herman. We both grew up in Los Angeles and grew up on horror films. I saw two science fiction fantasy, horror, and sometimes adventure films a weekend. When I saw the day the earth stood still, and learned that there was a name associated with music. Vincent Price and mine was Peter Laurie (the tortured and the torturer)

What would you say was the toughest project so far? I'm sure every new one was hard.
That's an easy one. By far the toughest thing I've done in my life was Batman, the first Batman. The studio and producer definitely didn't want me on the movie. I had to prove myself over and over. Wanted Michael Jackson to write Batman's theme, Prince write Joker and George Michael to write some other theme.

What was the most rewarding? I have a cold right now. It's a luxury not having to cancel any shows. If I had to pick a favorite child, maybe I'd have to say Edward Scissorhands, it was small and nobody was interfering with us at all. And probably Nightmare Before Christmas – because again there was nobody looking over us. Edward, I actually thought I was screwing up the movie by doing music that didn't fit at all until the end of the movie. Nightmare, we had no scrip and Tim had these drawings. I wrote all the songs in 30 days with Tim. He had some lyrics sketched out. I don't think anything I've done before or since has been as easy and seamless or organic in that kind of way. What I love about Nightmare before Christmas, you're actually the star of the movie.

You mentioned Alice and I think it's one of the best scores you've done for Tim Burton. With all the crazy imagery in the movie, you could have done a bizarre score and it has a feeling from some concerts you've done. Well Tim and Alice, he wanted to keep it grounded with the music. The more weirder the movie is, the music needs to be more grounded. He still leaves me a long enough leash that I can have my fun. I've never seen him more nervous than him working on Alice. Only Tim Burton would bother to build a chocolate waterfall and chocolate boats. In the end, it came out great. Not the relaxed experience that say Edward Scissorhands was.

You have worked in a variety of styles but there is a recognizable element in your music. You musical personality is associated with your work with Tim Burton. I've had many more opportunities to express myself with Tim. First I was the comedy guy, then I became the quirky guy, the I could do big movies. He was allowing me access to everything, which is always what I wanted. Tim has allowed me to move around quite a bit. There's been quite a bit of ground I've been able to cover with him. He's allowed me to write and open up more doors for me.

Audience question: do you hear music in your head? Yes, unfortunately I hear it all the time and I get loops in my head all the time. Sometimes it's what I'm working on and sometimes its jingles from a

Kerry Hatch to Tom Ob
Between the Mystic Knights – we had 25 players go through there. There were a lot players running through Oingo Boingo. Reissues, I don't know? It's not up to me. We pretty much released every tune we ever recorded. Two big confident I don't knows.

What is your favorite song? That's also a hard one because I tend to hate every song I've ever written. I never listen to any of my own soundtracks until I have to do a compilation. If I had to pick a song that sticks with me, maybe I'd have to say Jack's Lament from Nightmare.

If there was a taste or flavor with the notes, they'd all be bitter. I know, I've read that people see color...it's more like digging in mud searching for precious stones and then just settling for whatever's solid.

I love percussion instruments, even though I played guitar for years with Oingo Boingo and use piano for scoring.

I was just grabbing onto things that just popped up into my head. I was always taking characters and popped up into my head. Whether it was the right wing guy talking about capitalism or the guy talking about quasi-molestation. Often things were popping from the newspaper. I was out to offend everybody.

Anything that Tim draws, I love.

I love Mars Attacks and I was wondering if it was easy or hard to write the score?
When I saw the rough cut in the screening room, I heard the score in my head and ran out to record notes.

Does anyone know what a theromen is?

I was wondering if you were going to put out a DVD with Oingo Boingo videos on it?
One of the problems is that it's 3 different record labels.

I'm working on The Life of Huidini. Broadway shows are extremely tumultous things. I don't know how things will go, maybe it will happen, maybe it won't.

As a composer, the big wham bang moment was when I was 16 and got to high school and a friend turned me onto the Rite Of Spring by Travinsky. I had already been a fan of Bernard Herman. I was excited and thought it there would be something extra. Bernard Herman made me aware and a fan of movie music and Tranvinsky who rocked my world.

Who animated insanity? A really wonderful guy Fred Stir. He was wildly talented and sadly he's not with us any longer.

Do you miss the ability to write lyrics and communicate with people verbally? For 10 years I did both things simultaneously and every time I was doing one I would be desperate to do the other. If there's lyrics to write, I will but not necessarily. I'm always interested in hungry, fresh things.

Sometimes a piece of music gets trashed and I don't care because I store it away and use the melody in other things. When you're writing 80-90 minutes of music, most of the stuff you come up with

Is there a possibility of an Oingo Boingo reunion? Why not?
I hate rock and roll band reunions. Unlike the world of zombies, when you're dead you should stay dead. But also, unfortunately the real clincher, I sustained some significant hearing damage from the 17 years . The last 4-5 years of the band took 10-15 years of hearing from me. I think you'd probably agree that this is a wise decision, knowing what I'm up against.

Wrote a ballet, rabbit roke and hoping to get it recorded. Writing a piece for an 80 piece orchestra and trying to get it recorded. Pieces for percussion and chamber orchestra that I think are going to be really fun.

My question is, when you were a child did you know you were going to be a composer? As a kid I only thought about science. I wanted to be a radiation bioligst. Sent away for free radioactive sand.

What was the first song you wrote?
chettranian national anthem – chettranyia was a place made entirely of cheddar and we wore chettranian outfits.

How long does it usually take you to do a score? There's always a deadline. The ideal amount of time is 12 weeks. On the Hulk I only had 5 weeks to re-score. The 5 got extended to 6, but even still it was incredibly difficult.

My wife is Bridget Fonda. Right now she is enjoying being a mom to our 5 ½ year old and every now and then I see her reading scripts, but she doesn't like the ending. She's very comfortable in the her own skin.

I feel like all of my film scoring training was watching movies. I'm the worst one to talk to – don't do it like I did and study.