John Carpenter Picks Three Favorite Film Scores

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This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.

This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, and I'm Adam Howard, one of the show's producers.

The filmmaker John Carpenter could fill a whole shelf with his cult classics.

They Live, The Thing, Escape from New York, Halloween, and many more.

And he remains a huge presence for many film buffs, even though he hasn't made a new movie in well over a decade.

Instead, it's film scoring that's preoccupied him.

There aren't many filmmakers who write their own scores, let alone ones that are among the most memorable in movie history.

For the last several years, Carpenter has been scoring other directors' films in his distinctive style, and he's released a handful of albums of cinematic music.

with no movie required.

I caught up with Carpenter as he was launching a small tour, just in time for, you guessed it, Halloween.

And we talked about some of the film music that's most inspired him.

John, your father was a very accomplished musician.

He had a PhD from the Eastman School of Music.

So I imagine you grew up in a very musical household.

Yes.

And I'm wondering if, if any point, did you ever think about seriously pursuing a career in music yourself as a young person?

Well,

in a way, I did when I was a senior in high school.

And then in my first year in college, I was playing in a rock and roll band.

So I thought about doing that because we would play on the weekends and get paid for it.

So I guess that counts as a career.

But

no.

What was the band called?

Kaleidoscope.

Kaleidoscope?

Kaleidoscope.

That was back in the psychedelic days.

Were you like one of the lead musicians or what did you play?

I was a bass player.

Nice.

But my first love was movies.

And I just decided, look, I'm going to try this.

I'm going out to California.

I'm going to USC.

I'm going to study cinema and let's see what happens.

But I owe it to myself to try.

Yeah.

I've heard that your initial scores were, it was almost more of a financial decision.

You needed to keep the budgets low.

And so you were writing the scores yourself.

But I'm wondering at what point did you think, you know what, I have something here and I'm enjoying this and it becomes something that you started doing on the regular?

Probably escape from New York.

I realized, you know what, I can do something here that contributes creatively.

You know, it's part of my vision of this.

When you are writing your movies, or when you were, I should say, Were you imagining music in your head as you're writing them?

Like, when do the themes start coming to you?

Is it during that process?

Is it later?

At the very end, after everything is cut together and the movie part of it is secure, then this is what I want.

Then I go to the music.

It's purely a utility job.

What were some of the influences on your signature style?

And I'm also curious, at what point did you become aware that your sort of more minimalist style and your use of synths was an influence on younger generations of artists?

Well, I'm still not convinced that I I was an influence on anybody.

Okay.

Well, you know, Switched on Bach was the first time I kind of heard a played synthesizer.

But I must tell you the honest truth.

There was a movie in 1956

that had an all-electronic score.

It was called Forbidden Planet.

And it was done by the Barons, the couple.

And it's astonishing.

I still listen to that score.

So, for folks who are unfamiliar, Forbidden Planet is a science fiction movie.

It's also an interpretation of Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Did you see that film when it first came out?

You would have been about like eight years old.

You know it.

You knew it.

I was eight years old.

I mean, what you just played is scary.

Scary as hell.

Are you kidding me?

I mean, that's what influenced me.

Yeah.

Well, you can be powerful and you can be scary.

You can be all sorts of things if you use electronic music.

And you don't have to go through the painful,

painful process of learning to play the instrument.

What do you think makes a good film score generally?

Like, what's your rule of thumb?

Really, the composer is there to service the movie, and it's what the director asks of him.

So, if I'm asked to emphasize the characters or the plot or generally thematic material, then that's what I will do with the music.

You can do almost anything with it.

You can narrate the film, although I don't recommend that.

But it's there to support

and enhance

and open up doors so you can see the story a little bit better.

Do you think it's a little bit of a lost art, or are there people who you sort of follow their work now and admire, who you think are doing strong film music?

I have

two words for you.

Hans Zimmer.

Right.

He's incredible.

He's incredible.

He is one of the masters now.

And his scores are inimitable.

They're brilliant.

And he's a very nice man, too.

I know a lot of folks started to kind of maybe notice him more, become more familiar with him through his work with Christopher Nolan.

You actually picked a score I didn't know as well, and I was sort of surprised by as one of your favorites.

It was Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Man's Chest.

Did you not know that score?

That was world famous.

I'm not as big on that franchise as some of the others, but it's obviously the music's amazing.

Let's take a listen real quick.

I think what's really cool about him is it's obvious that he's bringing a certain rock and roll influence into his sound.

There's a sort of propulsiveness to it.

I know he also performs live and does concerts and stuff like that.

Is that what sort of makes him unique to you, or what else is special about him?

It's the great music he makes.

I mean, Jack Sparrow's theme, which is just legendary.

I mean, you hear it and you know what it is.

But he started, I think, his first score that I noticed,

oh, God, Denzel Washington and

Submarine Thriller.

Oh, Crimson Tide.

Yeah.

Oh, it's a fantastic score.

And he just blossomed from there.

Right.

I'm Adam Howard, and I've been speaking with filmmaker John Carpenter.

More in a moment.

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So, the occasion for this conversation is the fact that you're doing a few dates here in New York and in Los Angeles in the coming weeks.

I'm curious what the transition was like for you going from behind the camera to someone who's now a live performer.

It's a transition from pain to joy.

Directing movies is very, very stressful.

And, you know, you've got a lot of money on the line.

You've got a crew of people.

You've got demanding actors who need a lot of attention.

And you don't really have much of a life.

And you're working like a dog or like a coal miner,

whichever you wish.

Playing music in front of an audience, joy.

It's just joy.

Plus, I'm playing with my son and godson, and that makes it even better.

I was going to ask about that.

So a lot of your recent music, your Lost Themes albums, you've been collaborating with your son Cody, and like you said, your godson Daniel.

Can you speak a little bit more about how you got involved working with them and how gratifying this experience has been now?

I guess it's been a partnership over several years now.

Well, it's incredible.

We bring different things to the table.

Daniel Davies is a

he's an adventurer.

He comes up with new sounds.

He pushes our boundaries.

Cody is a maestro.

He is a commanding piano player, a keyboard player,

and can almost play anything.

And if I sing something to him, he can play it.

And then me, I bring experience because I've done so many scores.

So that's the three of us.

And we've done scores together, the Halloweens, the recent Halloweens, and Firestarter and others.

And we also do our albums.

It's so fabulous.

I saw a while back a a video that went viral where Bong Joon-ho is asking you to score his next film.

Is that still something that's going to happen, you think?

Yeah, I think so.

All you have to do is tell me when it's done and show it to me, and I'm ready to go.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

So, there was one more score that you wanted to highlight that we should listen to.

It's one of my favorites, too, so I'm happy to sort of end on this one.

This is Vertigo from Bernard Herman.

If we could listen to a little bit of that.

So, Bernard Herman, for people like myself, and you too are fans of film music, is the real giant.

He's best known for his work with Hitchcock.

He did Psycho, North by Northwest, among others.

I'm curious why, of all the different Hitchcock scores that Herman did, this one in particular is one of your favorites.

Vertigo is

one of the great movies, achievements in cinema.

I mean, it is...

There's nothing quite like this movie.

It is just...

a bad dream.

It's like a nightmare you're watching.

And the music is a love theme from vertigo it's astonishingly beautiful but sad and creepy at the same time i mean it's just so many things

it's an incredible

marriage between a director and a composer just incredible well i'm personally looking forward to seeing you in concert i can't wait a lot of other folks are too yeah i'm really excited thank you so much for coming on and and for sharing all of your knowledge with me i really appreciate it and thank you it's been fun

Director and composer John Carpenter.

His new tour includes dates in New York City and Los Angeles.

I'm Adam Howard and that's our show for today.

Thanks for listening and we'll see you next week.

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