Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas came out in 1993. It’s a stop-motion animated musical, with music by legendary composer Danny Elfman. He’s won Emmys, a Grammy, and been nominated for four Oscars. His work includes the music for Tim Burton’s Batman films, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man films, Good Will Hunting, and the theme to The Simpsons. From 1979 to 1995, he was the singer and songwriter in the band Oingo Boingo. This year, he released Big Mess, his first solo album in 37 years.

The Nightmare Before Christmas takes place in a world where different holidays all have their own realm. And the story is about Jack Skellington, the leader of Halloweentown, a place where it’s always Halloween, and Halloween is all they know, and Jack has grown a little tired of it. But then, Jack discovers a portal to Christmastown, with snow and Santa and all things Christmas inhabiting it. The song “What’s This?” takes place in that moment of discovery. In this episode, Danny Elfman tells the story of how it all came together, and how writing and singing this song for Jack Skellington ended up profoundly connecting to his own life.

You can buy or stream “What’s This?” here.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

footnotes
Steve Bartek, orchestrator
Pee-wee’s Big Adventure
Beetlejuice
Edward Sciccorhands
Celesta, instrument
Tchaikovsky – “The Nutcracker,” ballet
Gilbert and Sullivan – “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General”

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Halsey is an award winning singer and songwriter from New Jersey. She’s been nominated for two Grammys, and sold over a million records. In August, she released her fourth album, “If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power,” which was produced by the Grammy and Oscar winning duo of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, from Nine Inch Nails. Halsey wrote one of the songs on the album, “You Asked for This,” with Greg Kurstin who’s won 8 Grammys himself, including Producer of the Year. In this episode, Halsey tells the story of making this song while pregnant with her son, and how that shaped the lyrics and the music.

You can buy or stream “You Asked For This” here.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

footnotes
My Bloody Valentine – “When You Sleep”
Shoegaze
Gewn Stefani
No Doubt

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The movie Dune was released on October 21, 2021. It’s the most recent adaptation of Frank Herbert’s epic science fiction novel from 1965. The film was directed by Denis Villeneuve, and the score was written by Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer . Hans Zimmer has scored over 200 films, been nominated for Oscars eleven times. He and Denis Villeneuve first worked together on the film Blade Runner 2049. Dune tells the story of the Atreides family as they relocate from their home world to the desert planet Arrakis. When Hans Zimmer first started working on the music, he made what he calls a “sketchbook” – creating motifs and themes that might occur in the film. And in this episode, he takes us through the first sketch he did for Dune. It’s called “Paul’s Dream.”

You can buy or stream “Paul’s Dream” here.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

footnotes
Loire Cotler, vocals
Lisa Gerard, vocals
Suzanne Waters, vocals
Edie Lehmann Boddicker, vocals
Tina Guo, cello
Guthrie Govan, guitar
Pedro Eustache, duduk
Joe Walker, film editor
Duduk, instrument
Pink Floyd – “Eclipse” from Dark Side of the Moon
Klaus Schulze – “Frank Herbert”
Alejandro Jodorowsky
David Lynch’s Dune
John Williams, composer of Star Wars

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