AVC: The movies you scored have a very distinctive sound. How did you end up focusing on the synthesizer as your primary instrument?JC: From early on, when synthesizers were first introduced into music, I liked the idea that you could get a big sound with them, electronic, but like an orchestra. And I could play it all myself. That was exciting. I was kind of a half-assed musician.
Gluteally-challenged he may be, but I loved the soundtrack to the first couple Halloween movies. Loved it, I tell you. One of the very first things I did when I got Internet access was look to see if I could find the actual CD, and I ended up getting it from some Wiccan bookstore somewhere. Before that, I had made recordings of myself on a shitty keyboard trying to recreate my favorite tracks so that I could listen to them around Halloween. See, I’ve always felt that one of the most glaring deficiencies of my other favorite holiday is that unlike Christmas, there’s no body of music to help ground the experience of Halloween in the memory. No Halloween carols. And no, novelty songs like “Monster Mash” do not count. Don’t even insult the macabre grandeur of that most sinister time of year with such tripe.
Anyway, yes. Every October, I spend a fair amount of time listening to Halloween 1978 (Laurie’s Theme), The Haunted House, and, of course, the famous theme itself on repeat. Just can’t get enough of that simplistic, spooky piano.