As a Hollywood moviemaker, John Carpenter has been responsible for such influential films as psycho-killer flick Halloween, siege thriller Assault On Precinct 13, Stephen King adaptation Christine, and more, often working as director, writer and soundtrack composer.
In 2015, John's career took an unexpected turn when his Lost Themes album, produced with son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, became a critical success. Treading very similar ground to John's minimal synthesizer scores of the '70s-'80s, Lost Themes has since been followed by a sequel - Lost Themes II - and now a UK tour featuring projected clips from classic films and tracks from across his career.
In a break between tour dates, What’s On spoke to Cody, who in addition to kick-starting the Lost Themes project, has released five albums of instrumental synth/ prog/ coldwave music under the guise of Ludrium.
A lot of your father's films would have been X-rated; did he show you any of them when you were growing up?
Yeh. When I was young, my dad showed me a couple of his films – but not really the horror ones. I remember seeing Big Trouble In Little China. I was awed … I still love Big Trouble In Little China – I love the dialogue, I love the fantasy, I love the action. I’m personally not a big horror fan, so that’s my favourite – not one of the horror ones.
Your father's known today as a horror director, but if you look at the list of films he's worked on, there are many that aren't: Starman, Big Trouble In Little China, Darkstar, Escape From NY/ LA, his Elvis biopic …
It’s interesting, I think he likes to be known as this great horror guy, but he’s done so many great films that are not horror, they’re other things. Personally, I think he’s just an amazing director!
Did you see him at work when you were growing up?
When I was young, he did take me to some sets. I remember In The Mouth Of Madness. It was mostly the early '90s stuff … I was old enough to know what I wanted then … there was a lot of hanging around. Vampires - that was one as well.
Were you a fan of his music?
Yeh. Especially Escape From New York. I remember learning that at a very early age.
That track sounds particularly strong today. Played by the band, it's really punchy, but still sounds true to the original.
We wanted to make it sound authentic to the originals, but also make it sound BIG. We wanted to give it a more band feel.
How did the first Lost Themes album come about?
What happened was that my dad got a new computer with a DAW [Digital Audio Workstation programme], Logic Pro - we’re still using Logic Pro – and he got these plug-ins, so we went downstairs to his studio and just started messing around, and recording. I left for Tokyo, for work, as I was living out there. A while later my dad’s music lawyer asked, 'have you got anything worth releasing?' And he gave her the stuff we’d done, and she passed it on to Sacred Bones, and they wanted to put it out. That’s when dad got Daniel [Davies] involved, he’s kinda the third member, working on the mixing.
Do you now see the tracks as having a life in film? As becoming themes to new movies?
At least one or two songs have been used in a film – they were licensed for a French film called Love. I don’t know anything about it, I’ve never seen it, but looking at things about it online … it looks very sexy … but I know nothing about it! So they’re starting to be used in movies.
It's quite a jump from jamming in a basement studio to a full-on international tour - how did that come about?
I believe it was Daniel’s idea. The three of us were together and he said about playing a single show, just for fun. Yeh! Let’s check it out!
Had your father played live before?
When he was in High School or university he played in some bands, a cover band I think, but other than that, he’d never played live before like this. I was a little worried – but it’s been no problem, no problem at all. He loves it.
What was your approach to re-arranging those old analogue synth tracks for a full live rock band? Do you use backing tracks?
A lot of that old stuff was triggered, but everything we’re playing is on stage – everything is live, everything, there’s no backing tracks.
What's next, after these dates? Will there be another tour?
Not that I know of, but things happen without me having a say [laughs].
What about Ludrium and your own projects?
There’s a number of things in the works. A collaboration with Dance With The Dead - I really like how that’s sounding. I’ve got that in the works, and a NES-styled [album], it’s really fun to limit sounds to NES [8-bit video game console] sounds.
John Carpenterbrings his Live Retrospective show to Warwick Arts Centre on Thurs 27 October.
As a Hollywood moviemaker, John Carpenter has been responsible for such influential films as psycho-killer flick Halloween, siege thriller Assault On Precinct 13, Stephen King adaptation Christine, and more, often working as director, writer and soundtrack composer.
In 2015, John's career took an unexpected turn when his Lost Themes album, produced with son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, became a critical success. Treading very similar ground to John's minimal synthesizer scores of the '70s-'80s, Lost Themes has since been followed by a sequel - Lost Themes II - and now a UK tour featuring projected clips from classic films and tracks from across his career.
In a break between tour dates, What’s On spoke to Cody, who in addition to kick-starting the Lost Themes project, has released five albums of instrumental synth/ prog/ coldwave music under the guise of Ludrium.
A lot of your father's films would have been X-rated; did he show you any of them when you were growing up?
Yeh. When I was young, my dad showed me a couple of his films – but not really the horror ones. I remember seeing Big Trouble In Little China. I was awed … I still love Big Trouble In Little China – I love the dialogue, I love the fantasy, I love the action. I’m personally not a big horror fan, so that’s my favourite – not one of the horror ones.
Your father's known today as a horror director, but if you look at the list of films he's worked on, there are many that aren't: Starman, Big Trouble In Little China, Darkstar, Escape From NY/ LA, his Elvis biopic …
It’s interesting, I think he likes to be known as this great horror guy, but he’s done so many great films that are not horror, they’re other things. Personally, I think he’s just an amazing director!
Did you see him at work when you were growing up?
When I was young, he did take me to some sets. I remember In The Mouth Of Madness. It was mostly the early '90s stuff … I was old enough to know what I wanted then … there was a lot of hanging around. Vampires - that was one as well.
Were you a fan of his music?
Yeh. Especially Escape From New York. I remember learning that at a very early age.
That track sounds particularly strong today. Played by the band, it's really punchy, but still sounds true to the original.
We wanted to make it sound authentic to the originals, but also make it sound BIG. We wanted to give it a more band feel.
How did the first Lost Themes album come about?
What happened was that my dad got a new computer with a DAW [Digital Audio Workstation programme], Logic Pro - we’re still using Logic Pro – and he got these plug-ins, so we went downstairs to his studio and just started messing around, and recording. I left for Tokyo, for work, as I was living out there. A while later my dad’s music lawyer asked, 'have you got anything worth releasing?' And he gave her the stuff we’d done, and she passed it on to Sacred Bones, and they wanted to put it out. That’s when dad got Daniel [Davies] involved, he’s kinda the third member, working on the mixing.
Do you now see the tracks as having a life in film? As becoming themes to new movies?
At least one or two songs have been used in a film – they were licensed for a French film called Love. I don’t know anything about it, I’ve never seen it, but looking at things about it online … it looks very sexy … but I know nothing about it! So they’re starting to be used in movies.
It's quite a jump from jamming in a basement studio to a full-on international tour - how did that come about?
I believe it was Daniel’s idea. The three of us were together and he said about playing a single show, just for fun. Yeh! Let’s check it out!
Had your father played live before?
When he was in High School or university he played in some bands, a cover band I think, but other than that, he’d never played live before like this. I was a little worried – but it’s been no problem, no problem at all. He loves it.
What was your approach to re-arranging those old analogue synth tracks for a full live rock band? Do you use backing tracks?
A lot of that old stuff was triggered, but everything we’re playing is on stage – everything is live, everything, there’s no backing tracks.
What's next, after these dates? Will there be another tour?
Not that I know of, but things happen without me having a say [laughs].
What about Ludrium and your own projects?
There’s a number of things in the works. A collaboration with Dance With The Dead - I really like how that’s sounding. I’ve got that in the works, and a NES-styled [album], it’s really fun to limit sounds to NES [8-bit video game console] sounds.
John Carpenter brings his Live Retrospective show to Warwick Arts Centre on Thurs 27 October.