Quotes

"A lot of composers just turn in the score... Danny really works it out with you and lets you be a part of it. That makes it very exciting." Tim Burton

"It's kind of like two kids working in this big playground... Tim's movies are all so different from one another. I know whatever he's going to give me is not what I'm expecting." Danny Elfman

"It's a real intuitive relationship... Rather than telling me exactly what he wants orchestrally, Tim will show me a scene and describe the feeling he wants to get across. Then I'll go into the studio and try to find that feeling in music." Danny Elfman

"For me, the most exciting thing was the fact that Tim Burton and I were on the film together. We had a kind of falling out, and hadn't spoken in a while, but we made up and came back together. It felt good, just like a family thing. As often happens in families, it gets very emotional, and you're not calling each other, you don't see each at the next Thanksgiving dinner. Then, time goes by, and you go, 'I really miss that person.' You find that yeah, it's workable, and you resolve these things. We've done some good work together, and I think we both recognize that. Coming back together felt really good, so working with Tim again is very cool." Danny Elfman

"Our brains work on the same wavelength... The hardest part of being a composer is not really playing a melody for the director, or deciding whether to use a synthesizer or a piano or whatnot, it's really finding what the director get's excited about. It's finding the movie's tone, and Tim's films have such an unusual tone that nailing that becomes such an important thing." Daany Elfman

"It's really difficult communicating with a composer because I don't speak their language.. I end up telling Danny certain broad strokes, and then he'll say, 'Maybe we should go for Gypsy violins here,' and we'll get a mix of our different ideas. It's one of the hardest things to put into words. We end up having conversations that are pretty telepathic." Tim Burton

" It's at the same time very very simple and very very complicated. It's like a true disfunctional family in the best sense of the word. Nothing's ever straight-road or straight-line working with Tim - it's always round-about - and oddly after 20 years and 11 films it hasn't gotten any easier. So everybody thinks after 20 years it must be real easy - you have (like) magic sign language with each other... naw. Nothing magic!" Danny Elfman

" Working with Tim is just like working with Tim. It’s a regular thing for me. It’s always both easy and difficult than working with other directors. It’s easier in a sense I know I’m going to be able to do some really fun stuff and getting inside his head is such an interesting place to be. It can be difficult insofar as he can be very difficult to nail down and pull him into the musical world. He’s not a pushover. With some directors I will get an automatic yes. But Tim will get very specific and wait for things to hit him a certain way. Sometimes things will hit him strangely or odd. Sometimes we have to go through a bit of a journey to get to where we’re going to get to. But the good thing about working with Tim is that I know however that journey is, difficult or not, I’m always going to be pleased at the end. It’s never a waste of time." Danny Elfman