When Danny Elfman played at Coachella on Saturday night, he saw a lot of his work come to life. Oingo Boingo new-wave classics were part of the setlist, but there was also a 40-year-plus, career-encompassing part of it. He played songs from his orchestral-rock comeback album to a “Simpsons” theme song that went viral after he played it at a concert. That’s not the only thing, though. Elfman says that during that hour on stage, he felt everything he’s ever felt on stage, from dread about technical issues not going as planned to elation at the end.
In the end, even if Elfman’s appearance wasn’t met with glee by viewers at home and by the thousands who were there, it would still have been one of Coachella’s most talked about. It was Monday, and Variety talked to him about how he felt coming off the adrenaline, because he’s going to play again at Coachella in five days.
When you first came up with the idea of planning a Coachella performance in 2019 and then almost had the chance to do it before the festival was cancelled in 2020, we talked about this last year. It had already been a long time since you came up with the idea. As soon as the first of two performances is over, how do you feel about it?
I was just happy to have made it through. Before the show, I told a friend, “Look, we have 30 minutes to set up a show that hasn’t been done before with 50 musicians on stage. We can do it.” What could go wrong? Before we went on, I thought, “Fuck, man. Then: “That was a joke, but it’s not a joke.” Things could have gone wrong a hundred ways. It turned out that one thing I didn’t think I’d get was a dust storm in my face. Everything else worked out well.
When I saw a lot of tweets, I thought, “What’s going on? What’s going on? What’s going on?” In the end, that’s what I wanted. There were a lot of crazy headlines, like “68-year-old Elfman and 20-year-old Eilish make festival history,” but I didn’t think I’d get so many people excited about it. In the end, Billie and I thought that was so funny that we were the wunderkind and the old man of Coachella. Stuff like that was valuable in a weird way.
It’s been amazing, and it’s been a crazy and intense feeling. Going into it, I knew it was going to be a very risky thing. I don’t think anyone has ever done this before, mixing these kinds of things together in this kind of crazy musical mashup. You don’t know what will happen when you try an idea that’s not real. But, in the end, not having a safety net is also very exciting. As soon as the net is down and you know you could fall into an abyss, it’s like that. That, of course, is very exciting on its own.
People who are fans of everything you do would have loved your set list. It included everything from your new album, “Big Mess,” to the “Simpsons” theme to the “Spider-Man” theme to “Only a Lad.” No, it didn’t seem that way at first.
Put it this way: The last time I had a day off, I was very happy. I was also very catatonic. Think about it, and you’re going to have a lot of mental doubts about whether you’re going to spend all this time and money on the craziest idea ever, or if it’s going to work on some weird level? I was going to have to find out. Take it on the road and try it out. There was no way to do this When I put myself out there and said, “I know this is crazy, but this is me, and this is how I am. For better or worse, this is me.” All of that was going through my head as I walked outside. Nobody thought, “Oh yeah, this is going to kill them.” “Can they hang me?” Are you breaking the law, or are you just breaking the rules in music?
This was “my first time on stage as “myself” in 27 years.” In the past few years, you’ve only played a few times, but on Saturday night, you did some things you haven’t been able to do at orchestral shows that show how you worked as a composer or at “Nightmare Before Christmas” shows. Taking your shirt off.
People who saw me in the late ’80s and early ’90s saw me just like that. At Coachella, I had to wear shoes because there were so many different acts going on and off. They didn’t know whether the stage was made of nails or wood. But besides the shoes, I just wanted to look like I did 30 or 40 years ago, and I’m here now. It’s also not to be embarrassed or ashamed of that fact, either. It’s like, “Yeah, I’m old. Fuck it… I’m already here.
So that was kind of a spur of the moment thing. That’s what I thought about the sixth or seventh song. if someone had seen me in 1990, this is what they would have seen. I’m going to just go for it. Part of putting myself out there. Apparently that was the last thing I had to protect myself with. I decided to give it away, too. [Laughs.] I kind of gave up the last little bit of protection I had between me now and my past, and what I am and what I was. Besides, I didn’t think about it before I did it.
Online, there was a conversation going on that we didn’t see in online discussions in the early ’80s and early ’90s, partly because there were no online discussions at that time. They said things like: “Have we talked about how hot Danny Elfman is yet?”
Really?
This is something I didn’t expect to see in 2022 for a number of reasons, but here we are. There are a lot of compliments about how good you look right now.
All that hard work, I guess. You know, I’ve tried to stay in shape my whole life, and now I’m glad I did. As a result, I thought this would read, “Oh my God, I wanted to throw up when I saw him take his shirt off.” I thought he looked bad. I think of myself that way, too. This is a big surprise to me.
In the past, you said that you didn’t miss performing live, that you weren’t one of the people who lived for it, and that you had too many worries about shows to lose yourself the way some musicians say. People might be right to wonder if you’re having fun during a rare show like this one.
When I took my shirt off, I think that was when I said, “Fuck it, I’m having fun tonight. I don’t care.” I don’t care, and I’ll just enjoy this. So that was kind of a turning point for me in the show. It was more than just a show of friendship. When you throw in the towel, you also say things like that. I don’t care about it. I’m going to enjoy this group of people. I’ll enjoy the music. I will enjoy the band. “Technical problems be damned,” says a man. There is nothing else I can say. … and I did too! I mean, I had a lot of fun. When I went outside, I didn’t know how people were taking it, but I had fun. Thank you for giving me the chance to find that place and not get obsessed with the things I didn’t like. If I don’t hear these things in the mix, I’m going to be completely out of whack. For being able to push through the part that was hard for me and still have a good time, I was the most proud of myself.
The first thing that confused you was what was going on.
Things that were most surprising were that the wind was picking up in my microphone and making my mix sound bad on stage, so I had to start over from the beginning. There comes a point when you have a hard time on stage because of what you’re hearing. You believe that the people who are watching aren’t hearing the same thing. Then, I think now that it’s over, they weren’t, and I’m very happy that it is. So, if it happens again next weekend, I’ll be ready to deal with it. When you can’t hear enough of a group of people playing, but you can hear yourself and the energy is good so you’ll just keep going. It was just a really weird, surreal, and interesting thing to do. In terms of things that could go wrong with the technology, I didn’t expect a huge wind to blow on me and into my microphone. A lot of excitement and adrenaline mixed with a little bit of panic about not being able to hear what I needed to hear and then, “the hell with it.” I’m explaining something in the worst possible way. I’m not sorry I did it.
Then there’s the fact that people all over the world can watch the show online, and your live audience is only a small part of them.
And that will be even better. Also on Saturday night. Because I didn’t know until today that they were trying to mix their own music in the audio truck, with 50 players, you know what I mean? A lot of the band didn’t make it into that feed because of the music. I thought they were getting the same feed as the house, but they weren’t. Next week, they will, and it will be even better because you can hear the guitars. It was a little shocking to me, but there are so many moving parts in this kind of thing. I didn’t know what to expect. When it comes to feedback loops, even though the mix isn’t complete, I still get so much good feedback that I’m surprised and excited. This is even though the mix is so incomplete and the feedback is so good. Make it better now.
This weekend, after you read the comments, you may have a better idea of how people are reacting to the show now that you know what they say.
I didn’t know what was going on in the crowd. On stage, I could only see the very front. All I hoped for was that they didn’t hear what I was hearing, which was a low-end rumble that never stopped. I didn’t know how it was communicating with each other at all. I saw a lot of wide-eyed people just by looking at the people who were closer to me. That was interesting to me. “Are they shocked because they love this? Or shocked because they don’t like it at all?” But I knew that I was surprising people, and a big part of me was having a good time.
People will wonder if there will be a tour version of this. On your last album, you played with a lot of chamber-punk-style strings, but they wouldn’t be able to handle the film-score parts. No, I don’t have any plans.
Do the shows and then talk about them and see where it goes. I have no other plans. It’s all been about: Let’s just put it out there for Coachella, and then we’ll see how it goes. There’s no way that I could have made things more difficult for myself than by putting on this kind of show. With “Big Mess,” it would be a lot easier for me to go on tour because I could do that with a much smaller string section and group of singers. But I think we’ll have to see.
When I think about it now, I’m not at all sorry about the crazy idea I came up with in 2019. I called Paul Tollette, the president and CEO of Goldenvoice, and told him about it. I don’t feel bad about it. Until Saturday night, it was just a crazy idea. I’m glad we did it, and I’m glad I kept going. It was very interesting and cool. In one hour, I went through a whole lifetime of things I had never done before.
Elfman’s setlist for Coachella:
There was a lot of bugs in “Big Mess” (Oingo Boingo song)
“Spider-Man” Nothing to fear except fear itself (Oingo Boingo)
Another Day (Oingo Boingo)
Here are some of the lines from Jack: from “The Nightmare Before Christmas”
It’s the Breakfast Machine from the movie “Pee-Big wee’s Adventure.”
Kick me, and I’ll make a mess.
When you’re crazy, you’re crazy (Oingo Boingo)
Big Mess is the “Batman” Theme that everyone agrees on
“The Simpsons” is the name of the TV show Only a Lad (Oingo Boingo)
Love in the era of COVID (Big Mess).
The Grand Finale from “Edward Scissorhands” is about ice dancing.
Party for the dead: (Oingo Boingo)
When Alice in Wonderland was made, her theme was called “Alice in Wonderland.”
Happy is a big mess.
Do you want to be a person? (Oingo Boingo)