Danny Elfman Artistfacts

May 29, 1953
Danny Elfman is one of the most prolific and acclaimed composers of film music, both songs and scores. He's worked on many of Tim Burton's movies - they share an offbeat, macabre creative sensibility that comes through in films like Edward Scissorhands (1990), Big Fish (2003) and Alice in Wonderland (2010).
The first movie Elfman worked on was his brother Richard's film The Forbidden Zone, which premiered in 1980. Danny also appears in the film, playing Satan. The film didn't get much attention, but Danny's music did, leading to lots of opportunities for him to work on movie music.
From 1979 to 1995, Elfman led an eight-piece Los Angeles-based band called Oingo Boingo, which developed a cult following and were known for their annual Halloween shows. They had a minor hit in 1985 with "Weird Science," made for the John Hughes movie of the same name.
After high school, Elfman used money from a car accident settlement to travel to Europe, where he spent three months before heading to Africa, where he spent time in Nigeria, Senegal and Uganda. He travelled with his violin, and often used it to communicate. "By playing, I would find the musicians in each village or town, and they would play for me," he told Seventeen.

Elfman returned to Los Angeles when the money ran out - about a year after he started his journey.
He wrote the theme song to The Simpsons, which he said was like "winning the lottery." He also composed the theme to Desperate Housewives, but not all of the series he's worked on have been so popular. Anyone remember Sledge Hammer! or Family Dog?
Elfman is a self-proclaimed "science nerd," and was a bit of a mad scientist as a kid. "Back then, you were able to send to the Atomic Energy Commission and get strontium-90 and cobalt-60 in little vials," he told Details in 1993. "I used to steal needles from my diabetic grandfather and use them to irradiate flies, hoping to create hideous mutations."
Elfman has no formal musical training and is self-taught on violin, guitar and keyboards. "The way I get around my lack of training and technique is by drawing on my having grown up in a world of movies," he explained to Fanfare magazine. "Very often, when I'm not sure how to approach something, I say, 'How would I approach this if I were 13 years old, sitting in a theater, and watching the movie?' In other words, what would make me come alive?"

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