January 19, 2022 (Los Angeles, CA) – Today, Danny Elfman has unveiled a brand new music video for “In Time,” the latest single from his acclaimed new album Big Mess. Directed by Zev Deans (St. Vincent, Chelsea Wolfe, HEALTH), the video features artificial-intelligence-generated visuals created by Italian media artist Lorem and was produced using source footage of Danny that was run through a GAN (generative adversarial network).
The result is a hypnotic machine dream that collides the worlds of art and technology, melting and warping Elfman’s appearance through various colors, textures and backgrounds.
Preceded by music videos for the singles “Happy” (Aron Johnson), “Sorry” (Jesse Kanda), “Love In The Time of Covid” (Sven Gutjahr), “Kick Me” (Petros Papahadjopoulos), “True” (Sarah Sitkin), “Insects” (Sam & Andy Rolfes) and the reimagined duet version of “True” featuring Trent Reznor (Aron Johnson), “In Time” serves as a fittingly outlandish eighth chapter within the visual journey of Big Mess. Led overall by Elfman’s creative director Berit Gwendolyn Gilma, each of the video’s directors have created individual statements that shape a diverse but cohesive whole; all of which channel the feelings of anger, angst and frustration that pulse throughout the album.
Despite what you see, Elfman is not a nihilist. Describing his politics during the 1980s, Elfman said, “I’m not a doomist. My attitude is always to be critical of what’s around you, but not ever to forget how lucky we are.
As Danny Elfman was growing up in the Los Angeles area, he was largely unaware of his talent for composing. It wasn’t until the early 1970s that Danny and his older brother Richard Elfman started a musical troupe while in Paris; the group “Mystic Knights of Oingo-Boingo” was created for Richard’s directorial debut, Forbidden Zone (1980) (now considered a cult classic by Elfman fans). The group’s name went through many incarnations over the years, beginning with “The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo” and eventually just Oingo Boingo. While continuing to compose eclectic, intelligent rock music for his L.A.-based band (some of which had been used in various film soundtracks, e.g. Weird Science (1985)), Danny formed a friendship with young director Tim Burton, who was then a fan of Oingo Boingo. Danny went on to score the soundtrack of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985), Danny’s first orchestral film score. The Elfman-Burton partnership continued (most notably through the hugely-successful “Batman” flicks) and opened doors of opportunity for Danny, who has been referred to as “Hollywood’s hottest film composer”.
-30-
SCIFI.radio is listener supported sci-fi geek culture radio, and operates almost exclusively via the generous contributions of our fans via our Patreon campaign. If you like, you can also use our tip jar and send us a little something to help support the many fine creatives that make this station possible.
