Yesterday, the “Geek Twins” got an email about legendary music composer Alan Howarth (They Live, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Escape from New York, Mask):
“Having composed scores for Halloween, Escape From New York, and a slew of other John Carpenter flicks, Alan Howarth may be the consummate ’80s boogeyman: http://www.thirteen.org/riffcity/alan-howarth
“For Riff City, the composer speaks about fright music, strange sound contraptions, and working with Snoop, Dre, and Nate Dogg.”
Growing up in New York, I remember the public television station WNET with great fondness. It was thanks to that station that I first got to watch Doctor Who! It’s a great interview and here are some of his best quotes:
They Live
“All of his work is timeless, and will be viewed for many generations moving forward.
The They Live story has homeless in tent cities, government collusion with unseen forces, an average guy hero — we can all relate to this today. It is what we seen on the TV now.
…I also created many of the alien sound design elements for the film. I had done extensive sci-fi sound design for major features, so it was a natural flow for me.”
Escape from New York (1981)
Carpenter was really surprised that I wanted to make a soundtrack album for Escape From New York; he didn’t think anyone would listen to it outside of the movie. I think we sold 80,000 copied of the vinyl in the ’80s.
After that he just shrugged his shoulders and said, “Go figure, people really like our stuff.” Time has proven that the music still stands up; this is the real validation of the scores. Halloween III score has certainly out lasted the original film. I like that one a lot.
Follow the link to read about his recording top secret military sounds for Star Trek and how he used a condom for The Hunt for Red October sound effects.
Has Alan Howarth scared you with his music and sounds?
[Image Source http://www.thirteen.org/riffcity/alan-howarth/]
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