LIFESTYLE INTERVIEW: DANNY ELFMAN

A Musician Gets Political: Battling Our Greatest Fear

By: Team Buzzine

November 3, 2008

Danny Elfman has taken an unusual departure from his studio and the scoring stage to organize OurGreatestFear.org and produce a TV commercial which is now showing in several eastern states. Buzzine correspondent Hannah Blackman spoke with Danny on the eve of the election:

Hannah Blackman: I saw your TV spot on OurGreatestFear.org. Very effective! But from writing film music to producing a political commercial — how on earth did this all happen?

Danny Elfman: Usually I’m a pretty non-political guy, but about a month ago, I found myself dropping into a pre-election depression. I was having dinner with my wife and a journalist friend. We were joking, trying to decide where we would move if McCain/Palin won and the inevitable Supreme Court changes occurred. England? New Zealand? It seemed pretty bleak.

HB: Are you usually such a pessimist?

DE: Yes, I am. I’m wired that way, and the last two presidential elections pretty well nailed it for me. I felt that the Republicans had gotten too nasty, ruthless, and mean-spirited.  They used the word “fear” again and again to hammer the American public. The Democrats had become too easy to attack. Karl Rove and his buddies had changed the playing field in the battlefield for the White House, and the Democratic party had not yet learned how to adjust to the new rules.

HB: At what specific point did you decide to take action?

DE: About a month ago, when I heard a barrage of horrific lies raining down on Obama — why wasn’t I seeing direct response ads hitting back? Was it just that the Democrats weren’t wired that way? I was really impressed with Obama consistently taking the high ground. That’s who he is. But where was his ground level support? The pessimistic storm cloud that was following me around all the time was bringing my wife and my whole family down. Even my dog was morose. So I was on a flight to New York. I had more or less come to the conclusion that why couldn’t I, an ordinary guy, do something better than sit and whine?  Back in L.A., I began to make phone calls and send out e-mails. I began to get an education in what’s involved in actually getting something done. I knew what I wanted my first message to say.  It was what everyone I knew talked about. It was my worst nightmare.

HB: And that nightmare was…?

DE: My worst nightmare was Sarah Palin. I felt I was seeing a reenactment of The Omen. Not that I thought she was Damien with a 666 on her scalp, but it was some terrible kind of horror — a person who believed that men walked with dinosaurs, that the world began 6,000 years ago, someone who believed in “end of days” and might actually be in possession of the launch codes for enough firepower to actually bring Armageddon without God’s help…no way!

HB: So how did you actually begin?

DE: I talked to consultants, researchers, lawyers…anybody I could learn from.  It’s difficult to begin a political non-profit. There are rules, regulations… But it was a great relief to my wife that I stopped my constant whining and that I had snapped out of that hopeless mental state.

HB: You felt you could accomplish something important…?

DE: That I could change the course of an election?  I’m not that arrogant. I was driven by the crazy idea that I could make a tiny dent in an iron-plated machine…like attacking an army tank with a hammer. I thought I could be one of those many independent people and groups who, like me, could do something…that if enough hammers were going at once, maybe the dent would become bigger and if we were lucky, we might open a small crack in that machine.

HB: It must have been enormously difficult to get started.

DE: I had help from my daughter Lola, who is a political activist and works with political blogs, my daughter Mali helped with the proofing, my nephew Louis did the site work, and that great producer Dany Wolf  helped me in the production of the ad.

HB: And this is so completely different from anything you’ve done before?

DE:  I’m extremely reclusive and I get completely lost in my work. I’m the guy who sits in his basement obliviously writing music while the world comes crumbling down around him. Until now, I never felt the call to do anything remotely like this. I may very well look back on this from some point in the future as the dumbest thing I ever did, but I still had to try.

HB: I hope that OurGreatestFear.org is going to make a difference on Tuesday.

DE: I hope so. Things look better now than they did a month ago. The Democratic party has pulled itself together and I’m proud of them, but it’s still close and the stakes are high, and I won’t relax until November 5th.

HB: It’s been so great talking to you. Buzzine doesn’t take political sides, but just between us, I’m with you, Danny. 

So please accept personal thanks for taking time away from creating great music and making the effort that most of us only think about and talk about, creating OurGreatestFear.org...