{"id":2657,"date":"2012-10-08T13:04:03","date_gmt":"2012-10-08T13:04:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/?p=2657"},"modified":"2012-10-08T13:04:03","modified_gmt":"2012-10-08T13:04:03","slug":"john-5-talks-about-writing-the-lords-of-salem-score","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/2012\/10\/08\/john-5-talks-about-writing-the-lords-of-salem-score\/","title":{"rendered":"John 5 talks about writing The Lords of Salem score"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"When Rob Zombie was looking for someone to score his new movie The Lords of Salem it seemed natural to go to his right hand man, guitarist John 5. \u00a0The movie premiered in Toronto in September and the trailer is available to watch at robzombie.com.<\/p>\n

John 5 spoke to Daily Herald<\/a> to explain the process of how the score was created and came to be.<\/p>\n

Rob Zombie guitarist John5 wanted to write something simple yet scary when he sat down to compose the score for his band leader\u2019s latest horror film, \u201cThe Lords of Salem.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trick, he said, was coming up with material that wouldn\u2019t distract audiences but also wouldn\u2019t be easily forgotten.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always say, it\u2019s music that people don\u2019t want to listen to, because you\u2019re watching the movie,\u201d said\u00a0John5, whose real name is John Lowery. \u201cIt\u2019s tough. It\u2019s gotta be good enough, but it can\u2019t distract you.\u201d<\/p>\n

John5 performs Thursday, Oct. 11, in Rosemont when\u00a0Zombie\u00a0co-headlines the Twins of Evil Tour with\u00a0Marilyn Manson\u00a0at the Allstate Arena. The guitarist, who previously worked with Manson and Van Halen singer David Lee Roth, spoke to the Daily Herald by phone Tuesday about writing spooky film music and how that factors into his career as a solo artist and guitar virtuoso for one of America\u2019s most horror-obsessed multimedia figures.<\/p>\n

Q. Shooting for \u201cThe Lords of Salem\u201d (due out next year) started almost exactly a year ago. At what point did you start working on the music, and what did you have to work with?<\/p>\n

A. Rob would give me direction, like, \u2018I want it to sound like this, or I want it to sound like that.\u2019 It\u2019s very primitive, not your everyday-sounding instruments. I would use a violin bow across an acoustic guitar or clank on things or use other odd musical instruments. Then, of course, you have your bassoons and french horns and everything under the sun for other parts of the score. It\u2019s very unorthodox, if you will, but it really was a lot of fun. It was a lot of work and it was a big challenge. It turned out amazing, though. I\u2019m very proud of it; that\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\n

Q. You previously wrote music in the movies \u201cFrom hell\u201d and Rob Zombie\u2019s \u201cHalloween II,\u201d but this was your first full film score. Why did you want to do it?<\/p>\n

A. I like to do stuff that I haven\u2019t done before. I wanted to give it the old high-school try and, again, it was like, \u2018Wow, this is a lot of work,\u2019 because a lot of it wasn\u2019t in a certain time signature or key signature, so it was different for me than when everything is all mapped out.<\/p>\n

Q. Horror movies have inspired some great music, from the band Goblin\u2019s work with Italian director Dario Argento to John Carpenter\u2019s self-scored films and Mike Oldfield\u2019s \u201cTubular Bells,\u201d featured in \u201cThe Exorcist.\u201d Did you draw inspiration from these titles or any others?<\/p>\n

A. Absolutely. Everything you just mentioned. I wanted the theme of this movie to be very simple, like \u201cJaws\u201d or \u201cHalloween\u201d \u2014 something that\u2019s so easy to remember. When you see the movie, you\u2019ll understand what I\u2019m talking about. I really wanted to concentrate on the simple things that ring in your head. I wanted to do something easy in that sense so people could remember it and hopefully have fun with it.<\/p>\n

Q. Did you have a lot of visual elements to work with?<\/p>\n

A. We (John5 and producer Griffin Boice) would get visuals, or we would get a scene or two and just go off of it from there. It\u2019s really amazing when you see a shot with nothing there and then create this sound. It\u2019s pretty incredible to see how it all comes to life. It\u2019s funny, the power of music. I was watching \u201cDracula,\u201d the 1931 version with Bela Lugosi, and the only music you hear is at the very beginning of the credits. There\u2019s not one other piece of music; it\u2019s all silent. It\u2019s unbelievable and it\u2019s very effective too.<\/p>\n

Q. On top of the film score, you recently released your sixth solo album, \u201cGod Told Me To,\u201d and started working on a record with Rob Zombie. How does it feel to be back out on the road after all that time in the studio?<\/p>\n

A. Being out on the road is like vacation \u2014 it really is. Here\u2019s what I did so far today: I woke up whenever I wanted, got up, had room service in my really nice room. Now I\u2019m talking to you, and what I\u2019ll do is go to the venue, go to catering, sign some autographs, see some girls lift their shirts up while we\u2019re onstage, and have a great time playing amazing Zombie music, and do it all again the next day. So it\u2019s like being on a heavy-metal vacation.<\/p>\n

Q. Your live show is supposed to be pretty outrageous. What can you tell us about it?<\/p>\n

A. The live show is so big. I mean, when I\u2019m saying it\u2019s big, it\u2019s big. When people come to see this show they will be like, he wasn\u2019t kidding. It is so massive. Last night, we have these little risers we stand on so the crowd can see us. And we have these huge, huge robots and machines come out onstage, and I have to get on these risers so these big props can come out onstage. So I got up on my riser last night and the thing was so big it knocked me in the back and I almost flew off the stage. That\u2019s how big this thing is. There\u2019s so much fire and so much production, I guarantee you will get your money\u2019s worth.<\/p>\n

Q. What\u2019s the coolest stage prop you\u2019ve seen so far?<\/p>\n

A. To me, it\u2019s this, like, 14-foot devil puppet. I just love it. It looks really rad.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John 5 spoke to the Daily Herald about scoring The Lords of Salem<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[14,319,248],"class_list":["post-2657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interview","tag-rob-zombie","tag-score","tag-the-lords-of-salem","tw-post-no-content"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1qFj4-GR","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3221,"url":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/2013\/02\/27\/the-lords-of-salem-score-cover-revealed\/","url_meta":{"origin":2657,"position":0},"title":"The Lords of Salem score cover revealed","author":"Dillon - Team John 5","date":"February 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"See the cover for The Lords of Salem score","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"TLOS-score-tease","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/TLOS-score-tease.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/TLOS-score-tease.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/john-5.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/TLOS-score-tease.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3188,"url":"https:\/\/john-5.com\/main\/2013\/02\/22\/john-5-talks-scoring-the-lords-of-salem-and-new-zombie-album\/","url_meta":{"origin":2657,"position":1},"title":"John 5 talks scoring Lords of Salem and new Zombie album","author":"Dillon - 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