Listen and subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google | Wherever you listen
Register Read our daily newsletter to get the best of The New Yorker news delivered to your inbox.
Director John Carpenter there's a whole shelf of cult classics: They Live, The Thing, Escape from New York, Halloween and many others. Although he hadn't made a new film in over a decade, Carpenter continued to work in the film industry, composing music for other directors. (Bong Joon-ho recently approached him about a horror film.) He has also released albums of cinematic music (no film required), often working with his son Cody Carpenter and musician Daniel Davis, his godson. New Yorker Radio Hour producer Adam Howard speaks with Carpenter ahead of the start of his upcoming tour, just in time for Halloween, and they discuss the unusual transition he's made from directing to composing. “It's a transition from pain to joy. Directing films is very, very stressful,” explains Carpenter. “Playing music in front of a live audience is a joy. It's just a joy.” Carpenter recommends three inspiring tracks from film history: Bebe and Louis Barron's electronic score for Forbidden Planet; Bernard Herrmann's work on Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo; and Hans Zimmer's score for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour appear every Tuesday and Friday. Follow the show anywhere you will receive your podcasts.
The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co-production between WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
