Danny Elfman brought all of his selves to the ‘White Noise’ score – including his late father
At the age of 28, it was hard, but he’d done it.
Dan Elfman was a musician, writer, novelist, and actor in his own right, who also created and starred as a musical magician in a long-running TV show.
But for years he’d struggled with chronic pain in his left knee and he’d recently undergone a major knee replacement operation that had left him with a bad limp.
These days, the Canadian musician and actor is a much healthier man.
Elfman first performed professionally when he was just nine, and he began to play the piano at age 15. He learned to play the guitar at age 20, and that one gig led to other gigs in Vancouver, Vancouver Island, and B.C.
He quickly became one of the most in-demand musicians on Vancouver Island.
A good portion of his early success was due to his stage presence and stage presence alone. His stage persona was that of a cool young man who loved to drink wine, play the piano, and party with girlfriends.
He was handsome, charismatic, and popular. And he was quite good at charming and seducing girls.
Elfman was a tall man, standing at six-foot-five with a massive frame. He was known to sometimes be wearing a size-18 shoe. He was a huge fan of classic American movies, like Rocky Horror Picture Show, and would often get dressed up in the costume of the day.
It was in this persona that Elfman would play the guitar and write songs as the musical act “Ceremony of Innocence”.
He would also perform his song “White Noise” with the late composer and musical director of Ceremony of Innocence, Dan Reed.
When Reed approached Elfman to write music for a stage show he would create as a young man, Elfman immediately agreed because he felt that music was his passion. So in 1983 Elfman wrote the song “White Noise” for what would become Ceremony of Innocence and he recorded it on his own record label, Fruitspace Sound Productions