Tim Delaughter, of the Polyphonic Spree

DATE September 23, 2003 ACCOUNT NUMBER N/A
TIME 12:00 Noon-1:00 PM AUDIENCE N/A
NETWORK NPR
PROGRAM Fresh Air

Interview: Tim Delaughter discusses the music of his band, The
Polyphonic Spree
BARBARA BOGAEV, host:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Barbara Bogaev in for Terry Gross.

An an age of music sampling and virtually limitless digital effects, the
Dallas-based band, The Polyphonic Spree, is an anachronism, 24 musicians on
stage playing an array of instruments including flute, French horn, theremin
and harp along with guitars, bass and drums. There's a nine-person choir, and
everyone wears flowing white robes. The mix of rock and symphonic music with
the visual image of a rousing tent revival meeting has some critics scrambling
for ways to pigeonhole the group. One came up with this: `They're like the
Hare Krishna-Jackson 25. Tim Delaughter is the founder and front man of The
Polyphonic Spree. He was a member of the '90s rock band Tripping Daisy. Now
Delaughter is taking this unwieldy show on a national tour, and they have an
album, "The Beginning Stages of Polyphonic Spree." Here's a cut called "It's
The Sun."

(Soundbite of music)

THE POLYPHONIC SPREE: Suuuuuuuuuunn, take some time, get away.
Suuuuuuuuuunn, suicide is a shame. Suuuuuuuuuunn, soon you'll find your own
way. Suuuuuuuuuunn, hope has come, you are saved and it makes me cry because
I'm on my way...

BOGAEV: Tim Delaughter, welcome to FRESH AIR.

Mr. TIM DELAUGHTER (The Polyphonic Spree): I'm very, very happy to be here.
Thank you very much.

BOGAEV: Well, let me ask you this: What came first for you when you were
conceiving of this band? Did you hear the sound, or did you see this gestalt
of a whole choral group dressed in white on the stage?

Mr. DELAUGHTER: No. My version is not as romantic as it seems now. Mine was
a lot more linear and unromantic. It was going for a sound that was something
that I had been hearing for a long time. I was really inspired as a kid to
orchestral pop music, sunny pop music in the early '70s, bands that were using
symphonic orchestration to be able to do their songs and tell their stories,
and...

BOGAEV: Like what? Like, the Association or...

Mr. DELAUGHTER: Well, the Association and 5th Dimension and bands like that.
Phil Spector's sound, Beach Boys, Walt Disney storybook records. These
things--yeah, they're all...

BOGAEV: Look, it's a great combo.

Mr. DELAUGHTER: Well, they all--it's kind of the same music. It's really
weird. I don't know. As a kid, it was real--I don't know. The first thing I
ever really bought was that kind of music. First record I ever bought was
"Beach Baby" by the First Class. And it's just this real sunny, up pop, but
symphonic orchestration helped to tell the story. It's just--I don't know.
And as a kid, it, I don't know, just really appealed to me. And so going
through my years of becoming a songwriter, I flushed out guitar, bass and
drums for a long time in my previous band, Tripping Daisy, and then it became,
like, wishful thinking when I was recording, like, `Wow, I wish I had a flute
at this part instead of this guitar line,' or, `At this crescendo, I wish I
had this glissando of a harp playing here,' and it was that kind of, like,
wishful thinking back then that I thought, `Well, you know what? One day I'm
going to put a band together that's going to have this sound that is appealing
for me.' And it's very self-indulgent, putting Polyphonic Spree together, and
it's definitely evolved into something a lot more beautiful than what I had
ever anticipated.

BOGAEV: You know, there's this very trippy sound to hearing so many voices.
It's almost as if--you know, when you sing into a fan and you get that...

Mr. DELAUGHTER: Oh, yeah.

BOGAEV: ...that effect?

Mr. DELAUGHTER: Yeah, that's funny you brought that up, because that was
another inspiration of mine; it was the fan. As a kid, I would sing in those
fans and do melodies in there, and you could really glide, like, `Ahhhhhhhh!'
You could really kind of glide the rail of the melody through a fan, and to
kind of regenerate that effect, I initially started using effects in my voice
in the early bands in high school and stuff, because I wanted that kind of
effect. And then it got to the point where I would double my vocal and then
sometimes triple and quadruple and add more vocals, and it was--little did I
know, I was grooming myself to be able to have a choir. And then it got to
the point, `Well, I'd like to have 10 people singing, you know, as one instead
of just me and doubling myself,' and it all came from that fan that we've all
kind of sang in or talked into at one time. It also made a major impression
on me.

BOGAEV: Well, did you sing in chorus as a kid? And I've got to say, it does
remind me of my chorus experience where we all sang that Coke commercial song,
you know...

Mr. DELAUGHTER: Oh, yeah. Oh, I sang it.

BOGAEV: ..."I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing."

Mr. DELAUGHTER: Of course. I mean, I sang right there with you in the
living room. I wasn't with a choir. I never was in choir or sang in school
or anything. I did try band, like concert band, and I played drums, but I
pretty much had my own agenda. I started my first band in the third grade and
was playing drums, and they were actually ice cream buckets I had gotten from
Baskin Robbins. I bolted them together to make myself a kit because I wasn't
able to get one from my parents. They weren't embracing the loud, bombastic
drum sound yet.

But that's where it started, and vocals came later. I never was in choir,
but, you know, as a kid, I also went to--down here in Texas, we used to have
these big, like, church revivals, and I think it was the Beverly Hills Baptist
Church. They used to have them at this Bronco Bull that we had here in
Dallas, and massive kind of big choir, big band in this church where
everyone's, you know, singing. It's all about the music, and I'm sure that
had an effect as well.

BOGAEV: Well, the lyrics are really upbeat in your song. It's all
inspirational. It's about hope or recovery, and I'm wondering what was going
on in your life when you did start the band, because I know your first band
dismantled after the drug overdose of your band mate, Wes Berggren. So did
his death hit you hard, and did that experience somehow contribute, help shape
the kind of music that you were hearing in your head?

Mr. DELAUGHTER: Oh, definitely. At the time, you don't really--I don't know.
I didn't really think about it. I guess I was so in it that I didn't really
realize the aftereffect, but, yeah, most definitely, I can look back and
totally see. It's still something that we're all dealing with, with Wes being
gone, and at that particular time, you know, I was also a father for the first
time. My daughter Stella was being born, and it was kind of weird. I was
going through, you know, the loss of a dear friend and then the birth of my
child, my first child.

And so it was a very strange time for me and a vulnerable time, and lyrically,
I think I've always kind of been on the upside, so to speak. I kind of have a
blueprint past of having a positive--I don't know--just hopeful aspect on
things. And, I mean, the way I look at it, it's my path, and you'd better be
optimistic if you're going down your own path. So that's the way I tend to
look at things.

BOGAEV: So you have this idea for this polyphonic chorus, and I understand
your friend booked you a gig even before you had any band members. So how
long did you have to get the group together?

Mr. DELAUGHTER: Roughly two weeks. Yeah. Well, I had gotten to the point
where once I had named the band, that was the biggest hurdle for me at the
beginning, was once I decided to do it and go for it, I really couldn't go
forth until I had named the sound of what this thing was going to be called
because in the beginning, that was all I really cared about was the sound, `I
can't do it. It just won't happen unless I can--it has to be named for me.'
For some reason, that was a big point. And once I came up with the name, I
was, like, `That's it,' and I just started talking about it and, you know,
driving up...

BOGAEV: Well, where did that come from?

Mr. DELAUGHTER: The name?

BOGAEV: Where'd the name come from?

Mr. DELAUGHTER: Oh, this is kind of funny. I collected these stickers called
Wacky Packages. I'm sure...

BOGAEV: Oh, no.

Mr. DELAUGHTER: ...a lot of kids out there...

BOGAEV: The bane of my youth. That's...

Mr. DELAUGHTER: Exactly.

BOGAEV: ...like, the '70s equivalent of Garbage Pail Kids, right?

Mr. DELAUGHTER: Right. Yeah, exactly. This was what I used to blow my
lunch money on every morning before school. And so I have every single one of
them that they ever made, and I had...

BOGAEV: Just for people who don't remember what these are, you must know some
examples there out of your collection.

Mr. DELAUGHTER: Yeah, they were these wonderful stickers that came out that
mocked consumer products. Instead of Tide detergent, it was Toe detergent.
And it looked just like the product, but it was spelled into the joke of what
they decided to name that one as. And wonderful artwork on there, and anyway,
it came with two stickers and a bubble gum and a card, and they were 5 cents,
and I, you know, loved them. And so we traded them all the time.

And anyway, I've got an uncut sheet of these things...

BOGAEV: Oh, a collector's item.

Mr. DELAUGHTER: Yeah, I actually have two of them, but this particular one,
I had just had it framed, and it was kind of leaning against the wall in the
bedroom, and I'm trying to think of the name, and I hadn't come up with
anything yet, nothing, not even a working title or anything for the name of
the band, but I thought, `I need to'--I'm trying to think. I'm standing in
the bedroom, and it's kind of dark in there. The only light that's coming in
there is from in there in the, you know, kitchen spilling in there, and it's
kind of like gracing this picture I just had framed.

And I just kind of casually glanced at it, and I caught the word `poly' and it
was off one of the stickers for Polident denture adhesive, and it had a parrot
on there for Polly Wanna Cracker or something like that. And I just saw the
word poly, and I said, `The Polyphonic Spree,' and I thought for a second and
I went, `Oh, my gosh, man, The Polyphonic Spree. Oh, my goodness, and my wife
is in there on the computer, and she goes, `What did you say?' and I said,
`The Polyphonic Spree.' And she's quiet and she goes, `I like it.' And I go,
`This is it. Oh, my gosh.' I started running around the room, screaming, `Oh,
Got it, man.' It just hit me. It was so warm and just that was it, and then
she immediately--she's online. She types up domain name to see if she can get
it, and we bought it immediately. And that was it; it was The Polyphonic
Spree. And from that moment on, I had everything in my head and knew exactly
what I wanted to do. And so I got to the point where I was driving my good
friend Chris Penn crazy and my wife. And he said, `Well, I'm going to book
you on a show opening for Grandaddy and Bright Eyes at the Gypsy Tea Room here
in Dallas.' And I said, `I don't know about this,' and I go...

BOGAEV: Those are big bands.

Mr. DELAUGHTER: Yeah. Well, I go, `I don't even have a band. I don't have
a band, I don't have these songs together, and that's in two weeks, you know.'
And he goes, `You can do it,' so that's when we did it. And I went to some
close friends and some acquaintances and I was able to, you know, gather up 13
people, and we did the show.

BOGAEV: Well, where did you find these musicians? And are they classically
trained? They seem to be. Are they the kind of classical musicians who are
always looking for a way to do something cool and less restrained and less
controlled, to rock out?

Mr. DELAUGHTER: Yeah. You know what? See, I came from a rock world, and I
did not--kind of a rock experimental world, and I just didn't know any of
these people that I was seeking, these instruments that I was seeking. And I
just literally came by them from word of mouth from my family and friends
putting the word out there and these random people calling. And a lot of them
were younger people that were in school, in college, playing their instrument,
or in high school they played their instrument. A lot of them are classically
trained musicians, but it's from college and from high school. None of them
were in working orchestras, except for one of them that did it every now and
then in El Paso. That's the harp player.

BOGAEV: I'm talking with Tim Delaughter. He's the founder and lead singer of
the band The Polyphonic Spree. They have a CD out on Hollywood Records, and
they're just starting out on a national tour.

Tim, let's take a break now, and then we'll talk some more.

Mr. DELAUGHTER: OK.

BOGAEV: This is FRESH AIR.

(Soundbite of music)

BOGAEV: If you're just joining us, my guest is Tim Delaughter. He's the
front man and founder of the band The Polyphonic Spree. You might recognize
their song "Light and Day," which is currently featured in a Volkswagen ad.

(Soundbite of "Light and Day")

THE POLYPHONIC SPREE: (Singing) Light and day is more than you'll say, 'cause
all my feelings are more than I can let by, or not, more than you got. Just
follow the day, follow the day and reach for the sun.

(Soundbite of music)

THE POLYPHONIC SPREE: (Singing) You...

BOGAEV: That's "Light and Day," The Polyphonic Spree, led by my guest, Tim
Delaughter, founder and lead singer in the band.

I want to talk about your stage presence, what a concert is like. First of
all, everyone's in these long white robes. You have about--What?--22 members
in the band right now?

Mr. DELAUGHTER: There's 20, 24 of us now.

BOGAEV: You're on stage and there's an incredible amount of movement going
on. The singers--there's kind of a church choir swaying and dancing thing
going on of about nine or 10 people. And then people playing instruments are
dancing all over the place. And you, at times, are conducting, you're also
singing and you're lifting your arms up to the sky like a messianic leader.
How did this performance style evolve? And what did you say to people in the
band about how they should act on stage?

Mr. DELAUGHTER: You know, I didn't say anything, and that's the beautiful
part that came out of this. Something happened. This wonderful energy has
evolved with this group that--I don't know, that's extremely contagious for
all of us. And once it gets going, it's a pretty amazing event to be a part
of.

BOGAEV: Well, the thing about the repetition in the music and the chorus and
the uplifting nature of it and the white robes--it has such a religious or
spiritual impression. In fact, the effect of the band evokes a lot
associations for me. There's that evangelical tent thing going on...

Mr. DELAUGHTER: Right.

BOGAEV: ...and also, it makes me think of Up With People, that patriotic
group.

Mr. DELAUGHTER: Right.

BOGAEV: And a lot of people have pointed out--you know, it feels a little bit
like a cultish feeling, reminiscent of Waco or some kind of...

Mr. DELAUGHTER: Right.

BOGAEV: ...white-robed cult. I can't help but wonder if you're playing off
of those associations in some way.

Mr. DELAUGHTER: You know, I never really thought about--you know, when I was
telling you, I th--I was thinking of a beautiful image and I'm thinking of the
music. In my mind, I'm putting out this beautiful music, wonderful music with
these people wearing white robes. It's flowing and it fits the theme of what
we're playing. I didn't realize how it might look to other people until the
press started, you know, talking about it and sensationalizing sometimes and
being cynical about the way that we looked and the music. It kind of fit this
puzzle for them to say, `This kind of cultish thing, what's up with these
happy, singing people wearing white robes from Texas?'

And I never really thought about that until they brought it up. And I know
that sounds kind of weird. I guess 'cause I was just so in it and thinking
about it on a--I don't know--I mean, more of the level of what I thought about
the music, more of a beautiful aspect, more so than how it looked in a kind of
cynical way. And I don't know. It just didn't cross my mind. And then it
did, and I was going, `Wow. I guess I can see how they could see that.' And
then I started to think, `Well, was this subconsciously?' And then I'm going,
`Why did I pick this? I mean, why do I want robes? Why am I singing like
this?' And then you kind of just go and you start, you know, just trying to
think about your past and your life, and you try to--it's almost like therapy.
Even when you do interviews, you get questions asked of you.

BOGAEV: Oh, Tim...

Mr. DELAUGHTER: You go, `Well, I want to give her the right answer here.'

BOGAEV: ...I'm sorry.

Mr. DELAUGHTER: And before you know it, you're going, `What is going on
here?'

But it--you know, my grandfather was a preacher and a very charismatic man,
and my aunt would thank me right now. She got mad at me for not mentioning
that one time. She called me up and she goes, `Why didn't you mention your
grandfather? Don't you remember him practicing his sermon right in front of
you and singing and bending his ear over and, you know, you being in church
and watching him up there, you know, preaching to the church?' And I'm like,
you know, `I know,' and I was mesmerized by that.

And then also going to the churches here that used to have the music and the
choir and everything. It definitely made an impact on me, and I never really
thought about it until people started asking me questions, and I had to really
start thinking about it, because I'm just reacting. You know? I wasn't
really going, `Well, because I was affected by this, I'm going to do this.' It
was really weird. It was--it took other people to kind of go, `Well, did you
know that you're like this, and did you know what this came from?' I'm going,
`Well, thanks a lot. This is a lot more than just an interview; I know a lot
more about myself. Thanks a lot.' So I think it is a combination of a lot of
different things, and who knows why we do it? But there's definitely paths
and different landmarks along your way that you can definitely point at and
go, `Well, I can see that being a big reason why.' But I don't know; a strange
world.

BOGAEV: Well, Tim Delaughter, I really enjoyed talking with you. Thank you.

Mr. DELAUGHTER: Oh, my pleasure.

BOGAEV: Tim Delaughter, founder of The Polyphonic Spree. I'm Barbara Bogaev,
and this is FRESH AIR.

(Soundbite of song)

THE POLYPHONIC SPREE: (Singing) ...celebrate. Soon you'll find the answer.
Holiday...

(Credits)

TERRY GROSS (Host): This is NPR, National Public Radio.

BOGAEV: Coming up, Elvis does battle with a mummy. We talk with director Don
Coscarelli about his new film "Bubba Ho-tep," starring Bruce Campbell as Elvis
and Ossie Davis as a nursing home resident who thinks he's JFK. Coscarelli
also wrote and directed "Phantasm" and "The Beastmaster."

And Ken Tucker reviews the new album by the Danish musicians The Raveonettes.

(Soundbite of music)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Interview: Don Coscarelli discusses his new film "Bubba Ho-Tep"
and other films he has written and directed
BARBARA BOGAEV, host:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Barbara Bogaev.

(Soundbite of "Bubba Ho-Tep")

Unidentified Woman: Well, well, well, if it isn't my favorite patient. How
are you this morning, Mr. Haff?

Mr. BRUCE CAMPBELL: (As Elvis Presley) I'm all right, but I prefer Mr.
Presley, or Elvis. I keep telling you that. I don't go by Sebastian Haff
anymore, OK? I don't try and hide anymore.

Unidentified Woman: Well, of course, I knew that. I forgot. Good morning,
Elvis.

BOGAEV: It's a truism in Hollywood that you should be able to sum up the plot
of any movie on a cocktail napkin, so here's the pitch for the new film "Bubba
Ho-Tep": Nursing home residents Elvis and John F. Kennedy battle evil
Egyptian mummy. Filmmaker Don Coscarelli couldn't resist this premise. He is
the creator of the horror fantasy movies "The Beastmaster" and the four-part
"Phantasm" series. While his new film features the guts and gore you'd expect
from the genre and stars Bruce Campbell of "Army of Darkness" fame, it's a
surprisingly gentle hybrid of comedy, drama and shock. Campbell plays a
decrepit Elvis playing in a nursing home. Everyone thinks he's an Elvis
impersonator. His wheelchair-bound best friend, played by Ossie Davis,
believes he is JFK. They team up to fight fantastic creatures risen from the
dead. "Bubba Ho-Tep" is based on a short story by mystery writer Joe
Lansdale. I asked Don Coscarelli what the attraction was.

Mr. DON COSCARELLI (Filmmaker): I had come across a book that was called "The
Drive-In" about these kids who get trapped in a drive-in when a meteor hits
it, and they're all--it was kind of a very strange comic thing. And that one
had already been optioned. There are a lot of interesting directors that have
Joe's work for a long time. I know David Lynch had one of his books under
option, and Kathryn Bigelow had another, but none of them, for one reason or
another, got made into a film. We couldn't get that one funded, but a few
years later I got a copy of his new short-story collection, and in the dust
jacket was this description: `Elvis battles mummy.' And it just jumped out
at me.

BOGAEV: All you needed to know, right?

Mr. COSCARELLI: That was it.

BOGAEV: Well, in this film, Elvis is in a nursing home and he's ailing. He
has quite a few medical problems, but I guess the most salient one is a nasty
urological condition which plays its part in the movie. But he goes by the
name of Sebastian Haff, who was an Elvis impersonator, and the idea is that
Elvis allegedly traded lives with Sebastian Haff when Elvis got older and
disillusioned. Is this all straight out of the short story?

Mr. COSCARELLI: Oh, yeah. And I was very faithful to the book, because all
the ingredients were there when I read the short story. And what appealed to
me was this concept that's almost like out of "The Prince and the Pauper" or
"Trading Places" about how, you know, the king could want to get off the
merry-go-round and go back to a normal life. And it's just a bit of the back
story, but I found it quite compelling, the idea that he would find this great
Elvis impersonator and switch places with him and then, for one reason or
another, not be able to switch back and make a living traveling the Southwest
playing himself as an Elvis impersonator. That, I thought, was great.

BOGAEV: Well, somehow, against all odds, since this film does involve an
evil, undead mummy, the film has a very sweet side, really, or there's
something very touching about this depiction of an aging Elvis as you really
develop it early in the film. And there's also a poignant relationship that
Elvis develops with a fellow resident in his nursing him, Jack, and Jack
believes he's JFK, even though he's black.

Let's listen to this clip. Here's Jack, played by Ossie Davis, and he's
waking up Sebastian Haff or Elvis, played by Bruce Campbell, to express his
support and get Elvis to join him in the battle against the forces of evil.

(Soundbite of "Bubba Ho-Tep")

Mr. OSSIE DAVIS: (As Jack) Listen, I know you're Elvis. There was a rumor,
you know, that you hated me. I thought about that. You hated me, you would
have finished me off the other night. Now what I want from you is that you
look me straight in the eye and assure me you had nothing at all to do with
that day in Dallas and that you did not know Lee Harvey Oswald or Jack Ruby.

Mr. CAMPBELL: (As Elvis) Now look, man, I had nothing to do with Dallas, and
I knew neither Lee Harvey Oswald nor Jack Ruby.

Mr. DAVIS: (As Jack) Good. May I call you Elvis instead of Sebastian?

Mr. CAMPBELL: (As Elvis) You may.

Mr. DAVIS: Excellent.

BOGAEV: A scene from the new film "Bubba Ho-Tep" by my guest, filmmaker Don
Coscarelli.

Now this is something of a miracle that you could pull of a touching scene in
a mock horror genre film involving a mummy and a huge flying scarab beetle
monster. Were you going for poignancy?

Mr. COSCARELLI: Well, yeah, because at its core, I see this film as a
redemptive Elvis picture. I mean, if you look at the way that the King went
out, I mean, according to legend or according to the news, you know, he was,
quote, "straining at stool." I mean, that just was not a way for Elvis, the
King, to go out. And in reading Joe's story, it really provided a way that I
think the fans could accept the redemption and death of Elvis, and that's what
really sparked to me was the fact that, you know, if Elvis really still was
alive, he would have a lot of regrets. There would be a lot of things that he
would be ruminating about and would be trying to fix in his own way, and
that's really what attracted me to the story.

BOGAEV: This wheelchair-bound JFK figure, Jack, and Elvis battle against lost
mummy creatures and other artifacts, and these artifacts were part of a
traveling Egyptian museum road show, and they were lost in a nearby lake in
the '60s when the bus crashed that was carrying all this stuff. You're going
to have to describe what the mummy looks like now.

Mr. COSCARELLI: Well, he dresses in cowboy boots and old ratty jeans and a
big, broad cowboy hat, this mummy. And the back story is that he stole those
clothes off of the driver of that bus that plunged into the lake, and that's
why he dresses that way. Unfortunately, it didn't make it into the film.
But he's...

BOGAEV: And you wonder why he's in a cowboy hat.

Mr. COSCARELLI: But you know, as Jack describes in the film, he's, like, King
Tut's brother, and his sarcophagus was traveling from town to town going to
museums. And you know, he's a character we don't go into too much detail but,
you know, he's a guy, a 4,000-year-old mummy and, you know, he's got some
history and back story, and he...

BOGAEV: And he's got some wear on him.

Mr. COSCARELLI: Yeah, definitely some wear. But he's still pretty resilient,
so for--I mean, there is some kind of comment there, I think, about, you know,
we've got Elvis and Jack as these aging old guys in a rest home, and they're
fighting somebody who's really aged and decrepit. But it makes for a good
match.

BOGAEV: There's a concert scene in the film which features Sebastian Haff,
the Elvis impersonator, and we don't actually hear any Elvis singing. Why was
that?

Mr. COSCARELLI: Well, this was another one of our challenges in making the
film on such a low budget. We couldn't afford the rights to any of the actual
Elvis songs. And we had a concert sequence where Sebastian Haff, the Elvis
impersonator as played by Elvis, is on stage. And so we were very crafty in
the use of music and we used a lot of Elvis' signature moves that he does
between songs, the way he hands out the scarves to the screaming girls and the
way he does his karate moves and all of that. And it came out pretty well.

BOGAEV: I'm talking with filmmaker Don Coscarelli. His movies include the
science-fiction horror films "Phantasm" and its sequels; also the sword and
sorcery movie "The Beastmaster." He wrote and directed the new film "Bubba
Ho-Tep," and it's also a hybrid comedy-horror film featuring a very elderly
Elvis who does battle with forces of evil from ancient Egypt.

More after a break. This is FRESH AIR.

(Soundbite of music)

BOGAEV: We're back with fantasy and horror filmmaker Don Coscarelli. His
films include "The Beastmaster" and the "Phantasm" series. His new film is a
comedy/action horror flick featuring Elvis and an Egyptian mummy on a murder
spree; it's called "Bubba Ho-Tep."

Well, let's talk about "Phantasm," which--you made four "Phantasm" movies,
right?

Mr. COSCARELLI: Yes.

BOGAEV: I know that you wrote that first "Phantasm" movie in three weeks, and
you were in a remote mountain cabin. Is that right?

Mr. COSCARELLI: Yeah, and you know, this was before "The Evil Dead" was made,
so I was sort of living that thing by myself up there. It was kind of very
freaky. And...

BOGAEV: This was another cult horror-comedy kind of mock horror film, "The
Evil Dead."

Mr. COSCARELLI: Yeah, "The Evil Dead," which was set in a cabin. But this
was before that, and so I was in this cabin by myself and I just used that
feeling of isolation when I was writing the story, 'cause it was a story about
a boy who sees some strange things that are going on and can't really explain
them. And he tries to, and he tries to enlist his brother, tries to enlist
the ice-cream vendor friend of theirs. And that's pretty much how I came up
with that.

BOGAEV: Well, writing it in three weeks all by yourself in some remote cabin,
did you freak your own self out, or did you come up with ideas there that
you used?

Mr. COSCARELLI: Yeah, I remember there were things--yeah, absolutely. You
know, I remember, you know, sometimes when you're writing and you're looking
for inspiration any way you can. And I was drinking something out of a
Styrofoam cup, and I finished the drink and I poked my finger up through the
cup. And I'm looking at my finger wiggling in the bottom of the cup, and I
thought, `Oh, that's interesting.' And so...

BOGAEV: That's a famous scene in the film.

Mr. COSCARELLI: Yes. Yes, it is.

BOGAEV: That's--of a detached finger wiggling in a box.

Mr. COSCARELLI: Yeah, in a box, yeah. So, you know, you find the inspiration
where you can, and that's where that one came from.

BOGAEV: Now you made this film with just no money, "Phantasm"...

Mr. COSCARELLI: Yes.

BOGAEV: ...by movie industry standards. So what were some of the low-tech
solutions you had to come up with for the special effects? And I'm thinking
of basic things like, in the film often--or I'm thinking one scene, a door
flies off its hinges.

Mr. COSCARELLI: The great thing about it was that we shot the film in this
pattern of shooting on weekends and then spending the four or five days during
the week to prepare for the next weekend. So it gave us time--we spent a year
and a half shooting the film, so we had a lot of time to work out some of the
stuff. To get that door to fly off the hinge, we tried a number of things.
And finally what was the--we came back to the simplest thing possible. We put
a couple handles on the back of the door, and our producer, Paul Pepperman,
held on to the door, stood behind there and just threw himself forward and
then pulled the door on top of him. So you never saw Paul, but it was just a
guy running with the door. But then you put a good sound effect on it and it
works.

BOGAEV: That's pretty straightforward.

Mr. COSCARELLI: Yeah. And then, you know, of course, the signature effect in
the film is this chrome killer sphere; it's sort of a digital vampire, if you
will. And we had to make this thing fly and appear to pursue the character
down the hallway. And frankly, a lot of the effect was done with fishing line
and a fishing pole. You know, we'd put the ball on a string and fly it, and
you wouldn't see the string. And then to get the long hallway shots where
you'd actually see it, you know, coming at the camera, we undercranked it into
slow motion and then we got a baseball pitcher to throw the ball from behind
the camera, and then we rever...

BOGAEV: You're kidding me. What, like a high school kid or something?

Mr. COSCARELLI: Yeah. And then he'd throw a fastball by camera, it would go
away, and then we'd reverse the film and it would fly towards you. And the
interesting thing about that is that the maximum velocity was as it went by
the camera, so if you reverse that, it's sort of slow at the beginning, but as
it gets to the camera, it really speeds up. And it took on a very
surreal--well, you've seen the movie; it works.

BOGAEV: We actually have a clip that features--there's no dialogue; it just
features this deadly flying sphere, which we should say is a homemade--it's a
kind of weapon; it opens up and reveals something like a chain saw.

Mr. COSCARELLI: It's like a switchblade.

BOGAEV: Right.

Mr. COSCARELLI: The different spheres do different things. There's one that,
you know, impacts and holds into your head; another one, a drill comes out and
drains your blood.

BOGAEV: Yes, well, that's the one I'm talking about. This is from "Phantasm
II." And we should play this, because I want to talk about the sound effects
that you use and how you use them. In this scene, the sphere is attacking a
priest. Can you explain this, Don, before we play this, just so people can
visualize it?

Mr. COSCARELLI: Well, the priest in the film is the last vestige of any kind
of moral authority, and he's trying to stop the evil Tall Man, and he goes up
to the mausoleum, and unfortunately the Tall Man does prevail in this sequence
and our poor father is sliced and diced.

BOGAEV: Here we go. This is a scene featuring the deadly flying sphere from
"Phantasm II," directed and written by my guest, Don Coscarelli.

(Soundbite of "Phantasm II" sound effects and screams)

BOGAEV: Now if you can get past the screaming in this, I think the kicker to
the scene is that in the end, the priest lies presumably dead, but the sphere
keeps whirring (makes buzzing noise) like the Energizer Bunny. Can you talk
about how you layer the sound effects to get the effect that you're going for?
I mean, here it was screaming and mechanical sounds and reverb and...

Mr. COSCARELLI: Well, there's no question that, you know, in an effects scene
like this, that sound, you know, may be the number-one component of it. And
it's something that I learned early on that we really had to focus on it and
spend whatever time we could to get it right. You know, that scene combines a
lot of interesting things. Number one, you can hear a dentist drill in there
laid over the top, because everybody has a natural abhorrence of the dentist.
So that sort of sets the tone when you hear that really high-end pitch when it
starts to cut into the cranium. And then I think then we go as low-tech as
somebody sucking water through a straw as the device starts to drain the blood
out of the poor victim.

BOGAEV: Where do you get the inspiration for deadly props like the deadly
sphere?

Mr. COSCARELLI: Well, that original one, honestly, it came to me in a dream.
You know, a few years be...

BOGAEV: Oh, come on. Really?

Mr. COSCARELLI: Seriously. A few years before I wrote this script--I didn't
even have the script; I just had this notion of this chrome sphere pursuing me
down a marble hallway. And it was then when I was up in the cabin working on
that script, I thought, `Oh, yeah, that was an interesting image from the
dream. I should put this in the movie.' And once I put that in, then it
skewed the movie in the direction of a science-fiction film, which I hadn't
really intended. I'll be honest, though; I don't think that any other idea of
any other film I've ever made came from a dream.

BOGAEV: Now one of the things this "Phantasm" series is known for is the Tall
Man character, and he's an evil villain creature from the dead, and he's
something of an icon now. He's a tall man in funeral director clothes. He
drives a hearse. He's played by the actor Angus Scrimm, and that is such a
great horror flick name. Is that a stage name?

Mr. COSCARELLI: Yes, actually. It was a name that the actor--his real given
name is Lawrence Rory Guy, who actually been in my very first film and played
a sort of alcoholic father. And I always felt him to be kind of an
intimidating character. And he had used that name, Angus Scrimm, as a pen
name when he had written for some different publications. And when we came
around to putting the credits on the movie, he decided to use that. And then
the fans just really responded to him.

BOGAEV: I noticed your mother has some credits in your films; for "Phantasm,"
that she did some of the concept work and costume work on this Tall Man
character.

Mr. COSCARELLI: Yeah, she sure did. Like I said, it was quite a family
affair, and, you know, really, the beauty of the original "Phantasm"--it's
almost like an Andy Hardy film. It was like, you know, `Let's put on a show
of friends and students.' And, yeah, my mom created that finger effect we
talked about, the severed finger, and did all the wardrobe and also did some
of the catering. But, you know, I like to keep my family involved in the
making of my films. It makes the whole affair more sane.

BOGAEV: So what are you working on now?

Mr. COSCARELLI: Promoting "Bubba Ho-Tep." This has just been so
all-consuming for me to make the film and to get it out and finally get it
into theaters that I really haven't been focused on anything. Bruce Campbell
and I are talking about the sequels because if we do enough business, we think
that there can be more "Bubba" movies. You can take Bubba and put any monster
name on the back and you got a movie. We're toying with the idea of "Bubba
Nosferatu: Curse of the She-Vampires," where Elvis would find himself in an
old folks' home down in New Orleans, you know, coven of the vampires that he'd
have to battle.

BOGAEV: She vampires are always good.

Mr. COSCARELLI: Yeah. They're the ones we're thinking about possibly as
Bubba Sasquatch, which would take place up in the North Woods with a tribe of
killer Big Foots vs. Elvis.

BOGAEV: So many possibilities.

Mr. COSCARELLI: Yes.

BOGAEV: Well, thanks very much, Don Coscarelli. It was fun talking to you.

Mr. COSCARELLI: Thanks for having me.

BOGAEV: Don Coscarelli wrote and directed the new film "Bubba Ho-Tep."

Coming up, the Danish band The Raveonettes. This is FRESH AIR.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Review: New CD by The Raveonettes
BARBARA BOGAEV, host:

The Raveonettes are a pair of Danish musicians who've just made their major
label debut with "Chain Gang of Love." Where their previous CD bore the proud
slogan `recorded in B flat minor,' the new album, says rock critic Ken Tucker,
is a sonic breakthrough that extends the duo's range to include a few new
keys.

(Soundbite of song)

THE RAVEONETTES: (Singing) Here comes the love gang. Here comes the love
gang. Here comes the love gang. Here comes the love gang. Two delinquents
in love. Yeah, their love just won't stop. The pack is on the prowl. Get
out of their way tonight. Ooh.

(Soundbite of music)

KEN TUCKER reporting:

That's The Raveonettes at their most sedate cooing about, quote, "two
delinquents in love." In summoning up the phrase `juvenile delinquent,' this
Danish twosome is suggesting a certain fondness for the late '50s and early
'60s. Their album cover is designed to look like a movie poster for an unmade
Roger Corman motorcycle flick complete with a corny come-on line. This is
whiplash rock 'n' roll, but darned if that aesthetic isn't borne out quite
perfectly by their new songs.

(Soundbite of "The Great Love Sound")

THE RAVEONETTES: (Singing) Changing your strut when you know I'm behind you.
Changing your ways because you don't know what to do. I only want to tell you
how I feel inside. If only you could listen; try to change your mind. So I
walk right up to you, and you walk all over me. And now I ask you what you
want, and you tell me what you need. Can you feel the weight all come down?
Can't you hear it all around at the place that rocks this town, that great
love sound.

TUCKER: "The Great Love Sound," as that song is called, is a scream of
ecstasy, The Raveonettes building a wall of orgasm. "Chain Gang of Love" was
co-produced in Denmark by Richard Gottehrer, the American who recorded prime
'70s American punk acts, like Blondie and Richard Hell & the Voidoids.
Working with him The Raveonettes tap into a whole history of rock 'n' roll of
a certain sort: moody verging on intimations of dooms, pretty in an awfully
intense sort of way. Take this song, "Noisy Summer." It has a melody
reminiscent of The Everly Brothers and production like an exploded Phil
Spector extravaganza.

(Soundbite of "Noisy Summer" and people clapping)

THE RAVEONETTES: (Singing) Chewing on a ...(unintelligible), little dress is
type, going to make me firm, going to make it right. Tell you a little
stories that'll never hope that I'll end up right beside you when it comes.
I'm going to make it your desire, make it true. Dancing on the stairs...

TUCKER: The Raveonettes are guitarist Sune Rose Wagner, who wrote all the
songs, and Sharin Foo. Together their sweet-and-sour harmonies have a certain
air of innocence, that is until you listen to the words they're singing.
These reveal The Raveonettes to follow in the grand tradition of the
delinquents they revere, as they make loud, grand music about drug-takers,
prostitutes and various S&M scenarios, all played for a pulp camp and a
sincere intensity that are impossible to separate.

(Soundbite of song)

THE RAVEONETTES: (Singing) And I noticed you could kill it, to watch it
(unintelligible). This fixes more than ...(unintelligible) in your arms.
Hooking in the streets, did you have some support? This man is more than
(unintelligible) in your arms. ...(Unintelligible) turn you on when you look
inside yourself and ...(unintelligible) has let you down. The man, the man
who beat you, knock you off the ...(unintelligible). And remember when he
mistreats you, still ...(unintelligible) dear to me.

TUCKER: It's as though Buddy Holly, whose song "Every Day" The Raveonettes
are apt to cover in concert, had secretly survived his plane crash, landed in
Denmark and decided he wanted to use his newfound freedom and anonymity to
write the soundtracks to the sleaziest exploitation films he could find. As
they sang on the quiet little song that began this review, `Chains, black
leather and sex, it's not that complex'--or, rather, it's as complex as you
want to make it. It's just that the Raveonettes are determined to strip
everything down to its essence and leave you begging for more.

BOGAEV: Ken Tucker is critic at large for Entertainment Weekly. He reviewed
"Chain Gang of Love" by The Raveonettes.

(Soundbite of song)

THE RAVEONETTES: (Singing) Let's rave on 'cause I know that you want it.
Let's make out 'cause I know that you want it. Let's go down where the hearts
are broken, fix them all in time, fix them all in time.

(Credits)

BOGAEV: For Terry Gross, I'm Barbara Bogaev.

(Soundbite of song)

THE RAVEONETTES: (Singing) Go outside, go outdoors, no matter what
(unintelligible).
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