All treats and no tricks here! Visionary composer and recording artist Danny Elfman is treating fans to a surprise new track, “Monkeys on the Loose” just in time for Halloween.

On releasing the track, Elfman shared, “Halloween has obviously been a huge part of my life, and I’d been working on a big batch of new songs for my upcoming album. Nick [Launay] had taken on the task of trying some arrangement/production ideas on this crazy song ‘Monkeys on the Loose’, and while working on it, we thought…wouldn’t it be wild to work up a version for a special Halloween release (even though it was barely over a week away!). We decided to just jump in and go for it and the band was rehearsing it already for the upcoming shows. They were more than game to record it. So…here it is!”

Nick Launay added, “Sometimes the Universe conjures up the wildest of things…imagine stepping into Danny Elfman’s magical world, during your absolute favorite time of the year: HALLOWEEN! Well that just happened! Only weeks ago Danny played me some new songs, each of them transporting me into a different scene of characters. The song ‘Monkeys’ came up, but these seemed like no ordinary monkeys, they were mischievously ghoulish. I felt some of them might even have bat wings. One thing became obvious: the song had to be captured and released to the world by Halloween night…but could it be done? Well, when crazy goons get together, crazy things happen! Happy Halloween everyone!”

The song comes shortly after the release of BEETLEJUCE BEETLEJUICE (Score from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) via WaterTower Records, the highly anticipated follow-up to Elfman’s iconic score for Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice more than 30 years ago.

Elfman will be performing tracks from Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, along with countless legendary songs from throughout his film and television catalog this weekend for his final two shows of the year: Danny Elfman: From Boingo to Batman to Big Mess and Beyond! These larger-than-life performances will journey through Elfman’s prolific career as an artist, composer, and trailblazer, featuring songs from Oingo Boingo, his solo career, including his 2021 album Big Mess; as well as a plethora of his film scores and television themes from Alice in Wonderland, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Beetlejuice, The Simpsons, Wednesday, and more. Complete with a full rock band, choir, and orchestra, the shows will transport audiences into the magical world of Danny Elfman like never before.

The all-star band that performed on “Monkeys on the Loose” will be joining Elfman once again for his Los Angeles and Mountain View performances this weekend. Band members include Stu Brooks on bass (Dub Trio, Lady Gaga), Nili Brosh on guitar (Dethklok), Robin Finck on guitar (Nine Inch Nails, Guns N’ Roses), and Ilan Rubin on drums (Nine Inch Nails, Angels & Airwaves). The orchestra will be conducted by Steve Bartek (Original Guitarist Oingo Boingo).

The shows will be taking place at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, CA, on Saturday, November 2, and the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, CA, on Sunday, November 3. Tickets are available HERE.

ABOUT DANNY ELFMAN
Danny Elfman, film composer, classical composer, singer-songwriter, and recording artist, has garnered international recognition for composing over 100 feature film scores, as well as compositions for television, stage productions, and the concert hall. Elfman has been Tim Burton’s composer for more than 35 years, having scored 17 Burton films such as Batman, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Big Fish, Alice in Wonderland, and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, as well as music, lyrics and songs for The Nightmare Before Christmas for which he also sang the part of Jack Skellington. Elfman was also the lead singer and songwriter for the LA rock band Oingo Boingo for 17 years.

Elfman has frequently collaborated with director Sam Raimi on films such as Spider-Man and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and with director Gus Van Sant on the Academy Award-winning films Good Will Hunting and Milk. Additionally, he wrote the music for the Men in Black film series franchise, the themes for the popular television series The Simpsons, Desperate Housewives, Tales of the Crypt and more recently, Tim Burton’s Netflix series Wednesday.

A native of Los Angeles, Elfman grew up loving film music. He traveled the world as a young man, absorbing its musical diversity. Elfman, known for being the leader of the band Oingo Boingo, came to the attention of a young Tim Burton and Paul Rubens, who asked him to write the score for Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. Thirty-seven years later, Elfman and Burton have forged one of the most fruitful composer-director collaborations in film history. Throughout his career, Elfman has been honored with four Academy Award nominations, three Emmy® Awards including ‘Outstanding Original Main Title Theme’ for Wednesday (2023), a GRAMMY® Award (1990), the Richard Kirk Award (2002), the Disney Legend Award (2015), the Max Steiner Film Music Achievement Award (2017), and the Society of Composer and Lyricists’ Lifetime Achievement Award (2022).

Elfman has written nine symphonic concert works which are frequently performed throughout Europe and North America.

Elfman’s orchestral concert works include: Serenada Schizophrana, a symphony commissioned by the American Composer’s Orchestra, which premiered at Carnegie Hall in 2005, Rabbit and Rogue, for the American Ballet Theater choreographed by Twyla Tharp, performed at The Metropolitan Opera house in 2008. In 2017 Elfman premiered his violin concerto “Eleven Eleven” written for, and performed by violinist Sandy Cameron, which had its world premiere in Prague and was released on Sony Classical records in 2019. The album also features a recording of his first Piano Quartet, commissioned and performed by the Philharmonic Piano Quartet Berlin.

Elfman’s Percussion Quartet commissioned for Third Coast Percussion was recorded in October 2020. In March 2022, two of Elfman’s classical works had European world premieres: Percussion Concerto, written for, and performed by percussionist Colin Currie with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Cello Concerto, written for, and performed by cellist Gautier Capuçon with the Vienna Symphony. Elfman’s Percussion Concerto and Wunderkammer, a concerto for orchestra written for the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (Aug 2022), recordings were released by Sony Classical in May 2024.

Also for the concert stage, Elfman created Danny Elfman’s Music from the Films of Tim Burton live orchestral concert, which premiered at Royal Albert Hall in 2013, and has since toured around the world and won two Emmys. He also began live performances with orchestra of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas in 2015, which has since been performed around the world.

Elfman composed the music for Cirque du Soleil’s show Iris (2011) written and directed by french choreographer Philippe Decouflé. In 2019 he composed the music for the Tony Nominated Broadway production of Taylor Mac’s play Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus directed by George C. Wolfe, starring Nathan Lane.

In 2020 Elfman released his wildly ambitious double album Big Mess which combined edgy rock and symphonic strings, and followed it with the release of Bigger. Messier. – a genre-defying collection of remixed and reimagined versions of songs from the record featuring collaborations with musicians such as Trent Reznor, Iggy Pop and more. The Big Mess project culminated with his critically acclaimed career-spanning 2022 Coachella concert: From Boingo, to Batman, to Big Mess and Beyond. He then presented an expanded version of the concert at back-to-back sold-out shows at the Hollywood Bowl in October 2022, and again in San Diego/Irvine in August 2023. This November, Elfman’s renowned concert, Danny Elfman: From Boingo to Batman to Big Mess and Beyond, returns to the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on November 2 and, for the first time, Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, CA, on November 3. Tickets are available HERE.

Elfman is currently scoring the film Dracula: A Love Tale for the director Luc Besson, and is working on a follow-up solo album.