This is my interview with film composer (www.deadhousemusic.com) and Fangoria's SOUND SHOCK column writer, Mars Homeworld. So sit back, relax and enjoy this interview with one of horror's true geniuses.
Chris: Mars, please introduce yourself to my readers. Where are you from?
Mars: Greetings boils & ghouls! Mars here. I'm a film composer working in indy genre film ( Horror / Sci-Fi / Fantasy etc) I'm from Auburn, California. Birthplace of Kane "Jason" Hodder, actually.
Chris: Mars, your a contributor to Fangoria, please tell me how that came about?
Mars: Fangoria editor Chris Alexander wanted a composer to interview other composers for the magazine, and he & I had known each other since meeting in Toronto in 2007. Thru our email correspondences, he felt I had a way with words. So, he gave me a shot at it.
Chris: You've done many musical scores on films, what do you prefer your writing or music?
Mars: Music definitely, music. It is something that (cheezy as it sounds) flows thru me day & night. I'm always writing in my head, so I really look forward to sitting down & getting those ideas out thru music. I don't really look forward to writing a column, although I have enjoyed doing the interviews, as it's a chance to talk shop with other musicians. Many of whom I admire quite a bit.
Chris: You also work or have worked at Rue Morgue as a reviewer, what are the differences between the way Fangoria runs things compared to Rue Morgue?
Mars: Well, I don't know much about how things are run on the business end. I think RM is a really high quality magazine, and I was honored to write music reviews for them, but Fangoria gives me a bigger stylistic canvas, and a MUCH bigger word count to work within.
Chris: Your currently working on a film project can you please tell us a little something about it?
Mars: Sure. TRANSCENDENT, it is a short film that I've written, directed, produced and will score the music for as well. It's influenced by the story "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" by H.P.Lovecraft, who is my favorite horror author. It's about a woman who lives here life feeling like an outsider, and one day she hears the call of the ocean , and she goes on a journey to become a new life form. The film Stars Cassie Mosher and Teal Sherer (best known as "Venom" from THE GUILD), with guest appearances by Cleve "Monsterman" Hall, as well as Horror & Sci-Fi journalist Staci Lane Wilson. The film is black & white and mostly silent, but does feature music. It's a very old school approach we're taking with it, and we will even have a latex creature make-up instead of CGI, so I'm very happy about that.
Chris: As a multi talented artist, who are some of your biggest influences growing up?
Mars: I was a musician from a very young age, so there are all those influences (Rush, Sabbath, film composers like Richard Band, and Basil Poleodouris, great hardcore bands like Bad Brains, and early death metal like Celtic Frost, Morbid Angel, thru the early wave of Norwegian Black Metal like Mayhem, Enslaved, Emperor, as well as brilliant solo artists like Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Tom Waites, Leonard Cohen..etc...LOTS of great , diverse stuff , but I also painted,drew, and was interested in film and many of the artistic aspects involved in that kind of creativity. So, H.R. Giger, Wendy Pini, Richard Corben as well as artists like Hieronymus Bosch, and DaVinci. For directors: Fulci,Bava, Jean Rollin, Romero...the list is just too huge.
Chris: What are your thoughts on the current state of horror right now in Hollywood?
Mars: Hollywood? Awful. Just truly piss poor, unimaginative and recycled crap.
There are wonderful, and excite\ing things happening in
indy -horror though, and THAT is what keeps me coming back to this genre
I've loved since childhood.
Chris:
If you had the chance to work with any composer living or dead, who would it be and why? Mars: Wow, that's a tough one to answer. I would gain so much from that kind of collaboration, and I'm sure I'd learn different things from different people. Obviously someone like Mozart would kick my ass and just take me to school in such a way, that I'd probably just crawl into a hole....so, maybe someone more modern. I'd like to work with Brian Tyler I think. I've met him a few times, and he seems a really cool guy. He's done film scores I love Like BUBBA NOSFERATU, and he came from a rock background just like I did.
Chris: As we stated before, your working on a film, is there a website that people can find a trailer for it, or help donate to it?
Mars: Yessir. We've just hit our goal for completion $ on Kickstarter, but if anyone wants to pre-order a poster (drawn by Dungeons & Dragons /Star Wars artist Mike Dubish), DVD, or get their hands on a prop from the film, they can go to:
For the next 5 days to make a donation. After that , there will be a donation link (paypal) on the film's website: www.transcendentfilm.com
Chris: Finally sir, i want to thank you very much for your time as i know your a busy man, do you have any websites or plugs you'd like to make before we leave you?
Mars: You're very welcome Chris, I've enjoyed it. Keep the Metal BLOODY!
I'd like to thank everyone who has donated to TRANSCENDENT already, as they're helping bring independent film to life.
I'm scoring a documentary called MEN IN SUITS for WYRD
Studios , and that is all about those wonderful actors that work in
elaborate monster/creature make-up. Doug Jones (PANS LABRINTH, HELLBOY) ,
Tom Woodruff Jr (ALIENS), Camden Toy (BUFFY), Haruo Nakajima (THE
original GODZILLA!) Are in it.
Here is the trailer:
Here is the trailer:
And I'm working with Wendy Pini (creator of the legendary
ELFQUESTcomic) on a Musical version of Poe's MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH.
It's a very unique adaptation, and we hope to bring something new to
Broadway with it. It will mark the heaviest music to ever play to that
kind of audience, as well as be a genre-defining show in it's depiction
of gay lead characters, and it is going to be a bloodbath in the last
act. Here is an animatic that shows what we have in mind:
And the rest of my projects, and films coming up can be seen at
Thank Chris!
MARS
No comments:
Post a Comment