We’re really excited about this new video for “Return of the Pink Elephants.” We used this music throughout our silent film soundtrack for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
As we shot the video, violinist Phil Davidson asked me, “How did you even come up with this melody?!”
This tune was born of inspiration in the midst of personal turmoil in 2017. I was dealing with intense stress and heartbreak after a difficult tour, a pending second divorce and the loss of my 19 year old cat Bruno. Overwhelmed with grief that Thanksgiving, I felt a powerful need to turn my emotions into music. I began to create and I did so like never before. I opened Cubase, the audio production software I had been basically using as a digital tape recorder for nearly a decade. I knew Cubase was capable of much more than that and I delved in, learning about VST instruments, midi and other powerful tools. I was flying, creating demos in a fraction of the time I used to.
I made a list of animals and began writing music inspired by each one. One of those was an elephant. Starting with a lumbering bass line reminiscent of a big animal, I then added a melody which invokes a deranged circus. Next, some pulses of minor and augmented chords leading into a somber and pensive pause before the animal continues lumbering with a lopsided gait. By this point, I was picturing a drunken elephant plodding through a nightmare, so I named the piece “Return of the Pink Elephants,” a nod to “Pink Elephants on Parade” from Dumbo.
It was an empowering and cathartic process resulting in a perfect soundtrack for the Twilight-Zone-esque year I’d had!
When we decided to compose a soundtrack for the silent film The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, with its circus-y setting and its creepy mind-bending plot full of twists and turns, I realized that “Return of the Pink Elephants” would be a perfect fit to represent the film’s antagonist.
We are excited to be re-arranging and re-recording that soundtrack this year, and to bring the live show to a city near you this fall!
I hope you enjoy this video!
Josh
