In part 2 of our deep dive into the business behind horror soundtracks, we chat with Mondo’s Spencer Hickman and Sacred Bones’ Brad Sanders. Check out part 1 where we chat to several of our clients here.
Spencer Hickman – Label Manager, Mondo Records / Death Waltz Recording Company
What are some of the horror scores that you’ve released?
We release everything from John Carpenter’s Halloween to Gremlins and obscure stuff like Cannibal Holocaust. We don’t just release horror scores – our biggest releases are things like Twin Peaks, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Jurassic Park. Originally, Mondo and Death Waltz were separate companies. I launched Death Waltz in 2011 and we released the soundtracks to Halloween II and Halloween III, and Mondo had released the original Halloween soundtrack. Last year at Mondo we re-released a 40th anniversary special edition of the Halloween soundtrack.
What’s the process when you release a horror score? Who do you work with to make it happen?
With the Halloween franchise, for example, there are lots of people involved. For Halloween III, which is my personal favourite sequel, we talked to the director Tommy Lee Wallace and Alan Howarth, the co-composer alongside John Carpenter who has all the original master tapes. They were originally in DAT format so he transferred those and remastered them and from there our mastering engineer James Plotkin mastered them for vinyl. For Halloween II John Carpenter graciously gave us liner notes and again Alan transferred those for us.
When Mondo originally released the soundtrack for Halloween, the only version of the audio that could be found included dialogue from the movie. So it had to be digitally remastered and sounded different to what was featured in the actual movie. For our release last year for the movie’s 40th anniversary, Alan managed to find the original master tapes to the mono recording track which had never been released. So we were able to release the music as it’s heard in the movie for the first time, and it’s a very different experience. Obviously we also work with Trancas who own Halloween, and those guys are great. With these projects the ideal situation is that you get approval from the creatives every step of the way so that everybody is happy with the releases. The Halloween franchise is absolutely crazy. Last year we attended the Halloween: 40 Years of Terror Convention in LA – I don’t know of any other film franchise that has a fanbase like that.
What does your release strategy look like?
If we can, we release things digitally depending if we have digital rights to the scores. But we’re vinyl fans so more often than not we concentrate on vinyl and make sure that the physical product is of a really high standard so that fans and collectors will be happy with it.
Just how massive is the Halloween period when it comes to sales? What are you releasing this year?
Halloween is a really big holiday for us – probably more so than Christmas. We’ve just released Hellraiser II and Hellraiser III – we released the first one last year and we’re giving away a free slip case to put all three records in. We’ve used the same artist, Matt Ryan Tobin, for all three releases so it has a really cohesive feel. When you get them all together it looks really special. For Halloween specifically we’re releasing Madman which is a 1982 slasher film that’s never been released on vinyl. Matt Ryan Tobin has designed the packaging for that as well. It’s a huge time for us but you also don’t want to release too much in one month. We attend the Texas Frightmare Weekend so we typically save a release or two for that. We try to spread it out throughout the year but October is definitely when we really focus on our horror stuff.
How has the vinyl resurgence affected these types of releases?
The vinyl resurgence is interesting. I used to run Rough Trade in East London and I also ran Record Store Day in the UK until a few years ago, and so I’ve seen the rise of vinyl over the years. I always think it can’t keep rising but it does, and the soundtrack vinyl world is very interesting because it’s a niche within a niche. It keeps growing for us which is great, because it enables us not only to release classics but also soundtracks to newer films. I’m really passionate about new releases because these are the people that are going to be making movies and recording scores for the next 50 years or so.
How important is it to serve fans of horror scores with an amazing product?
Vinyl is a very tangible, physical thing and it’s very time consuming. First and foremost you have to make sure the mastering is decent so it sounds good. And then the package as a whole not only has to sound good but has to look good as well. As a collector myself I want a gatefold sleeve, I want new artwork, I want liner notes. Last year we did a campaign for the first five Halloween films and we gave away a free box to house them in. Horror collectors and vinyl collectors want something really special.
You’ve got to stand out so that’s why we always try and push our packaging and come up with crazy ideas. This year we released the soundtrack for The Autopsy of Jane Doe which is a really small horror movie but one of the best I’ve seen in the last five years. We had this idea to put the record in a body bag and when you fold the sleeves out it’s the body on the morgue slab and you have to pull the chest open to get to the record. With stuff like that you can really go to town on the packaging!
What’s your personal favourite horror score?
The original Halloween score is untouchable, especially because it’s such a weird time signature which really throws you off. But there’s so many great horror scores out there so it’s really difficult to choose. I loved the Hellraiser movie, I love the score to The Exorcist. Cannibal Holocaust is one of the most beautiful horror scores and I think that helped the movie because it’s quite difficult to watch. I’m a huge fan of horror movies and horror scores so for me, Halloween is the best holiday. I much prefer it to Christmas. Even our Christmas tree at home is decorated with Halloween decorations!
Brad Sanders – Project Manager, Sacred Bones Records
What kind of projects do you work on?
We work with a lot of active artists and touring bands who are making records. But we also do a lot of stuff with film directors and movie soundtracks and we approach those projects in a very different way. It started when we re-issued the Eraserhead soundtrack. That really opened up our relationship with David Lynch and from there we’ve done a lot more film stuff. Right now we’re working on releases for The Dead Don’t Die, The Lighthouse, and an expanded version of the soundtrack that John Carpenter did for last year’s Halloween movie.
What challenges do you face with the horror genre?
It’s a double-edged sword with the horror fan base because they’re extremely loyal and they’re big collectors. When it’s all said and done we will have released close to 20 variants of the Halloween soundtrack, for example, and there are people who are going to go out and buy all 20. You have to do a good job and honor the fans because they have high expectations.
What are some of your most popular horror releases?
I wasn’t at Sacred Bones at the time, but when they released the Eraserhead soundtrack it sold out in a day. That gave the label a sense that people were really hungry for this stuff. For our 10th anniversary we were lucky enough to get David Lynch’s permission to repress the Eraserhead soundtrack for another limited edition, this time on silver vinyl, and that also sold out almost instantly. Halloween 2018 I think is our biggest soundtrack in terms of sheer volume and it was our first time dealing with a film studio and going through their approval chains. That was a great learning experience dealing with a much bigger machine with multimillion dollar marketing budgets. We managed to have records in stores the day that the film came out, and it did really well.
What does your release strategy look like?
The deals are different depending on our arrangements with the studios. With The Dead Don’t Die and The Lighthouse we’re only releasing the vinyl and the in-house studio labels are putting out the soundtracks on digital. With Halloween, on the other hand, we got the rights to do everything and so we were able to put out streaming, CD, and vinyl all on the same day. That’s how we do 99% of the records that we put out. But it depends on the deal and what the studios are comfortable with.
How has the vinyl resurgence affected these types of releases?
We’re a pretty unique label in that vinyl remains our biggest source of revenue. Whereas streaming has surpassed vinyl for, I would say, 95% of all labels, we’re still holding it down as our primary source of revenue. So the vinyl boom has been amazing. When it comes to horror music on vinyl you have to make a really beautiful, high quality product that convinces the collectors that it’s worth their time.
What’s the process when you’re creating the packaging and the artwork?
We work with a few different artists in the horror circles. It’s a lot of fun because you’re really only limited by your imagination. If you have a crazy idea for a piece of packaging, you can pretty much get it done. For The Lighthouse soundtrack the cover has a lighthouse on it and we did a dye cut sleeve with a cut out where the light would be. So if you shine a light through it, it actually looks like the lighthouse is training a beam. Little touches like that really mean something to fans.
Just how massive is the Halloween period when it comes to sales?
It’s huge. It’s super important. We’ll do horror themed mailing blasts all month and pull out some stuff from the vaults. We see a huge boom in October for sure.
It’s pretty cool to see soundtracks being performed live now – do you have any experience with that?
Yeah – we actually got John Carpenter out on tour for the first time in his life when we released the latest Halloween soundtrack. We got him a booking agent and he went out on the road and thousands of people who probably never thought they would see John Carpenter play live got to see him. That was a very cool thing to be a part of.
Do you think the streaming era has gotten horror music out to a wider audience?
I’m sure it has. I think every label is completely obsessed with streaming. It’s like the golden goose that we’re all trying to figure out and I don’t think there’s one right answer. It’s definitely something that we’re very conscious of. As far as the horror genre there are seasonal playlists and when we get songs on those we do see a big impact. Having said that, John Carpenter fans don’t need any help finding the Halloween theme. I think the playlist thing, which is what everyone is obsessed with, matters more when you’re trying to get people to discover an artist.
What’s your personal favourite horror score?
It’s probably the original Halloween. I was probably 10 years old when I first saw that movie and it has obviously stood the test of time because we’re all still talking about it. So I’ll go with the original 1978 Halloween.
