LOS ANGELES (AP) 鈥� has often collaborated with those closest to him throughout his career. But making 鈥淐athedral,鈥� a graphic novel with an accompanying original album out Friday, was truly a family affair.
The famed director of seminal horror films like 鈥淭he Thing鈥� and 鈥淗alloween鈥� says the movie business is all 鈥渃orporate鈥� nowadays. So the 78-year-old prefers to find alternative, less expensive ways to stay creatively fulfilled.
After a dream about an abandoned downtown Los Angeles church with an elevator that goes to hell, Carpenter, who is also a prolific composer, enlisted his godson, Daniel Davies, and his son, Cody, to collaborate on the album. It鈥檚 comprised of spooky instrumental tracks evocative of some of his iconic classics, like the theme from 鈥淗alloween.鈥� He then turned to his wife, Sandy King, who is a comic book publisher, for help with the graphic novel.
Carpenter, his son and Davies spoke with The Associated Press about their artistic process, concerns over artificial intelligence and having nightmares about Boston Celtics great The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
AP: Tell me where the idea for this project came from?
JOHN CARPENTER: I thought, I鈥檓 a movie director by profession in the old days, and this album would be a great score for a movie. However, this movie would cost several hundred million dollars, so why not do a graphic novel? My wife owns a comic book company, so let鈥檚 write the novel and illustrate it, and we can score that.
AP: Has that been your process in the past? To come up with the music first and then the film?
JOHN CARPENTER: No, the other way around. I direct the movie, cut it together the way I want it, and then I look at it for music. So, the music is simply functional. It supports the story and the characters and so forth.
The movie business has changed since I was in it full-time. It鈥檚 all corporate now. I came from student filmmaking, where we didn鈥檛 have any money, so we couldn鈥檛 hire a composer. I had to do it myself. But now I got these bums to do it with me, and so I don鈥檛 have to work as hard.
AP: The idea for this came to you in a dream. Do you often draw inspiration from dreams?
JOHN CARPENTER: Never. This is the first time. Most of my dreams are pretty similar, and they鈥檙e not made for movies. They鈥檙e always about me being lost in a city and trying to find my way home, but the streets change on me, and I can鈥檛 find my way home. Or I鈥檓 looking for the movie theater district, and when I get there, they鈥檙e all closed.
CODY CARPENTER: I鈥檝e been keeping a dream journal since college. I have these psychotic dreams. I just like to remember them, you know?
JOHN CARPENTER: The basketball dream? Didn鈥檛 you see somebody start dribbling?
CODY CARPENTER: It was Larry Bird. But it turned out that he was dead and I was interacting with his ghost.
AP: John, as someone who has worked with low budgets and who likes to experiment, have you played around with AI at all?
JOHN CARPENTER: Well, people tell me it鈥檚 dangerous. I don鈥檛 鈥� what does that mean? Does that mean it鈥檚 starting to learn on its own?
AP: I think it depends on who you talk to.
DAVIES: We like to make music. I would like it to help do more task-kind of things, like predict new tracks and know my workflow. But we like to make stuff, so why would we use it?
CODY CARPENTER: I don鈥檛 know. I know someone who does AI music stuff a lot, and he sends me all this stuff that he does and, I mean, I think at some point we won鈥檛 have a job anymore. I really think it鈥檚 amazing, just how fast it鈥檚 progressing. But I don鈥檛 know. Nobody knows.
JOHN CARPENTER: Music, I think, is the greatest art form. I hate to say it. But it doesn鈥檛 require anything. We can all listen to it in different countries. Great music moves us. And you鈥檙e telling me a machine can do that? I don鈥檛 believe it. That bothers me. This is a human thing. I want it to come from us. I really do.
AP: I recently watched 鈥淧rince of Darkness鈥� for the first time. I really liked it. It seems under-appreciated.
JOHN CARPENTER: Why is it that you just saw it?
AP: You’re right. I wish I had seen it sooner. Are there films of yours that you feel like maybe have been under-appreciated?
JOHN CARPENTER: I鈥檓 glad you liked it. I am happy with almost every movie I made.
AP: What are you not happy with?
JOHN CARPENTER: I’m not going to tell you.
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